Question

Why does alcoholic silver nitrite react with ethyl bromide to form nitroethane instead of ethyl alcohol ?

Answer 1

Dear Student,
The alcoholic solution of AgNO_​2 reacts with ethyl alcohol to form nitrethane because the bond between Ag and O is covalent in nature and the lne pair on N forms the nucleophilic site for the attack during tthe substitution reaction.
In the first step the diethyl ether and HNO₂ are formed. Then the HNO₂ attacks on the Carbonium ion centre and forms nitroethane.The alcohol present serves as reaction medium.

$C_2{H}_{5}Br+AgN{O}_2\to C_2{H}_{5}N{O}_2+AgBr$
Regards!