Question

1. Can a carboxylic acid be reduced by Hydrogen in presence of catalyst? if so, why do we convert it into ester before reduction with Hydrogen in presence of catalyst? 2. Why in Reimer-Tiemann and Kolbes reaction, ortho product predominates, whereas in other reactions para predominates?

Answer 1

Only Hydrogen can reduce Carboxylic acids in the presence of selective catalysts like Ru-C and Wilkinson's catalyst. But they are expensive and difficult to prepare. So they are converted into esters which can be easily reduced with hydrogen in the presence of catalysts like Pt, Ni etc. to alcohols.

Answer 2

Explanation:

It can be reduced by hydrogen when the selective catalysts are present like Ru-C and Wilkinsons catalys. As these catalysts are expensive and difficult