Question

how will you obtain formic acid to acetic acid
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Answer 1

Answer:

We can start by converting the formic acid to acetaldehyde by treatment with methyl Grignard (e.g. methyl magnesium bromide) or perhaps methyllithium. I have some literature on the former method (which doesn't contain an acetaldehyde example but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work) - . Alternatively one can prepare the lithium/sodium formate from formic acid and then treat the salt with methyl Grignard -. We can then oxidise the acetaldehyde to acetic acid (maybe in one-pot from the hydrolysis mixture of the first reaction - yay for !) with a suitable aqueous oxidant... Jones reagent perhaps.