Methane react with nitric acid at 675 K gives compound A. Compound A treated
with Cl2 in the presence of NaOH gives halonitroalkane B. Find compound A and B ?
Answers
Answer:
to a first approximation, the behaviour of organic functional groups is unaffected by the larger environment of the molecules in which those groups are set. A good example is the reaction of some alcohols with nitric acid, HNO3 (or HONO2), to give so-called nitrate esters (once again focus on the principles being discussed and don’t worry about the names of the compounds):
Equation label:(5.16)
Thus, hexan-1-ol (Structure 5.1) yields hexyl nitrate, CH3CH2CH2CH2CH2CH2—O—NO2.
Two organic molecules that contain more than one alcohol functional group are glycerol (Reaction 5.17), made by heating natural fats or oils with sodium hydroxide, and pentaerythritol (Reaction 5.18).
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These reactions show how a mixture of concentrated nitric and sulfuric acid replaces all of the —OH groups with —O—NO2 groups, leaving the rest of the molecules unchanged. Thus reinforcing the point made earlier, that reactivity tends to be concentrated at specific sites in a molecule.
Finally, consider cotton, whose fibres consist of the polymer cellulose – a polymer being a very large molecule made up of many repeated building blocks.
Cellulose is made of glucose molecules linked via oxygen atoms to form long chains. Two molecules joined this way are shown in brackets on the left hand side of Figure 3 and this unit repeats many times. The linking together of these groupings into long chains is indicated by n, the value of which varies, but may be as large as 2000.
Explanation: