Question

What is ethylene prepared from ethyl alcohol

Answer 1

When ethanol is heated with excess of concentrated sulphuric acid at 170 °c it gets dehydrated to form ethene which is an unsaturated hydrocarbon. The concentrated sulphuric acid can be regarded as a dehydration agent which remove water from ethanol

Dehydration of an alcohol means removal of water molecule from it. When ethanol is heated with excess of concentrated sulphuric acid at 170 °c it gets dehydrated to form ethene which is an unsaturated hydrocarbon.

                      conc.H2SO4

CH3-CH2OH  ------------- -------------> CH2=CH2  +H2O

                          dehydation