What are the differences in the reactivity of "bromoethane", and "2-bromopentane"?

1 Answer
Dec 14, 2016

Well, "bromoethane" should be more reactive for a reaction with a associative mechanism...........

Explanation:

And "2-bromopentane" should be more reactive in a dissociative scenario.

So bromoethane should be liable to undergo reaction with, say, NaOH, in an S_N2 mechanism, to form ethyl alcohol and sodium bromide. Under the same conditions, "2-bromopentane" might be liable to undergo elimination to give "2-pentylene".

The truth is I actually don't know.