What would "sodium ethyl" give upon reaction with "tert-butyl chloride?"

1 Answer
anor277
Jan 19, 2017

Probably "isobutylene........."

Explanation:

For a start, "sodium ethyl" would be a rather hot (and inconvenient) reagent to use. "Sodium ethoxide" in ethanol (formed by adding sodium metal to ethanol), would be a much better choice of reactant.

This base will probably react via an elimination mechanism rather than by substitution, so................:

H_3CH_2CO^(-)Na^+ + Br-C(CH_3)_3rarrH_2C=C(CH_3)_2 + NaBr(s)darr + H_3C-CH_2OH

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