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

1 Answer
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................:

H3CH2CONa++BrC(CH3)3H2C=C(CH3)2+NaBr(s)+H3CCH2OH