Question #ca4ff

1 Answer
Ernest Z.
Jul 22, 2017

I would expect to see dehydration of the alcohol to an alkene.

Explanation:

Under these conditions, primary alcohols give symmetrical ethers.

However, secondary and tertiary alcohols undergo dehydration at temperatures slightly above that of the dehydration product.

Thus, I would expect the following reactions:

#underbrace("RCH(OH)CH"_2"R")_color(red)("2° alcohol") stackrelcolor(blue)("H"_2"SO"_4, "140 °C"color(white)(mm))(→) underbrace("RCH=CHR")_color(red)("alkene")#

#underbrace("R"_2"C(OH)CH"_2"R")_color(red)("3° alcohol")stackrelcolor(blue)("H"_2"SO"_4, "140 °C"color(white)(mm))(→) underbrace("R"_2"C=CHR")_color(red)("alkene")#

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