Contrast the reactivity of ehters with other organic compounds and discuss their importance as a solvent by citing two specific synthetic schemes that utilize ethers as a solvent (one example for ethyl ether and another one for crown ether).
Ethers are chemically less reactive ractive due to less polarity in C-O bond and hence they can use as solvents for many organic reactions in synthetic chemistry
Ex1: In Wurtz reaction, Diethylether used as solvent
2CH3-Cl + Na ----> CH3-CH3 + 2NaCl
Ex2: In the preparation and reactions of Grignard reactions
CH3-CH2-Br + Mg(ether) ----> CH3-CH2-Mg-Br
Ex3: In the reaction between alkyl halides and sodium hydroxide, Crown ethers can act as solvent and also phase transfer catalysts
CH3-I + NaOH (Crown ether) ---> CH3-OH + NaI
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