Question

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

experiment : Synthesis of n-butyl bromide (Sn2)

1. identify your limiting and excess reagents of 1.1g NaBr, 1mL H2SO4, 1- bromobutane, 1mL 1 butanol, 1mL distilled H2O. show full work

2. what is the role of sulfuric acid in this experiment?

Answer 1

Sodium bromide

An ionic salt consisting of Na+ and Br¯ ions. The former (Na+) can be ignored in most cases, while the latter (bromide) is a strong nucleophile. NaBr is a source of bromide ions

dil. sulfuric acid act as catalyst (protonating reagent)

The 1-butanol is primary, so we will need to use an SN2 process. The OH group cannot function as a leaving group, so we must convert it to a better leaving group, which can be accomplished by first converting the alcohol to a protonated OH, it becomes an excellent leaving group followed by an SN2 reaction with bromide to give butyl bromide