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hydration of ethene to make ethanol

just wondering if this applies to all alkenes i.e. if we take any alkene and react it with water with a conc. phosphoric acid catalyst will it give us the alcohol?
Original post by TheGreaterGood
just wondering if this applies to all alkenes i.e. if we take any alkene and react it with water with a conc. phosphoric acid catalyst will it give us the alcohol?


If you start from an unsymmetrical alkene like propene, you have to be careful to think about which way around the water adds across the carbon-carbon double bond.


Markovnikov's Rule says that when you add a molecule HX across a carbon-carbon double bond, the hydrogen joins to the carbon atom which already has the more hydrogen atoms attached to it.


Thinking of water as H-OH, the hydrogen will add to the carbon with the more hydrogens already attached. That means that in the propene case, you will get propan-2-ol rather than propan-1-ol.





The conditions used during manufacture vary from alcohol to alcohol.
Original post by ApplyYourself
If you start from an unsymmetrical alkene like propene, you have to be careful to think about which way around the water adds across the carbon-carbon double bond.


Markovnikov's Rule says that when you add a molecule HX across a carbon-carbon double bond, the hydrogen joins to the carbon atom which already has the more hydrogen atoms attached to it.


Thinking of water as H-OH, the hydrogen will add to the carbon with the more hydrogens already attached. That means that in the propene case, you will get propan-2-ol rather than propan-1-ol.





The conditions used during manufacture vary from alcohol to alcohol.


oh yeah ahh forgot about that rule

thank you :smile:
Original post by TheGreaterGood
oh yeah ahh forgot about that rule

thank you :smile:


NP :smile:

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