The Student Room Group

formation of Quaternary ammonium ions from haloalaknes


c) Ethylamine can be prepared from the reaction between bromoethane and ammonia


(ii) Give the structures of three other organic substitution products which can be obtained from the reaction between bromoethane and ammonia.

Compound 1 Compound 2 Compound 3



I got the first 2 compounds right (secondary and tertiary amines) but for compound 3 I gave the following structure:

N(CH2CH3)4+

but the MS gives (CH3CH2)4N+Br–

My textbook says to give N(R)4+ , there's no mention of N(R)4+X- so is my answer technically right?



Cheers
They are being a bit pedantic, but they asked for 'compound' and you just gave them an ion. This ion wouldn't exist on its own in this case, because it will immediately be attracted to the bromide ion and therefore 'salt out'.

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