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+ Chemical reactions
+ Chemistry
+ Methanol
+ Organic chemistry
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Lorri Robinson

How does adding methanol quench a reaction?

Alec Smith  Follow

Since methanol is more acidic than water, it wil protonate water (although only a small fraction of water will be protonated because methanol is a very weak acid).

Thermodynamically, methanol will form H-binds with water. Actually, more H-bonds are formed when the solution is formed than broken. This results to an increase in the temperature of the system.

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Billy Chang  Follow

Reduction of an aldehyde or a ketone to an alcohol can be carried out by using NaBH4/ MeOH.

In this reaction after the attack of an hydride on the aldehyde, there is formation of an alkoxide which is a strong base and it abstracts the proton from methanol and quenches it.

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