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Lance Chambers

Major product of 2-iodopropane + sodium ethoxide

Ayaz Wasay  Follow
That is a difficult question, because they are measured differently.  Just for your own edification, how would you favor the SN2?  How would you favor the E2?

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Dallas Hall's Space  Follow
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It is a good nucleophile, too (consider the Williamson ether synthesis).  I think that the choice of solvent and temperature affect the relative rates of the two reactions, but I am not certain by how much.  Are you given any information about the solvent?
No, nor temperature. Is sodium ethoxide a better nucleophile than it is a base at standard conditions and in water?

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Dexter Haven  Follow
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I don't see how Zaitsev's rule comes into play when there is only one possible elimination product, but...
You're confusing me.

Zaitsev's rule is used if multiple products are available. But I don't see any other possible products from the information given (unless sodium ethoxide does something which I'm not aware of) and therefore, propene is just the major product?

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Darren Bord  Follow
It is a good nucleophile, too (consider the Williamson ether synthesis).  I think that the choice of solvent and temperature affect the relative rates of the two reactions, but I am not certain by how much.  Are you given any information about the solvent?

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Chemistry  Follow
Are there other reactions possible?  If so, how would you determine which product is the major (predominant) one?

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Muhammad Zulfiqar  Follow
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I don't see how Zaitsev's rule comes into play when there is only one possible elimination product, but...
You're confusing me.

Zaitsev's rule is used if multiple products are available. But I don't see any other possible products from the information given (unless sodium ethoxide does something which I'm not aware of) and therefore, propene is just the major product?
I agree that there is only one elimination product.  There is one other kind of reaction besides an elimination available to iodoalkanes.
Yeah,  I got it. Sodium ethoxide can act as a nucleophile which allows for an SN2 reaction to occur. Since sodium ethoxide is a strong base and a relatively weaker nucleophile, then it is expected that the E2 product is the major product?

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Andrew Curl  Follow
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Are there other reactions possible?  If so, how would you determine which product is the major (predominant) one?
Using Zaitsev's rule. I don't see other possible products than propene.

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Ben Welborn  Follow
Unless you're talking about NaI/ethoxide ?

Edit: Ah maybe a substitution could occur since sodium ethoxide can function as a nucleophile ... the question is then if sodium ethoxide is a better nucleophile than it is a base, right?

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Bismija Basheer  Follow
You have a secondary alkyl iodide, not a tertiary, which means that the SN2 will be more competitive with the E2 than for tertiary alkyl iodides.  The reading I have done indicates that if one uses a polar, aprotic solvent, one might tilt things toward the SN2.  Can you give an example of such a solvent? 

Both E2 and SN2 reactions are second order, kinetically.  If one of the two were first order and the other one were second order, there would be a way to favor one process over the other by changing the concentrations of the reactants.

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Chris Seymour  Follow
I don't see how Zaitsev's rule comes into play when there is only one possible elimination product, but...

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Amar Bashyal  Follow
Taking the base/nucleophile as a given, I was thinking more along the lines of conditions, such as solvent properties and temperature.

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Chris Myers  Follow
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Taking the base/nucleophile as a given, I was thinking more along the lines of conditions, such as solvent properties and temperature.
A couple of things:

* E2 reactions are favored for tertiary alkanes as SN2 reactions are rarely observed due to steric hindrance.

* My textbook also says that SN2 will be the main reaction if a weak base/good nucleophile is present, but E2 is favored if a strong base/good nucleophile is present. Since sodium ethoxide is both a strong base and good nucleophile, then E2 products are favored.

* The reaction kinetics of E2 aren't clearly laid out in my book, but SN2 reactions are characterized by a rate limiting step which requires a certain amount of activation energy to overcome, and as we know, activation energy decreases significantly with increase in temperature. 

Just a couple of points.

2nd point indicates that the E2 products will be in exces.. Thank you.

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Cgnm Larang  Follow
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That is a difficult question, because they are measured differently.  Just for your own edification, how would you favor the SN2?  How would you favor the E2?
An obvious choice is to select a strong nucleophile which is a weak base and vice versa as this would favor either SN2 or E2 products respectively.

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Aiden Nalizda  Follow
Quote from:
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I don't see how Zaitsev's rule comes into play when there is only one possible elimination product, but...
You're confusing me.

Zaitsev's rule is used if multiple products are available. But I don't see any other possible products from the information given (unless sodium ethoxide does something which I'm not aware of) and therefore, propene is just the major product?
I agree that there is only one elimination product.  There is one other kind of reaction besides an elimination available to iodoalkanes.

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