Which of the following aldehydes can produce 1o alcohols when treated ...
Aldehydes can be converted to primary alcohols by reacting them with Grignard reagents.
Grignard reagents are organometallic compounds that contain a carbon-metal bond, usually magnesium. They are highly reactive and can add to the carbonyl group of aldehydes and ketones to form alcohols.
In this case, we need to identify the aldehyde that can produce a primary alcohol when treated with a Grignard reagent.
Methanal or formaldehyde is the only aldehyde among the given options that can produce a primary alcohol when treated with a Grignard reagent.
When methanal reacts with a Grignard reagent, such as methylmagnesium bromide (CH3MgBr), the following reaction takes place:
CH2O + CH3MgBr → CH3CH2OH + MgBrOH
The product of this reaction is ethanol, which is a primary alcohol.
On the other hand, the other aldehydes, ethanal, propanal, and butanal, can only produce secondary alcohols when treated with Grignard reagents.
Therefore, the correct answer is option A, methanal.
Which of the following aldehydes can produce 1o alcohols when treated ...
Methanal on treatment with Grignard reagent forms an adduct which has only one alkyl group attached to the C atom along with two hydrogens and one O-Mg-X (X=halogen) group. This on hydrolysis will form a primary alcohol where the OH group will replace the O-Mg-X group.