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Alkenes can be made from alcohols by dehydration. This conversion, among others, is used in converting biomass to liquid fuels. [2] The conversion of ethanol to ethylene is a fundamental example: [3] [4] CH 3 CH 2 OH → H 2 C=CH 2 + H 2 O. The reaction is accelerated by acid catalysts such as sulfuric acid and certain zeolites.
For simple mono-alcohols, which is the focus on this article, the following are most important industrial alcohols: [25] methanol, mainly for the production of formaldehyde and as a fuel additive ethanol, mainly for alcoholic beverages, fuel additive, solvent, and to sterilize hospital instruments.
Water as a solvent limits the forms biochemistry can take. For example, Steven Benner, proposes the polyelectrolyte theory of the gene that claims that for a genetic biopolymer such as, DNA, to function in water, it requires repeated ionic charges. [46] If water is not required for life, these limits on genetic biopolymers are removed.
Saponification is a process of cleaving esters into carboxylate salts and alcohols by the action of aqueous alkali. Typically aqueous sodium hydroxide solutions are used. [1] [2] It is an important type of alkaline hydrolysis. When the carboxylate is long chain, its salt is called a soap. The saponification of ethyl acetate gives sodium acetate ...
Most carboxylic acids are suitable for the reaction, but the alcohol should generally be primary or secondary. Tertiary alcohols are prone to elimination. Contrary to common misconception found in organic chemistry textbooks, phenols can also be esterified to give good to near quantitative yield of products.
The addition of the two molecules typically proceeds in a step-wise fashion to the addition product, usually in equilibrium, and with loss of a water molecule (hence the name condensation). [3] The reaction may otherwise involve the functional groups of the molecule, and is a versatile class of reactions that can occur in acidic or basic ...
Hydrolysis (/ h aɪ ˈ d r ɒ l ɪ s ɪ s /; from Ancient Greek hydro- 'water' and lysis 'to unbind') is any chemical reaction in which a molecule of water breaks one or more chemical bonds. The term is used broadly for substitution, elimination, and solvation reactions in which water is the nucleophile. [1]
Ammonolysis refers to solvolysis by ammonia, but can also describe nucleophilic attack by ammonia more generally. Ammonia boils at −33 °C, and, as such, is rarely used as a solvent in its pure form. It is, however, readily miscible with water, and is commonly used in the form of a saturated aqueous solution. For this reason, ammonolysis may ...