There are several ways of converting alcohols to alkyl halides. The most common, and perhaps the one that covers nuances of SN1 and SN2 reactions is the use of HX acids (HCl, HBr, HI), so let’s start with that. The … Read more
Alcohols can be oxidized to aldehydes and ketones using a variety of oxidizing agents. The outcome of the oxidation depends both on the oxidizing agent and the structure of the alcohol. Recall from the oxidation states of organic compounds that … Read more
Primary Alcohols to Acid Chlorides Acid or acyl chlorides are carboxylic acid derivatives, therefore, to convert a primary alcohol to an acid chloride, we need to first oxidize to a carboxylic acid. The carboxylic acid then can be converted to … Read more
There are a few strategies to convert alcohols to amides, and to discuss them, we first need to decide whether the alcohol is going to be the acyl or amino part of the amide: Alcohols to Amides via … Read more
The conversion of alcohols to alkynes is a two-step process. We need to first dehydrate to an alkene, and halogenate the latter to a dihalide, which can now be treated with a strong base such as sodium amide (NaNH2) to … Read more
Esters are derivatives of carboxylic acids, therefore, to convert an alcohol to an ester, we need to first oxidize it to a carboxylic acid using a strong oxidizing agent such as Na2Cr2O7, CrO3, or KMnO4: We can then … Read more
In this article, we will discuss two strategies for converting alcohols to nitriles: 1) Nitriles via substitution, 2) Nitriles via dehydration. Alcohols to Nitriles via Substitution Reactions To convert an alcohol to a nitrile via substitution, we’ll need to … Read more
In the previous post, we discussed the methods for converting alkenes to alcohols via Markovnikov and anti-Markovnikov addition of water, the strategies to avoid possible rearrangements when the reactions go through carbocation rearrangements, as well as the indirect addition of … Read more
We learned in general chemistry that the oxidation state is determined based on the number of bonds connecting elements with different electronegativities. Very often though, we didn’t need/bother to look at the number of bonds, but simply used a formula … Read more
Amines from Alcohols Via Substitution Reactions Although amines are good nucleophiles, we cannot use them is a direct SN2 reaction to achieve the OH to NH2 conversion because the hydroxide ion is a poor leaving group. So, the … Read more
