Question

Draw the structure of a butanone molecule.

Answer 1

Hint: Attempt This question by breaking the given molecule to decipher its meaning. For example – methane can be broken to ‘meth-‘+ ‘-ane’, which means one carbon and alkane respectively.

Complete step by step answer:
Butanone, as the name suggests, is made up of “but- “+ “-ane” + “-one”. Therefore, we can see the following points from it –
‘but- ‘stands for four carbons.
‘-ane’ suggests that it is an alkane
‘-one’ suggests that it is a ketone.
Therefore, we can draw the structure as –


As we can see, the given compound is a ketone, therefore, double bonded oxygen can only be placed at the second carbon. The compound can also be called Methyl ethyl ketone.
We can write its compressed formula as – $$C{H}_{3}C{H}_{2}COC{H}_3$$.
Butanone is an organic compound, which appears as a colorless liquid with a sharp and sweet odor. This compound is produced industrially on a large scale, but it occurs scarcely in nature. It is partially soluble in water and is commonly used as an industrial solvent. Also, it is an isomer of tetrahydrofuran.

Additional information: Root words - meth, eth, prop, but, pent are words which define the number of carbons in the compound.

Note: Butanone can be produced by oxidation of 2-butanol. The dehydrogenation of 2-butanol is catalyzed by copper, zinc, or bronze. Liquid-phase oxidation of heavy naphtha and the Fischer-Tropsch reaction, both produce mixed oxygenate streams, from which 2-butanone is extracted by fractionation.