Question

Acetone and Acetaldehyde can be distinguished by using?
(A) Grignard reagent
(B) $ NaHS{O_3} $
(C) Ammoniacal $ AgN{O_3} $
(D) $ PC{l_5} $

Answer 1

Hint: Acetone is a ketone organic compound whereas on the other hand Acetaldehyde is an organic compound with an aldehydes functional group in its molecule. These different functional groups react or respond differently to the same chemical agent.

Complete Step By Step Answer:
as from the above we know that the acetone is ketone and acetaldehyde is an aldehyde, so to proceed with the question, we need a chemical agent that reacts differently with a ketone and aldehyde and produces a markedly different products, that helps us to distinguish between the given two organic species.
So, from the above given options, the ‘Tollen’s reagent ‘gives different products with the acetone and the acetaldehyde.
Actually, the tollens reagent is the silver ammonia complex or ammoniac $ AgN{O_3} $ solution. It reacts with acetaldehyde to give a silver mirror, whereas on the other hand it does not react with the ketone group i.e. the acetone.
Tollen’s reagent oxidizes acetaldehyde to acetic acid. In this reaction, the silver ions are reduced to silver metals and thus this produces or gives a characteristic silver mirror appearance.
On the other hand acetone does not respond to Tollens reagent.
Thus, this reaction helps in easily distinguishing between the acetone and acetaldehyde.
So the correct answer is option C.

Note:
The reagent consists of a solution of silver nitrate, ammonia and some sodium hydroxide , this is to maintain the ph. of the solution. And this interesting reagent is given by the German chemist Bernhard Tollens.