Question

Differentiate between acetaldehyde and acetone with suitable reactions.

Answer 1

Hint: The IUPAC name of acetaldehyde and acetone are ethanol and propanone respectively. They have the functional groups of –CHO and =O respectively. These groups are responsible for different characteristics present in the compounds given in the question.

Complete step by step solution:
-Acetaldehyde has 2 carbon chains in it while acetone has 3 carbon chains as suggested by their IUPAC names. Acetaldehyde is an aldehyde and acetone is a ketone and so they show different reactions. Their structures can be shown as

-They form different products on oxidation, reaction with 1 mole of grignard’s reagent, reaction with Tollen’s reagent, reaction of Benedict’s solution and many more reactions.
Acetaldehyde gives black silver mirror with Tollen’s reagent $(AgN{O}_3+N{H}_{4}OH)$ and red precipitate with Fehling’s solution while acetone does not give this test. The reactions can be given as
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-Acetaldehyde reacts with grignard’s reagent to form second degree alcohol while acetone forms three degree alcohol with Grignard reagent. Reaction can be shown as

Additional information:
Some of the functional groups used in organic chemistry can be shown as:

CLASS	NAME	SUFFIX	PREFIX
R-COOH	Alkanoic acid	Oic acid	Carboxy
$R-S{O}_{3}H$	Alkane sulfonic acid	Sulfonic acid	Sulfo
R-(CO)-O-(CO)-R	Alkanoic anhydride	Oic anhydride	-----
R-COOR	Alkyl alkanoate	oate	Alkoxy carbonyl
R-(CO)-X	Alkanoyl halide	Oyl-halide	Halo Carbonyl
$R-\left(CO\right)-N{H}_2$	Alkanamide	Amide	Carbamoyl
R-CN	Alkane nitrile	Nitrile	Cyano
R-CHO	Alkanal	-al	Oxo
R-CO-R	Alkanone	-one	oxo
R-OH	Alkanol	-ol	Hydroxy
R-SH	Alkanethiol	-thiol	mercapto
$R-N{H}_2$	alkanamide	-amine	amino

Note: Both aldehyde and ketone are pure carbonyl compounds and so they undergo nucleophilic addition reactions to form the compounds. So all the reactions of acetaldehyde and acetone are nucleophilic addition reactions only. Both are colourless compounds but can be easily distinguished by the above reactions.