Question

How can the following conversions be brought about:
Ethanol to methylamine

Answer 1

Hint: To solve this type of question it is important to mention step wise conversion till the required product is obtained. The conversion of ethanol to methylamine is a four step conversion. Ethanol is used as a solvent for the synthesis of other chemicals.

Complete step by step solution:
Step 1: the conversion of ethanol to acetic acid:
Ethanol is converted to acetic acid by the process of oxidation, it is also a two-step reaction in which ethanol is first oxidized to acetaldehyde and after that acetaldehyde is oxidized to acetic acid by the loss of water molecule.
The reaction involved in conversion of ethanol to acetic acid is:

Step 2: conversion of acetic acid to ammonium acetate:
Ammonium acetate is produced by the process of neutralization of acetic acid in the presence of ammonia. It is also prepared by saturating glacial acetic acid in the presence of ammonia.
The reaction involved for the conversion of acetic acid to ammonium acetate is:

Step 3: conversion of ammonium acetate to Acetamide:
Ammonium acetate is converted to Acetamide by heating ammonium acetate in the presence of water.
The reaction involved for the conversion of ammonium acetate to Acetamide is:

Step 4: conversion of Acetamide to methylamine:
The reagent which is used to convert Acetamide to methylamine is NaOH and bromine. This reaction is called Hoffman bromamide reaction.

So the reaction involved in the overall conversion of ethanol to methyl amine is:

Note: Hoffman bromamide reaction is the reaction in which an amide is treated with bromine in the ethanolic or in the aqueous solution of NaOH, the degradation of the amide takes place which leads to the formation of the primary amine.in this reaction degradation of amide takes place hence it is popularly known as Hoffmann bromamide degradation reaction.