Question

Give any one reaction of Swartz, Wurtz, and Finkelstein reaction of alkyl halides.

Answer 1

Hint: Firstly, we need to know what Alkyl halides are these are also called as haloalkanes and are compounds in which one or more hydrogen atoms in an alkane is substituted by halogen atoms any of the following: fluorine, chlorine, bromine or iodine. Swartz, Wurtz and Finkelstein all are the type of organic reactions, in which alkyl halide is one of the reagents.

Complete answer:
Swartz reaction: It is a type of reaction in which alkyl halides are reacted with silver fluoride to obtain fluoroalkanes, it is one of the best reactions to produce fluoroalkanes. Here ethyl chloride is heated in the presence of Silver fluorides to produce ethyl fluoride as a product, and the reaction is as follows:
\[C{H_3}C{H_2}Cl + AgF \to C{H_3}C{H_2}F + AgCl\]

Wurtz reaction is a type of coupling reaction in which two alkyl halides are reacted with sodium metal in dry ether solution and alkanes are formed as the product, here two molecules of ethyl chloride are taken as the substrates, and butane is formed as a product. The reaction is as follows:
\[2C{H_3}C{H_2}Cl + Na\left( {dry\;ether} \right) \to C{H_3}C{H_2}C{H_2}C{H_3} + NaCl\]

Finkelstein reaction is a type of reaction in which the primary alkyl halides are taken as substrates and is reacted with a metal iodide, generally, potassium iodide which on reaction gives an alkyl halide which is substituted with iodine, Here, ethyl chloride is reacted with KI to produce ethyl iodide as the product. The reaction is as follows:
\[C{H_3}C{H_2}Cl + KI \to C{H_3}C{H_2}I + KCl\]

Note:
In the Swartz reaction instead of silver fluorides, many other metal fluorides can be used as well for example \[H{g_2}{F_2}\] and \[Co{F_2}\] these are Mercury fluoride and cobalt fluoride. And in the Wurtz reaction dry ether is used for a purpose if we do not use dry ether the water molecules will combine with the sodium metal and produce its oxides and hydroxides. Thus, disturbing the reaction.