Question

How is propan-1-ol prepared from?
(i)- Propanal
(ii)- Propanoic acid

Answer 1

Hint: All the compounds given in the question, i.e., propan-1-ol, propanal, and propanoic acid contains three carbon atoms and the functional groups in them are alcohol, aldehyde, and carboxylic acid respectively. In both the processes, the reduction will take place.

Complete answer:
Propan-1-ol is an organic compound in which the numbers of carbon atoms are three. It is a compound that belongs to the alcohols group and the functional group present in propan-1-ol is the hydroxyl group. The structure or formula of propan-1-ol is $C{{H}_{3}}-C{{H}_{2}}-C{{H}_{2}}OH$.
Organic compounds can be interconverted by many reactions like oxidation, reduction, etc.
(i)- Propanal
Propanal is an organic compound in which the numbers of carbon atoms are three. It is a compound that belongs to the aldehyde group and the functional group present in propanal is the aldehyde group. The structure or formula of propanal is $C{{H}_{3}}-C{{H}_{2}}-CHO$.
By using a mild reducing agent like Raney nickel at a temperature of about 413 K the aldehydes can be converted into alcohols. The reaction of conversion of propanal to propanol is given below:
$C{{H}_{3}}-C{{H}_{2}}-CHO+{{H}_{2}}\xrightarrow[413K]{\text{Raney Ni}}C{{H}_{3}}-C{{H}_{2}}-C{{H}_{2}}OH$
(ii)- Propanoic acid
Propanoic acid is an organic compound in which the numbers of carbon atoms are three. It is a compound that belongs to the carboxylic acid group and the functional group present in propanoic acid is -COOH group. The structure or formula of propanoic acid is $C{{H}_{3}}-C{{H}_{2}}-COOH$.
Since carboxylic acids cannot be easily reduced to alcohols, therefore, we need a strong reducing agent. Lithium aluminium hydride can be used for conversion. The reaction is given below:
$C{{H}_{3}}-C{{H}_{2}}-COOH\xrightarrow{LiAl{{H}_{4}}}C{{H}_{3}}-C{{H}_{2}}-C{{H}_{2}}OH$

Note:
If we want to do the reverse conversion, i.e., to convert propanol to propanal and propanoic acid, then we have to oxidize the propanol. $KMn{{O}_{4}}$, ${{K}_{2}}C{{r}_{2}}{{O}_{7}}$, etc can be used as an oxidizing agent.