How to make acetic acid from 2-methylpropan-2-ol? I tried oxidation but it didn't work.
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$\begingroup$ Hi neel gohil! Take a tour to know about this community! $\endgroup$– MollyCooLMar 5, 2018 at 7:51
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1$\begingroup$ Welcome to Chem.SE! We require you to show your efforts on this problem. What formulae/steps did you try? Please add this to your question. Thanks! $\endgroup$– MollyCooLMar 5, 2018 at 7:51
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$\begingroup$ I made alken from the reactant and then I am confused. $\endgroup$– neel gohilMar 5, 2018 at 8:11
1 Answer
First dehydrate the given tert-butanol to form 2-methyl prop-1-ene. Then do reductive ozonolysis and you will have acetone and formaldehyde. These two products can be easily separated if you treat the solution with Tollen's reagent. Thus formaldehyde will form formic acid and acetone will remain as it is.
Now if you pour this solution into a solution of polar basic solvent, the acetone will form a layer, which is easily separated, but formic acid will be easily soluble. Taking the acetone, you will get the acetic acid via the haloform reaction and then hydrolysing under acidic conditions.