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How to convert acetaldehyde (ethanal) to butane-1,4-diol. I just tried doing aldol, but it leaves an alkyl group at the end. Also it cannot be done by oxidizing ethane with basic permanganate.

Ethanal to dihydroxybutane

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  • $\begingroup$ Hello and welcome to Chemistry.SE! As this appears to be a homework-type of question, I suggest reading through this discussion. The more work and effort you can show, i.e. writing out possible reaction mechanisms, etc., the better. Good luck! $\endgroup$
    – airhuff
    Commented Feb 22, 2017 at 6:23

1 Answer 1

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  1. Cross Aldol and add H+ enter image description here

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  1. Oxidise Aldehyde to Carboxylic Acid

use any of the reagents

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3.Perform Arndt–Eistert reaction

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  1. Use LiAlH4 for reduction of acid to alcohol

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And finally you get 1,4-dihydroxybutane.

Image courtesy Wkipedia, SigmaAldrich

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