Sciencemadness Discussion Board

butane

Megamarko94 - 29-7-2011 at 09:53

does butane react with HCl or HNO3 OR H2SO4
my gues if the first one if can react that would give 1-chlorobutane right..

not_important - 29-7-2011 at 10:09

No, not under anything near standard conditions. Push things and you can get reactions, HNO3 reacts with alkanes at 400 C or so. Read any introduction to organic chemistry book published after 1820 or so for further information.



DJF90 - 29-7-2011 at 10:10

Under what conditions do you propose? Bubbling butane through a concentrated aqueous solution on the bench will do nothing, but vapor phase reactions (such as with nitric acid to produce nitroalkanes) are known. In the case of HCl, you'll probably want a radical initiator, and in general you'll get a mixture of products. Sulfuric will not react with butane to any appreciable extent to the best of my knowledge.

redox - 29-7-2011 at 14:56

I'm pretty sure HCl will not react with alkanes at all, even with a radical initiator. To form H2 and a chlorohydrocarbon just seem really unlikely. The reaction does proceed with chlorine gas, however.

CH4 + Cl2 => CH3Cl + HCl

The bond dissociation energy of Cl2 is much less than the dissociation energy of HCl.

ScienceSquirrel - 29-7-2011 at 16:06

Almost anything will react if you heat it hot enough or put in enough energy in some other way.
It may not be a useful preparative method but it will produce sone product!

AndersHoveland - 29-7-2011 at 16:28

Concentrated nitric acid will very slowly attack butane, giving various oxidation products. If it is above 90% concentration, there will likely be some tetranitromethane produced.

Sodium bromide (or use bromate) may possibly act as a catalyst for the reaction, generating reactive bromine radicals.