With hydrocarbons, is chlorine the ONLY atom powerful enough to remove a hydrogen atom from an alkane?
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julia999 (
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December 14th, 2009
This question is regarding the chlorination of saturated alkane compounds so that they can react with other reactants.
I’ve been going through my notes and I found that I had written: “Cl is the only atom powerful enough to TAKE an H atom from an alkane.”
Aren’t there more powerful atoms, such as fluorine?
And if yes, is Cl used because it’s more easy to come by?
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6 Answers
(Disclaimer: I had organic chemistry 10 years ago, so you may want to back this up with some googling)
Flourine reacts with alkanes, but it is so reactive it is unpredictable; you don’t know what you’ll get. Bromine reacts too (I think). It seems like you can get the more powerful acids to react with alkanes under the right conditions.
@phoenyx Thanks, I will ask my Chem teacher once school starts up, we have Summer holidays at the moment.
So I guess Chlorine, Fluorine, Bromine or hot HNO3 can be used. It wasn’t too clear to me why chlorine is often used – it’s the one we had to learn for our reaction pathways anyway.
Chemistry graduate from last June here. I agree…... Cl, Fl, Br, and possibly a heated acid. Those are the big ones.
Cl is used because it is the least dangerous of those listed, and most stable. Fl is highly toxic in pure forms (that’s why non-stick pans are going out, they use tetra-Fl). Br is very unstable and will deteriorate with light (you have to store it in tinted bottles). And acid would work and is likely readily available. BUT acid that is strong enough would risk injury (acid burns hurt like a mother). Cl is just the best option I would imagine.
@westy81585 I see that Cl is the safest option. Thanks for the detailed response, it helped me a lot in understanding why the alternatives aren’t as popular.
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