Question

Butanal, an aldehyde, can be made from 1-bromobutane, but it requires two reactions in sequence. What are the two reagents that can be used to make butanal from 1-bromobutane if reagent A is first reacted with 1-bromobutane and then the product of that reaction, is reacted with reagent B.

Answer 1

See explanation and image attached

Step-by-step explanation:

My aim is to convert 1-bromobutane to butanal. The first step is to react the 1-bromobutane substrate with water. This reaction occurs by SN2 mechanism to yield 1-butanol. Hence reagent A is water.

1-butanol is now reacted with an oxidizing agent such as acidified K2Cr2O7 (reagent B) to yield butanal. Note that primary alkanols are oxidized to alkanals.

These sequence of reactions are shown in the image attached.