Elimination Reactions of Alcohols (Oxford AQA International A Level Chemistry)
Revision Note
Written by: Philippa Platt
Reviewed by: Stewart Hird
Elimination Reactions of Alcohols
Alcohols can also undergo dehydration to form alkenes
Alcohol vapour is passed over a hot (600 C) catalyst of aluminium oxide (Al2O3) powder or pieces of porous pot
Excess hot, concentrated sulfuric acid or phosphoric acid is used as a catalyst
Phosphoric(V) acid is used an alternative dehydrating agent
Dehydration of an alcohol
This is an example of an elimination reaction
Elimination reactions involve a small molecule being formed as a by-product
The water molecule is formed from the -OH group of the alcohol and the H+ from the acid catalyst
The neighbouring hydrogen is then lost as a H+ ion, which regenerates the acid catalyst
Dehydration of propan-1-ol mechanism
Alkenes produced by this method can be used to produce addition polymers without using monomers derived from crude oil
Isomeric alkenes
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