1. what would be the name of the major product of a reaction of 3-pentanol with H2SO4 and heat?
2. Why is the stereochemistry of SN2 best described as complete Inversion?
I. I believe the product is 2-pentene
2. I'm not an organic chemistry so I've let this question go unanswered.
I've said Pent-2-ene. would that be the same?
1. To determine the name of the major product of a reaction between 3-pentanol (an alcohol) and H2SO4 (sulfuric acid) with heat, we need to consider the reaction type and functional group transformations that take place.
In this case, 3-pentanol reacts with H2SO4 through an acid-catalyzed dehydration reaction. The -OH group of the alcohol reacts with the acid to form water, while a double bond is formed between the neighboring carbon atoms.
The major product of this reaction would be 3-pentene. To name it, we start by numbering the carbon chain to give the double bond the lowest possible number. In this case, the double bond starts at the third carbon, so we use the prefix "pent-3-ene" to indicate the presence of the double bond. Hence, the name of the major product is 3-pentene.
2. The stereochemistry of an SN2 (substitution nucleophilic bimolecular) reaction is best described as complete inversion because of the mechanism involved in the reaction.
In an SN2 reaction, a nucleophile attacks the electrophilic carbon center while a leaving group is simultaneously displaced. The nucleophile approaches the carbon center from the opposite side as the leaving group, resulting in the inversion of the stereochemistry.
This inversion is due to the backside attack of the nucleophile, which causes the bond formation and breaking to occur in a single step. As a result, the configuration of the stereocenter at the reaction site changes from the reactant to the product, thus leading to complete inversion of the stereochemistry.