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Carboxylic Acids from Nitriles
Hydrolysis of a Nitrile
Nitriles can be hydrolyzed to carboxylic acids. The write out the mechanism of this reaction, just “protonate and go to town.” The mechanism is quite similar to the hydrolysis of an imine shown earlier.
This is a convenient mechanism, because nitriles can be made from alkyl halides in an SN2 reaction. Below, an alkyl bromide reacts with cyanide ion (from potassium cyanide salt, KCN) to form a nitrile. Hydrolysis in acid water forms the carboxylic acid.
8. Fill in the blank boxes.
a)
b)
Answers
8.
a)
b)
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