dry ether is used in woods reaction to form a higher alkane.
why dry ether is used in woods reaction?
to form a higher alkane
wurtz reaction





























the wurtz reaction, named after charles adolphe wurtz, is a coupling reaction in organic chemistry, organometallic chemistry and recently inorganic main group polymers, whereby two alkyl halides are reacted with sodium metal in dry ether solution to form a higher alkane:





























r-x+2na+x-r -- r-r+2nax x
wurtz reaction
the wurtz reaction is seldom used because of side reactions. it has limited use to the synthesis of symmetric alkanes. if two dissimilar alkyl halides are taken as reactants, then the product is a mixture of alkanes that is often difficult to separate by fractional distillation as the differences between the boiling points of the products is typically very low. methane can not be obtained by loopthis method. this type of reaction fails in case of tertiary halides. also, since the reaction involves free radical species, a side reaction occurs to produce an alkene. this side reaction becomes more significant when the alkyl halides are bulky at the halogen-attached carbon.when a mixture of two different alkyl halides is treated with sodium in presence of dry ether,a mixture of alkanes is formed
wurtz reaction