The treatment of alkyl chloride with aqueous KOH leads to formation of alcohols but in the presence of alcoholic KOH, alkenes are major products. Explain.

The treatment of alkyl chloride with aqueous KOH leads to formation of

1.	The treatment of alkyl chloride with aqueous KOH leads to formation of alcohols but in the presence of alcoholic KOH, alkenes are major products. Explain.
Answer» Solution :In aqueous KOH, KOH is ALMOST completely ionised to give a large concentration of strong nucleophile, `OH^(-)` which brings about SUBSTITUTION to give alcohols. Further in the aqueous solution, `OH^(-)` ions are HIGHLY hydrated which decreases the basic character of `OH^(-)` ions and they can.t extract H-atoms from `beta`-C- atom of alkyl halide and can.t bring about elimination to the alkene. In the alcoholic solution of KOH there are ALKOXIDE ions (`RO^(-)`) which being much stronger base than `OH^(-)` ions can bring about elimination to give an alkene. In alcoholic KOH solution, there is a low concentration of `OH^(-)`ions and substitution does not OCCUR.