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What are the major products of the oxidation of pentan-2-one with concentrated HNO3 at very high temperatures?(a) Butanoic acid and methanoic acid(b) Propanoic acid and ethanoic acid(c) Pentanoic acid(d) Butanoic acid and ethanoic acidThis question was posed to me in an interview.Question is from Aldehydes and Ketones Chemical Reactions topic in section Aldehydes, Ketones and Carboxylic Acids of Chemistry – Class 12

Answer»

Right choice is (b) Propanoic acid and ethanoic acid

The best explanation: Ketones undergo oxidation accompanied by C-C bond cleavage to give a mixture of carboxylic acids having lesser NUMBER of carbon atoms than the parent ketone. In case of petan-2-one (which is unsymmetrical), the cleavage OCCURS such that the CO group stays with the SMALLER alkyl group (Popoff’s rule). Hence, the bond between C-2 and C-3 will be broken to give a mixture of ethanoic acid and propanoic acid.



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