Which alcohol reacts more readily with sodium metal: primary, secondary or tertiary? Why?
1 Answer
Clearly, the primary alcohol is the most water-like solvent. Thus, a primary alcohol should be most labile to alkali metal.
Explanation:
You know the result of the reaction of sodium metal with water. Methyl alcohol is also VERY reactive towards sodium metal. Ethyl alcohol reacts more slowly, but is still zippy. Above ethyl alcohol, propyl alcohol and butyl alcohol are very sluggish; and will likely not fully react without heating. You will see a few bubbles with isopropanol, but sodium will just sit in tert-butyl alcohol at RT.
We would argue that increasing the length or substitution of the carbon chain makes the alcohol less water like, and less liable to react with alkali metal.
Given what I have said, would you expect sodium metal to react with liquid ammonia,
