Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Is a quaternary salt of an imine possible?

RingoStarr - 13-10-2017 at 14:27

Can an imine with a methyamino group form a quaternary salt with a mineral acid? For example N-Methyl-1-phenylethanimin.HCl (A.K.A. acetophenone methylimine HCl).

clearly_not_atara - 13-10-2017 at 16:07

Yes, iminium salts exist. However, most are not isolable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iminium

A fully alkylated iminium is "tertiary", because there are three substituents ("quater-" implies four)

[Edited on 14-10-2017 by clearly_not_atara]

RingoStarr - 13-10-2017 at 22:41

Thank you for the heads-up, it is a great help to get a pointer in the right direction. Ok it's tertiary in this case because of the double bond on the nitrogen, thanks again.