Illegal Parkinson
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BuLi + C2H2 -> BuH + LiCCH
Hello, i'm not very good with calculators.
I understand that pKa Butane ~ 50 whereas acetylene ~25.
In reaction BuLi + HCCH -> BuH + LiCCH
what do pKa numbers actually mean exactly?
How many time more strongly acidic are ethyne protons relative to butane (sp v sp3)?
Based on numbers it looks like two times the amount but it is log scale etc i forgot it.
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clearly_not_atara
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It's logarithmic: a difference of 25 means that acetylene is 10^25 = 10000000000000000000000000 times as acidic as butane. However since n-BuLi has
some covalent character and the reaction occurs in a nonpolar solvent the effect isn't quite as dramatic.
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Nicodem
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Thread Moved 25-5-2015 at 06:57 |