Dehydration Review

In the next class session, we will connect the mechanism of the dehydration reaction of alcohols to a reaction coordinate diagram and concepts relating to thermodynamics and kinetics.

Things to remember about mechanism:

• The slowest step will be "rate-determining" and usually produces the highest energy intermediate

• A reaction will proceed faster if it goes through a lower energy intermediate

• The number of steps in the mechanism translates to the number of transition states (bumps) on the curve in a reaction coordinate diagram.

Refer to your notes from Monday's class session or to section 9.4 in the textbook for details specific to the dehydration reaction.

The question set gets you thinking about predicting the products of dehydration reactions and thinking about the reaction mechanism.

We will move into substitution of alcohols as well on Friday! Read section 9.2 for a preview! :)