elimination of water from alcohols

i.e. dehydration

how can alkenes be formed from alcohols?

acid catalysed elimination reactions

give the general eqn for the elimination of water from an alcohol:

C_nH_2n+1OH → C_nH_2n + H₂O

what is an advantage of using elimination to produce alkenes?

can be used to produce addition polymers without using monomers derived from crude oil

draw the mechanism for the elimination of water from ethanol:

give the displayed eqn for the elimination of water from butan-2-ol:

describe the process of dehydrating an alcohol to form an alkene:

• heat under reflux with concentrated sulfuric acid (/phosphoric acid) catalyst

• purify cyclohexene by distillation (as it has a lower bpt)