What is the optical activity of the product formed when propanone is refluxed with HCN with KCN dissolved in ethanol and why?

The product formed (hydroxybutanitrile) is optically inactive because the nitrile nucleophile can attack the propane at its carbonyl bond which is trigonal planar about it. There is an equal chance of it attacking above or below the bond which means that the product is a racemic mixture (equal amounts of both enantiomers) who's optical activity cancel each other out, making the product optically inactive

AY

Related Chemistry A Level answers

All answers ▸

Calculate the mass of the following substance: a) 2.5 x 10^23 molecules of N2


How do mass spectrometers measure the mass of a compound?


Why does butan-2-ol have no effect on plane polarised light?


Describe, with the aid of diagrams, what hydrogen bonding is in water.