The chlorination of ethane is an example for which type of the following reactions?

1. Nucleophilic substitution
2. Electrophilic substitution
3. Free radical substitution
4. Rearrangement

Solution

Chlorination of ethane takes place by free radical substitution and involves the following steps Step I Initiation step $\mathrm{Cl}_2 \stackrel{h v}{\longrightarrow} 2 \mathrm{Cl}^{\bullet}$ Step II Propagation step
Step III Termination step $\begin{aligned} \mathrm{CH}_3 \mathrm{CH}_2^*+\mathrm{Cl}^{\bullet} & \longrightarrow \mathrm{CH}_3 \mathrm{CH}_2 \mathrm{Cl} \\ \mathrm{Cl}^*+\mathrm{Cl}^* & \longrightarrow \mathrm{Cl}_2 \\ 2 \mathrm{CH}_3 \mathrm{CH}_2^* & \longrightarrow \mathrm{CH}_3 \mathrm{CH}_2 \mathrm{CH}_2 \mathrm{CH}_3\end{aligned}$

Asked in: AP EAMCET 2012

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