What happens when ethyl chloride is treated with agno2?

This is actually a really important distinction in organic chemistry! The key thing to remember is that AgNO₂ favors the nitro compound while KNO₂ favors the nitrite ester. With ethyl chloride and silver nitrite, you predominantly get nitroethane because the silver ion helps facilitate the reaction through the nitrogen end of the nitrite ion. This reaction is particularly useful because nitroalkanes are valuable intermediates in organic synthesis - they can be reduced to amines or used in various condensation reactions. The precipitation of silver chloride makes this reaction easy to monitor in the lab.

When ethyl chloride (C₂H₅Cl) is treated with silver nitrite (AgNO₂), it undergoes a nucleophilic substitution reaction. However, unlike silver nitrate (AgNO₃) which would give an alcohol, silver nitrite is an ambident nucleophile - meaning the nitrite ion (NO₂⁻) can attack through either the nitrogen atom or the oxygen atom.In the case of primary alkyl halides like ethyl chloride, the major product is nitroethane (C₂H₅NO₂) because the attack occurs through the nitrogen atom. This is different from the reaction with alkyl nitrite, where you would get an alkyl nitrite ester.The reaction can be represented as:C₂H₅Cl + AgNO₂ → C₂H₅NO₂ + AgClThe silver chloride (AgCl) precipitates out as a white solid, which is a visual indication that the reaction has occurred.