Preparation of Ethers
Learn the Williamson ether synthesis and other methods for preparing ethers, including the choice of reactants and reaction conditions.
Why this shows up in the exam
Williamson synthesis is a favorite for mechanism and product prediction questions.
How NEET tests this
Practise it
These are real questions from past NEET papers that test this exact idea.
The compound A on treatment with Na gives B, and with PCl₅ gives C. B and C react together to give diethyl ether. A, B and C are in the order
Push further
More challenging8 harder questions built from the past papers above — a step up in difficulty, with distractors designed so you can't get there by elimination. Written and checked by our reviewers, not from a real paper.
Which of the following sets of reactants would be most suitable for the synthesis of tert-butyl ethyl ether via Williamson synthesis?
More from Alcohols, Phenols and Ethers
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Chemical Reactions of Ethers
Understand the cleavage of ethers by acids like HI, including the mechanism (SN1/SN2), and the resistance of ethers to nucleophilic substitution.
Chemical Reactions of Phenols
Study the characteristic reactions of phenols, including electrophilic aromatic substitution, bromination, and the Reimer-Tiemann reaction.