The Stability of Carbocations in E1 and E2 Reactions,Primary carbocations are too unstable to form. Please revise the 1-butanol hypothesis accordingly. This is my original hypothesis: It is hypothesized that in the E1 acid-catalyzed dehydration of 1-butanol that trans-2-butene will be produced in the largest amount followed by cis-2-butene, and finally 1-butene. Zaitsev’s law explains the occurrence of elimination, which mainly eliminates in ? -carbon with fewer H atoms, so 2- butene produces more than 1- butene. Trans-2- butene produces more and is more stable than cis-2- butene. This is because, in cis-isomer, two methyl groups are located on the same side of the double bond. Due to the van der Waals force, the two methyl groups repel each other, which increases the potential energy and increases the steric hindrance of the compound, thus making it more unstable. In trans-isomer, two methyl groups are located on the opposite side of the double bond, so they will not repel each other and the steric hindrance is small, thus making it more stable. For the 1-bromobutane hypothesis, clarify why only 1-butene can form and not trans or cis 2-butene. The beta carbon with fewer H atoms is not relevant here because do not have more than one beta carbon. This is my original hypothesis: It is hypothesized that in the E2 base-induced dehydrobromination of 1-bromobutane that only 1-butene will be produced. This is because it is eliminated in ?-carbon with fewer H atoms and the leaving group is connected to the end of the carbon chain. In addition, without the formation of carbon cation intermediates, there is no way to carry out hydrogen transfer to produce other products. Therefore, this reaction predicts that only the nearest H that forms a double bond at the end of the chain will be eliminated to produce only 1- butene.

The Stability of Carbocations in E1 and E2 Reactions

Carbocations are intermediates in organic reactions that are highly charged and therefore unstable. In the context of E1 and E2 acid-catalyzed and base-induced dehydration of alcohols, respectively, the role of carbocations in the formation of products must be examined to understand the outcome of the reaction. The E1 reaction requires a carbocation intermediate to occur. In this reaction, the carbocation forms in the alpha-carbon of the alcohol and is stabilized by its adjacent alkyl group, allowing it to undergo elimination of the leaving group in the beta-carbon (Hagen et al., 2019). This explains why the product of the E1 reaction is the most stable product, trans-2-butene (Jacobs et al., 2019). In contrast, the E2 reaction does not favor the formation of a carbocation intermediate and thus does not take place. This is because the overall reaction is a concerted process and the carbocation intermediate would be too unstable to form (Hagen et al., 2019). Therefore, only the most stable product, 1-butene, is produced in the E2 reaction (Jacobs et al., 2019). Cont…