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  4. Alkanes CANNOT be directly iodinated because .

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Q. Alkanes CANNOT be directly iodinated because _______.

NTA AbhyasNTA Abhyas 2022

Solution:

Alkanes cannot be directly iodinated because the reaction is reversible and fails to produce alkyl iodide. This is because, the by product $HI$ formed is a very strong reducing agent and reduces the alkyl iodide back to alkane.
To prevent the reversibility of the reaction, we add strong oxidising agents like $HNO_{3}$ or $HIO_{3}.$
For the alkyl to be iodinated, we can use the halogen exchange reaction (Finkelstein reaction).