Question

Protic solvent is

• A. diethyl ether
• B. $n$ -hexane
• C. acetone
• D. ethanol

Answer 1

Answer: (D)

Protic solvents have the ability to form hydrogen bonds to the nucleophile. They are polar in nature. They have a hydrogen directly bonded to nitrogen or oxygen. They are especially favourable for $S_{N^1}$ reactions. while aprotic solvents can’t have hydrogen bond to the nucleophile because they donot have hydrogen bonded to nitrogen or oxygen. They are favourable for $S_{N}2$ reactions
$H_{2}O,ROH,R—COOH$ etc are protic solvents because they are polar in nature and contain a hydrogen directly bonded to oxygen while other are aprotic solvents as they do not have a hydrogen bonded directly to the oxygen