Question

Which one of the following forms an alcohol with nitrous acid?

• A. Aniline
• B. Dimethylaniline
• C. Methylethylamine
• D. Ethylamine

Answer 1

Answer: (D)

Aliphatic primary amines react with cold nitrous acid to give alcohols with the quantitative evolution of $N_2$ gas.
$\underset{\text{Ethylamine}}{C_2{H}_{5}N{H}_2}+HONO\stackrel{273-278K}{\to }\underset{\text{Ethanol }}{C_2{H}_{5}OH}+N_2+H_{2}O$