Question

How will you prepare chloroform from acetone (give equations)?

How will you convert acetone to chloroform?

How would you convert acetone to chloroform?

Answer 1

Acetone undergoes haloform reaction with chlorine in the presence of alkali to form chloroform.

\[\ce{\underset{acetone}{CH3COCH3} + 3Cl2 + 4NaOH -> \underset{chloroform}{CHCl3} + CH3COONa + 3NaCl + 3H2O}\]

Acetone is halogenated at the methyl group to form trichloromethyl ketone, then it breaks down to give chloroform (CHCl₃) and sodium acetate (CH₃COONa).