When acetaldehyde reacts with ammonia, the product is

Options

A. hexamethylene tetramine
B. acetaldehyde ammonia
C. deacetone amine
D. ethyl amine

Explanation

To determine the product of the reaction between acetaldehyde (CH₃CHO) and ammonia (NH₃), we can follow these steps:

### Step 1: Identify the Reactants
The reactants are acetaldehyde (CH₃CHO) and ammonia (NH₃). Acetaldehyde contains a carbonyl group (C=O) which is reactive towards nucleophiles, and ammonia has a lone pair of electrons on nitrogen.

### Step 2: Nucleophilic Attack
Ammonia acts as a nucleophile and attacks the electrophilic carbon atom of the carbonyl group in acetaldehyde. This leads to the formation of a tetrahedral intermediate.

**Intermediate Structure:**
- The carbonyl carbon becomes a tetrahedral carbon.
- The nitrogen from ammonia is now bonded to the carbon, and the oxygen has a negative charge.

### Step 3: Proton Transfer
In the tetrahedral intermediate, the negatively charged oxygen can deprotonate the positively charged nitrogen (which has gained a proton from ammonia). This results in the formation of an intermediate with an alcohol (OH) and an amine (NH₂) group.

**Intermediate Structure:**
- The structure now has a hydroxyl group (OH) and an amino group (NH₂) attached to the same carbon.

### Step 4: Elimination of Water
The next step involves the elimination of a water molecule (H₂O) from the intermediate. This leads to the formation of an imine (C=N) bond.

**Product Structure:**
- The resulting product after the elimination of water is an imine, specifically acetaldehyde ammonia (CH₃CH=NH).

### Step 5: Final Product
The final product of the reaction between acetaldehyde and ammonia is an imine, which can be represented as:
- **Product:** CH₃CH=NH (acetaldehyde ammonia)

### Conclusion
When acetaldehyde reacts with ammonia, the product formed is acetaldehyde ammonia (an imine).

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