The best method for the conversion of an alcohol into an alkyl chloride is by treating the alcohol with

Options

A. `PCl_(5)`
B. `SOCl_(2)` in presence of pyridine
C. Dry HCl in the presence of anhydrous `ZnCl_(2)`
D. `PCl_(3)`

Answer

B

Explanation

`R-OH+SOCl_(2) underset("Reflux")overset("Pyridine")(to)R-Cl+SO_(2)uarr+HCluarr`
This is the best method for preparing alkyl chloride from alcohols. The advantage of this method over using phosphorus chlorides is that the byproducts of the above reaction i.e. `SO_(2)` and HCl are gases which can easily escape from the reaction mixture.