Question

Ethyl methyl ketone is obtained by heating calcium salts of

• A. formic acid $+$ propionic acid
• B. acetic acid $+$ propionic acid
• C. acetic acid only
• D. acetic acid $+$ methanoic acid

Answer 1

Answer: (B)

acetic acid $+$ propionic acid

Answer 2

26. Ethyl methyl ketone is an unsymmetric ketone, so two different acids (in the form of calcium salt) are used. The structure of ethyl methyl ketone is

$C _{2} H _{5} COCH _{3}$

The structure shows the presence of 4 carbon atoms, thus the calcium salts must be of acetic acid and propionic acid to form $C _{2} H _{5} COCH _{3}$.

$\left( C _{2} H _{5} COO \right)_{2} Ca +\left( CH _{3} COO \right)_{2} Ca \stackrel{\text { Distill }}{\longrightarrow}$
$C _{2} H _{5} COCH _{3}+ CaCO _{3}$