Question

The primary alkyl halide is called as primary because:
A) The functional group attached to primary carbon atom
B) The functional group attached to the secondary carbon atom.
C) The functional group attached to tertiary carbon atom
D) None of these

Answer 1

The question is from the basics of organic chemistry, in which we classify the carbon atom in the hydrocarbons on the basis of the number of other carbons attached to it.
An alkyl halide is formed by the removal of one or more hydrogen atoms from the molecule and replacing them with the halogens or halide ions.

Complete step by step answer:
So in the question we are asked to state the reason why primary alkyl halide formed is called primary. We have to say why the word primary is important or what it refers to.
So before going into the preparation or how alkyl halides are formed, let’s have a basic idea of the types of carbon in a hydrocarbon molecule.
We know that hydrocarbons are the backbone of organic chemistry and there are millions of molecules known to us. Hydrocarbons are simply the structures formed by the various combinations of carbon atoms and hydrogen atoms. And the hydrogen atom can be replaced by other atoms like O, N, halogens etc.
The carbon atom in the hydrocarbons present are mainly divided into three types –Primary carbon, secondary carbon and tertiary carbon.
Primary carbon- is the carbon which is connected to only one other carbon in the molecule.
Example:

It is clear from the figure that a primary carbon is attached to only one other carbon atom.
So in that case let’s draw the structure of a primary alkyl halide
Primary alkyl halide is formed by replacing a hydrogen atom from the primary carbon with a halide ion, here let’s draw the structure of 1-chloropropane which is a primary alkyl halide.

From the structure we can explain that in primary alkyl halide what does primary refers to. The Cl atom in the molecule is inserted by replacing an H from the primary carbon present in the molecule. Here halide atom is the functional group attached to the molecule.

The correct answer for this question is option (A).

Note: A secondary carbon atom is the carbon atom which is directly attached to two more carbon atoms.

A tertiary carbon atom is the carbon atom which is attached with three other carbon atoms.