Question

Why is it preferable to produce chloroethane by the reaction of HCl(g) with ethene than by the reaction of Cl2(g) with ethane?

Short answer

Preferable to produce chloroethane by the reaction of HCl(g) with ethene than by the reaction of Cl2(g) with ethane.because, Better yields and easier reaction control.

Step-by-step solution

To find Why is it preferable to produce chloroethane:

The addition of a halogen halide to an alkene produces only one product. That is, the reaction of ethene with HCl gives chloroethane.

In the reaction of ethane with chlorine in the presence of light, six products are formed (shown in the figure below).

This is because any hydrogen in the ethane molecule can be replaced by a chlorine atom. In general, light catalyzed reactions are difficult to control and therefore this method is ineffective for chloroethane production.

Hence Better yields and easier reaction control is observed in the above reaction.