Video Transcript
Fill in the blank. A substitution reaction involves
blank. (A) Multiple reactants and multiple
products. (B) Two reactants and two
products. (C) Two reactants and multiple
products. (D) One reactant and two
products. Or (E) two reactants and one
product.
A substitution reaction is a type
of reaction where a part of a molecule is removed and replaced with something
else. The chlorination of methane is just
one example of a substitution reaction. To perform this reaction, methane
is reacted with diatomic chlorine in the presence of ultraviolet light.
Over the course of this reaction,
one of the hydrogen atoms of methane is replaced by a chlorine atom. The products of this reaction are
chloromethane and hydrogen chloride. Chloromethane can also undergo a
substitution reaction when reacted with sodium hydroxide.
In this substitution reaction, the
chlorine atom of chloromethane is replaced by a hydroxy group. The products of this reaction are
methanol and sodium chloride. We should recognize that although
these substitution reactions are different, they both involve two reactants and two
products.
From these examples, we can
determine that answer choice (B) is the correct answer. Substitution reactions should
involve two reactants and two products as part of one molecule is displaced by a
part of another molecule. So we should fill in the blank with
answer choice (B). A substitution reaction involves
two reactants and two products.
