An aminoalkane heated with ammonia yields which product?

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Multiple Choice

An aminoalkane heated with ammonia yields which product?

Think about what happens when an amine-bearing carbon can lose its amino group and take up a halogen instead. In these conditions the amino group can be protonated and depart as NH3, while a halide ion from the reaction mixture attacks the carbon. That substitution replaces the amino group with a halogen, giving a haloalkane. The other possibilities don’t arise under these conditions: you wouldn’t typically form an alcohol or an alkene just by heating an aminoalkane with ammonia, and the amino group would remain unless substitution by a halogen occurs.

Think about what happens when an amine-bearing carbon can lose its amino group and take up a halogen instead. In these conditions the amino group can be protonated and depart as NH3, while a halide ion from the reaction mixture attacks the carbon. That substitution replaces the amino group with a halogen, giving a haloalkane. The other possibilities don’t arise under these conditions: you wouldn’t typically form an alcohol or an alkene just by heating an aminoalkane with ammonia, and the amino group would remain unless substitution by a halogen occurs.

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