Question

1. Does sulfuric acid, which ionizes to give a negatively charged sulfate ion, induce the isomerization of maleic acid to fumaric acid? Explain

2. Based upon your observations, would you expect fumaric acid to form in a test tube containing 1 g of maleic acid, 0.5 g _{$NH_{_{4}}Cl$} , and 3 mL of 3M _{$H_{2}SO_{4}$} , after it was heated? Explain.

I really want to learn from this, so please provide full explainations when answering these questions. Also, provide mechanisms, including arrow pushing, when answering these questions. Thank you so much!

Answer 1

1. Sulfuric acid is an acid which gives H+ ion in solution. Thus when maleic acid in presence of sulfuric acid is heated it undergoes isomerization to form fumaric acid by the mechanism shown below.

噍驰 OH OH OH H OH rotate он HSo -H2SO4

2. When 1 g of maleic acid is heated in presence of NH4Cl and H2SO4, we would expect it to undergo isomerization as H2SO4 is a strong acid and readily gives off H+ ion which is used as the catalyst in the isomerisation reaction.