Answer to Question #53367 in Organic Chemistry for manisha

Question

Explain Hoffman's ammonolysis reaction.and also tell that how this reaction occur?

Answer 1

Since alkyl halides have positive charge on the carbon connected with Halogen they undergo nucleophilic substitution with NH3 which has a lone pair.
R-X + NH3 → R-NH2 + HX, where R-alkyl and X-halogen.
In case of excess of alkyl halide the reaction goes further to produce other amines:
R-NH2 + R-X → R2NH + HX (secondary amine)
R2NH + R-X → R3N + HX (tertiary amine)
R3N + R-X → R4N+X- (quaternary ammonium salt)