Tertiary alkyl halides are most commonly synthesized from alcohols and hydrogen

halides via a unimolecular

nucleophilic substitution reaction (SN1). It involves the formation of a stable
tertiary carbocation by removing the
hydroxyl group, and the attack of a nucleophile to form the alkyl halide. In thi
s experiment, tert-butyl chloride was
synthesized from concentrated hydrogen chloride and tert-butanol. The two were c
ombined and the organic layer was
separated and purified by distillation at 51C. A 27.77% yield was obtained (2.688
g of alkyl halide from 7.75g of tert-btyl
alcohol). The deviation from the theoretical yield was caused by contaminations,
side-reactions and errors in the set up.