Important Ingestion of ethanol acts on the central nervous system. In moderate amounts, it affects judgment and lowers inhibitions. Higher concentrations cause nausea and loss of consciousness. Even at higher concentrations, it interferes with spontaneous respiration and can be fatal.
. By dehydration of alcohols Alcohols undergo dehydration in the presence of protic acids (H SO , H PO ). The formation of the reaction product, alkene or ether depends on the reaction conditions. For example, ethanol is dehydrated to ethene in the presence of sulphuric acid at K.
At K, ethoxyethane is the main product. The formation of ether is a nucleophilic bimolecular reaction (S N ) involving the attack of alcohol molecule on a protonated alcohol, as indicated below: