Predict the major product for the following reaction.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The reaction involves an acid-catalyzed dehydration of an alcohol. The key step is the loss of a water molecule from the starting material to form an alkene. In this case, the alcohol has a secondary carbon adjacent to the hydroxyl group, which makes it particularly susceptible to dehydration. The elimination proceeds via E1 mechanism, which means the leaving group (OH) departs before the proton is abstracted from the adjacent carbon. The major product formed is the most substituted alkene (Markovnikov's rule), which is III. The other options (I, II, IV, and V) are either not formed or formed in much smaller yields due to their lower levels of substitution.

Predict the Major Product for the Following Reaction