[lukas.stib]

Hello chemists,

please answer me. Can I use phosphoric acid as a catalyst in the synthesis of chloroalkanes and bromoalkanes and not sulfuric acid?

Thank you.

[hollytara]

What are you starting with?  An alcohol?

[lukas.stib]

Yes, alcohol, HCl and HBr.

[OrganicDan96]

so you are using HBr and HCl, why do you need to use phosphoric acid?

[lukas.stib]

Because I watched the videos on the Internet, and they did in the videos the synthesis of bromoalkanes by reacting the primary and secondary alcohol with HBr and with the H2SO4 catalyst, and the reaction of the chloroalkanes with HCl, alcohol and CaCl2.

So they used catalyst H2SO4 for primary and secondary alcohols. And I wonder if I can use H3PO4.