Editing Ethane (section)

== History ==
Ethane was first synthesised in 1834 by [[Michael Faraday]], applying [[electrolysis]] of a [[potassium acetate]] solution. He mistook the hydrocarbon product of this reaction for [[methane]] and did not investigate it further.<ref name=Faraday/> The process is now called [[Kolbe electrolysis]]:
: [[acetate|CH<sub>3</sub>COO<sup>−</sup>]] → CH<sub>3</sub>• + [[carbon dioxide|CO<sub>2</sub>]] + [[electron|e<sup>−</sup>]]
: CH<sub>3</sub>• + •CH<sub>3</sub> → C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>6</sub>

During the period 1847–1849, in an effort to vindicate the [[radical theory]] of [[organic chemistry]], [[Hermann Kolbe]] and [[Edward Frankland]] produced ethane by the reductions of [[propionitrile]] ([[ethyl cyanide]])<ref name=Kolbe/> and [[ethyl iodide]]<ref name=Frankland/> with [[potassium]] metal, and, as did Faraday, by the electrolysis of [[Aqueous solution|aqueous]] acetates. They mistook the product of these reactions for the [[methyl radical]] ({{Chem2|CH3}}), of which ethane ({{Chem2|C2H6}}) is a [[Dimer (chemistry)|dimer]].

This error was corrected in 1864 by [[Carl Schorlemmer]], who showed that the product of all these reactions was in fact ethane.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1002/jlac.18641320217|title=Ueber die Identität des Aethylwasserstoffs und des Methyls|journal=Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie|volume=132|issue=2|pages=234–238|year=1864|last1=Schorlemmer|first1=Carl|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1427237}}</ref> Ethane was discovered dissolved in [[Pennsylvania]]n light [[crude oil]] by [[Edmund Ronalds]] in 1864.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Treatise on Chemistry|last1=Roscoe|first1=H.E.|last2=Schorlemmer|first2=C.|publisher=Macmillan|year=1881|volume=3|pages=144–145}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Dictionary of Chemistry|last=Watts|first=H.|year=1868|volume=4|pages=385}}</ref>