[odicon]

How do you turn propylmagnesium bromide into normal propane?
CH3CH2CH2MgBr ---------> CH3CH2CH3

What reagent would I need?

Thanks.

[tmartin]

Well, for starters, what is propyl magnesium bromide?  An acid? A base?  Electrophile? (etc...etc.)  Also, what bond do you need to form in order to make propane from the grignard? 

[haktar]

Propyl magnesium bromide can (loosely) be thought of as Propyl(-) and MgBr(+)

It is therefore a strong nucleophile (Pr-) and a very strong base. Think of how stable propane is, so how much it wants that proton back! In other words, how difficult is it to deprotonate propane? Very! pKa about 30ish! So it's vey basic.

So if you put propyl magnesium bromide in a proton rich environment (An alcohol, a carboxylic acid, water...) what will happen?

[Schrödinger]

So if you put propyl magnesium bromide in a proton rich environment (An alcohol, a carboxylic acid, water...) what will happen?

Actually, you don't need a proton 'rich' environment. Anything that's more acidic than propane should suffice. Even NH₃, which is regarded as a Lewis base, is fine.

[odicon]

Thanks for the insight!!