During the direct alkylation of ammonia, why do we need to add a base to get rid of the Br from CH3NH3Br? Doesn't the Br come off by itself since N cannot be attached to 5 things?
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Here we need a base because we actually have an ionic salt of CH3NH3+ and Br-. The base here deprotonates our NH3 group in the compound, thus making a neutral CH3NH2. The Br- is no longer attracted, and thus comes off the molecule too. The base is needed, though, to cause that deprotonation in the first place.
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