Vinyl chloride is hydrolyzed more slowly than ethyl chloride. Explain.
Answer : Vinyl chloride exhibits resonance and can be represented as a resonance hybrid of the following two structures:
Due to resonance, the carbon-chlorine bond acquires some double bond character, and therefore, difficult to break.
In ethyl chloride, however, the carbon-chlorine bond is a pure single bond, therefore, the C−Cl bond can be cleaved easily.
That is why vinyl chloride undergoes hydrolysis more slowly than ethyl chloride.