text: explain willamson's synthesis of ether.?   williamson is a good way to make unsymmetrical ethers  you need   -an alcohol (r-oh) ,  -a pretty strong base (b:),  -and something with a good leaving group such as an alkyl halide or a tosylate/mesylate (r'-x).   you're r'-x should be primary or secondary because the reaction you will do will be sn2.   the overall reaction is  r-oh + b: + r'-x -> r-o-r' + b: + hx  r-o-r' is the ether. sometimes the side products can be other things such as h2, etc. the base can just be na for example.  1. r-oh + b: -> r-o-    that means that the base abstracts a proton to make the alcohol an alkoxide.   2. r-o- + r'-x -> r-o-r'  the alkoxide acts as a nucleophile and attack the r'-x. the ether will be your product.