Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other is labelled as Reason (R). Assertion (A): Commercially, carboxylic acids are directly reduced to primary alcohols using lithium aluminium hydride ( LiAlH ₄ ). Reason (R): LiAlH ₄ is an expensive reagent, hence commercially acids are first converted to esters and then catalytically reduced with hydrogen. In the light of the above statements

Step-by-step solution

Assertion (A) is false. Lithium aluminium hydride ( LiAlH ₄ ) is an excellent reducing agent, but it is highly expensive. Therefore, it is used only for preparing special chemicals and not for the large-scale commercial reduction of carboxylic acids to alcohols. Reason (R) is true. Because of the high cost of LiAlH ₄ , the commercial method involves first converting the carboxylic acid to an ester (by reacting with an alcohol in the presence of an acid catalyst), followed by catalytic hydrogenation ( H ₂ /catalyst)