Acid—base catalyzed formation and hydrolysis of epoxides

Acid—base catalyzed formation and hydrolysis of epoxides 6.1 INTRODUCTION 

The kinetics and mechanisms of formation and hydrolysis of epoxides have been studied extensively. Since the field has been reviewed fairly recently [3], coverage in this article will be kept relatively brief. The equilibrium of the reaction 

In the presence of a sufficiently high concentration of base, alkaline hydrolysis of ethylene oxide takes place and leads to ethylene glycol, viz. 

Actually, the second-order rate coefficient of the reaction of ethylene oxide with OH is much higher than that of the reaction with Cl . 

The hydrolysis reaction of an epoxide may be acid catalyzed, base catalyzed, or uncatalyzed. In the presence of other nucleophilic reagents 

---