Activation energy halogenations

Important differences are seen when the reactions of the other halogens are compared to bromination. In the case of chlorination, although the same chain mechanism is operative as for bromination, there is a key difference in the greatly diminished selectivity of the chlorination. For example, the pri sec selectivity in 2,3-dimethylbutane for chlorination is 1 3.6 in typical solvents. Because of the greater reactivity of the chlorine atom, abstractions of primary, secondary, and tertiary hydrogens are all exothermic. As a result of this exothermicity, the stability of the product radical has less influence on the activation energy. In terms of Hammond s postulate (Section 4.4.2), the transition state would be expected to be more reactant-like. As an example of the low selectivity, ethylbenzene is chlorinated at both the methyl and the methylene positions, despite the much greater stability of the benzyl radical ... 

Kinetic studies have been carried out using the 1 1-complex iodobenzene dichloride as a source of molecular chlorine. In acetic acid solutions, the dissociation of this complex is slower than the rate of halogenation of reactive aromatics such as mesitylene or pentamethylbenzene, consequently the rate of chlorination of these is independent of the aromatic concentration. Thus at 25.2 °C first-order chlorination rate coefficients were obtained, being approximately 0.2 x 10-3 whilst the first-order dissociation rate coefficient was 0.16 xlO-3 from measurements at 25.2 and 45.6 °C the corresponding activation energies... 

None of the programs can predict kinetics, that is, the rate of reaction, the activation energy, or the order of the reaction. These parameters can only be determined experimentally. Except for CHETAH, the primary use of the programs is to compute the enthalpies of decomposition and combustion. In fact, acid-base neutralization, exothermic dilution, partial oxidation, nitration, halogenation, and other synthesis reactions are not included in the programs except for CHETAH, which can be used to calculate the thermodynamics of essentially any reaction. 

The promoting effect of Reaction 5 should be strongest with chlorine and weakest with iodine atoms since the activation energy of this reaction with respect to the different halogen atoms is (2) ... 

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