Addition of Hypohalous Acids to Alkenes Halohydrin Formation

3 Addition of Hypohalous Acids to Alkenes Halohydrin Formation 

ThomsorWOW Click Organic Interactive to use a web-based palette to predict products of the addition of hypohalous acid to alkenes. 

Yet another example of an electrophilic addition is the reaction of alkenes with the hypohalous acids HO—Cl or HO-Br to yield 1,2-halo alcohols, called halohydrins. Halohydrin formation doesn t take place by direct reaction of an alkene with HOBr or HOC1, however. Rather, the addition is done indirectly by reaction of the alkene with either Br2 or Cl2 in the presence of water. 

Mechanism of bromohydrin formation by reaction of an alkene with Br2 in the presence of water. Water acts as a nucleophile to react with the intermediate bromonium ion. 

In practice, few alkenes are soluble in water, and bromohydrin formation is often carried out in a solvent such as aqueous dimethyl sulfoxide, CH3SOCFI3 (DMSO), using a reagent called W-brornosuccinimide ( rBS) as a source of Br2. NBS is a stable, easily handled compound that slowly decomposes in water to yield Br2 at a controlled rate. Bromine itself can also be used 

O Reaction of the alkene with Br2 yields a bromonium ion intermediate, as previously discussed. 

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Haloperoxidases have been shown to transform alkenes by a formal addition of hypohalous acid to produce halohydrins. The reaction mechanism of enzymatic halogenatitHi has been debated for some time and it is now accepted that it proceeds via a halonium intermediate [1770, 1771], similar to the chemical formation of halohydrins (Scheme 2.228). The former species is derived from hypohalous acid or molecular halogen, which is in turn produced by the enzyme via oxidation of halide [1772]. In support of this, a HOCl-adduct of Fe -protoporphyrin IX was identified as a direct enzyme-halogen intermediate involved in chloroperoxidase-catalyzed halogenaticHi [1773]. 

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