Alkyl halides polarity

Carbon-oxygen and carbon-halogen bonds are polar covalent bonds, and carbon bears a partial positive charge in alcohols ( C—O ) and in alkyl halides ( C—X ). The presence of these polar bonds makes alcohols and alkyl halides polar molecules. The dipole moments of methanol and chloromethane are very similar to each other and to water. 

Polar protic solvents also possess a pronounced ability to separate ion pairs, but are less useful as solvents in enolate alkylation reactions because they can coordinate to both the alkali metal cation and to the enolate ion. Coordination to the enolate occurs through hydrogen bonding. The solvated enolate will be relatively less reactive because solvation lowers its energy. The hydrogen-bonded enolate must, in effect, shed some of its solvent molecules in order to react with an alkyl halide. Polar protic solvents include water, ammonia, and alcohols. Consequently, if a particular enolate can be generated with potassium tert hutoxide as the base, the enolate could be alkylated at a faster rate if dimethyl sulfoxide, rather than tert-huty alcohol, were chosen as the solvent. 

Alkyl halides and sulfonates are the most frequently used alkylating acceptor synthons. The carbonyl group is used as the classical a -synthon. O-Silylated hemithioacetals (T.H. Chan, 1976) and fomic acid orthoesters are examples for less common a -synthons. In most synthetic reactions carbon atoms with a partial positive charge (= positively polarized carbon) are involved. More reactive, "free carbocations as occurring in Friedel-Crafts type alkylations and acylations are of comparably limited synthetic value, because they tend to react non-selectively. 

Relatively simple notions of attractive forces between opposite charges are suffi cient to account for many of the properties of chemical substances You will find it help ful to keep the polarity of carbon-oxygen and carbon-halogen bonds m mind as we develop the properties of alcohols and alkyl halides m later sections... 

The carbon-halogen bond in an alkyl halide is polar... 

Energy of alkyl halide IS approximately the same m either a nonpolar or a polar solvent... 

Secondary alkyl halides react by a similar mechanism involving attack on benzene by a secondary carbocation Methyl and ethyl halides do not form carbocations when treated with aluminum chloride but do alkylate benzene under Friedel-Crafts conditions The aluminum chloride complexes of methyl and ethyl halides contain highly polarized carbon-halogen bonds and these complexes are the electrophilic species that react with benzene... 

Aryl halides are polar molecules but are less polar than alkyl halides... 

Nylons 46, 6, 66, 610, 11 and 12 are polar crystalline materials with exceptionally good resistance to hydrocarbons. Esters, alkyl halides, and glycols have little effect. Alcohols generally have some swelling action and may in fact dissolve some copolymers (e.g. nylon 66/610/6). There are few solvents for the nylons, of which the most common are formic acid, glacial acetic acid, phenols and cresols. 

The large rate enhancements observed for bimolecular- nucleophilic substitutions in polar- aprotic solvents are used to advantage in synthetic applications. An example can be seen in the preparation of alkyl cyanides (nitriles) by the reaction of sodium cyanide with alkyl halides ... 

With enamines of cyclic ketones direct C alkylation occurs with allyl and propargyl as well as alkyl halides. The reaction is again sensitive to the polarity of the solvent (29). The pyrrolidine enamine of cyclohexanone on reaction with ethyl iodide in dioxane gave 25% of 2-ethylcyclohexanone on hydrolysis, while in chloroform the yield was increased to 32%. 

Water-acetone mixtures offer a sufficiently polar medium that certain alkyl halides can dissociate into a halide anion and a carbocation. The latter then reacts with water to give an SnI substitution product. 

The initial step is the coordination of the alkyl halide 2 to the Lewis acid to give a complex 4. The polar complex 4 can react as electrophilic agent. In cases where the group R can form a stable carbenium ion, e.g. a tert-buiyX cation, this may then act as the electrophile instead. The extent of polarization or even cleavage of the R-X bond depends on the structure of R as well as the Lewis acid used. The addition of carbenium ion species to the aromatic reactant, e.g. benzene 1, leads to formation of a cr-complex, e.g. the cyclohexadienyl cation 6, from which the aromatic system is reconstituted by loss of a proton ... 

One way of determining carbocation stabilities is to measure the amount of energy required to form the carbocation by dissociation of the corresponding alkyl halide, R-X - R+ + X . As shown in Figure 6.10, tertiary alkyl halides dissociate to give carbocations more easily than secondary or primary ones. As a result, trisubstituted carbocations are more stable than disubstituted ones, which are more stable than monosubstituted ones. The data in Figure 6.10 are taken from measurements made in the gas phase, but a similar stability order is found for carbocations in solution. The dissociation enthalpies are much lower in solution because polar solvents can stabilize the ions, but the order of carbocation stability remains the same. 

Alkyl halides contain a halogen bonded to a saturated, sp3-hybridized carbon atom. The C-X bond is polar, and alkyl halides can therefore behave as electrophiles. 

We saw in the preceding chapter that the carbon-ha]ogen bond in an alkyl halide is polar and that the carbon atom is electron-poor. Thus, alkyl halides are electrophiles, and much of their chemistry involves polar reactions with nucleophiles and bases. Alkyl halides do one of two things when they react with a nucleophile/base, such as hydroxide ion either they undergo substitution of the X group by the nucleophile, or they undergo elimination of HX to yield an alkene. 

Secondary alkyl halides Sjvj2 substitution occurs if a weakly basic nucleophile is used in a polar aprotic solvent, E2 elimination predominates if a strong base is used, and ElcB elimination takes place if the leaving group is two carbons away from a carbonyl group. Secondary allylic and benzyiic alkyl halides can also undergo S l and El reactions if a weakly basic nucleophile is used in a pro tic solvent. 

Nitriles are similar in some respects to carboxylic acids and are prepared either by SN2 reaction of an alkyl halide with cyanide ion or by dehydration of an amide. Nitriles undergo nucleophilic addition to the polar C=N bond in the same way that carbonyl compounds do. The most important reactions of nitriles are their hydrolysis to carboxylic acids, reduction to primary amines, and reaction with organometallic reagents to yield ketones. 

Studies of alkyl halide-lithium alkyl reactions have been almost wholly concerned with proton polarization. The one exception to date is an investigation of polarization in the reaction of n-butyl lithium with p-fluorobenzyl chloride giving p,p -difluorobibenzyl (A/E multi-plet) and l-fluoro-4-pentylbenzene (E/A) (Rakshys, 1970). Surprisingly H-polarization is not observed. 

Somewhat similar observations have been made in the reaction of alkyl halides with sodium mirrors (the Wurtz reaction) in which alkyl coupling occurs. Thus, ethane formed on treatment of methyl iodide with sodium in a field of 20 G shows n.m.r. emission (Garst and Cox, 1970). The phase is consistent with polarization via T j-S mixing,... 

Polarization also occurs in coupling and disproportionation reactions of Grignard reagents with alkyl halides. The vinyl protons of isobutene produced in the reaction of t-butylmagnesium chloride with t-butyl bromide show A/E polarization as do the methyl protons of isobutane (Ward et al., 1970). Similar results arise in the reaction of diethyl-magnesium with organic halides (Kasukhin et al., 1972). 

It is possible to take advantage of the differing characteristics of the periphery and the interior to promote chemical reactions. For example, a dendrimer having a non-polar aliphatic periphery with highly polar inner branches can be used to catalyse unimolecular elimination reactions in tertiary alkyl halides in a non-polar aliphatic solvent. This works because the alkyl halide has some polarity, so become relatively concentrated within the polar branches of the dendrimer. This polar medium favours the formation of polar transition states and intermediates, and allows some free alkene to be formed. This, being nonpolar, is expelled from the polar region, and moves out of the dendrimer and into the non-polar solvent. This is a highly efficient process, and the elimination reaction can be driven to completion with only 0.01 % by mass of a dendrimer in the reaction mixture in the presence of an auxiliary base such as potassium carbonate. 

It might be mentioned that matters are much simpler for organometallic compounds with less-polar bonds. Thus Et2Hg and EtHgCl are both definite compounds, the former is a liquid and the latter is a solid. Organocalcium reagents are also known, and they are formed from alkyl halides via a single electron transfer (SET) mechanism with free-radical intermediates. "... 

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