Allylic and benzylic substitution halogenation reactions

The selectivity of radical bromination reactions depends, in part, on the increased stability of secondary or tertiary radical intermediates compared with primary radicals. In Section 9.2 we noted that allyl and benzyl radicals were especially 

Stabilized by resonance delocalization indeed, they are even more stable than tertiary radicals. In the presence of a suitable initiator, bromine dissociates to bromine atoms that will selectively abstract an allylic or a benzylic hydrogen from a suitable substrate, generating the corresponding allyl and benzyl radicals. 

In the case of cyclohexene, this leads to a resonance-stabilized allylic radical that then reacts 

For example, radical allylic bromination of pent-2-ene must produce a mixture of three products. There are two allylic positions in the substrate, and either can suffer hydrogen abstraction. If hydrogen is abstracted from the methylene, then the two contributing resonance structures for the allylic radical are equivalent, and one product results when this captures a bromine atom. Abstraction 

Of course, we have also seen that bromine can react with a double bond via electrophilic addition 

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