Bromonium ions, bromination

We ignored the issue of symmetry in the alkene when we discussed the bromination of alkenes, because even unsymmetrical alkenes give the same 1,2-dibromides whichever way the bromide attacks the bromonium ion. bromination of isobutene... 

Addition of X2 in nucleophilic solvents presents us with another opportunity. We can measure the regioselectivity of the reaction. For example, in the bromina-tion of 2,3,3-trimethyl-l-butene in carbon tetrachloride, there is no way to determine the regiochemistry of the bromide attack of the bromonium ion. Bromination in water allows us to see where the hydroxyl group goes as it opens the bromonium ion. There are two possibilities (Fig. 10.17). The hydroxyl group can attach to the more substituted or to the less substituted carbon of the original double bond. 

Such a carbocation however has been demonstrated to be less stable than an alterna tive structure called a cyclic bromonium ion, m which the positive charge resides on bromine not carbon... 

Step 1 Reaction of ethylene and bromine to form a bromonium ion intermediate... 

Table 6 3 shows that the effect of substituents on the rate of addition of bromine to alkenes is substantial and consistent with a rate determining step m which electrons flow from the alkene to the halogen Alkyl groups on the carbon-carbon double bond release electrons stabilize the transition state for bromonium ion formation and increase the reaction rate... 

FIGURE 6 13 Mechanism of bromohydrin formation from cyclopentene A bridged bromonium ion is formed and is attacked by a water molecule from the side opposite the carbon-bromine bond The bromine and the hydroxyl group are trans to each other in the product... 

This suggests that as water attacks the bromonium ion positive charge develops on the carbon from which the bromine departs The transition state has some of the character of a carbocation We know that more substituted carbocations are more stable than less substituted ones therefore when the bromonium ion ring opens it does so by breaking the bond between bromine and the more substituted carbon... 

Bromonium Ion (Section 6 16) A halonium ion in which the halogen is bromine (see halonium ion)... 

Interpretation of tiie ratio of capture of competing nucleophiles has led to the estimate that bromonium ions have lifetimes on the order of 10 s in methanol. This lifetime is about 100 times longer than fliat for secondary caibocations. There is also direct evidence for the existence of bromonium ions. The bromonium ion related to propene can be observed by NMR spectroscopy when l-bromo-2-fluoropropane is subjected to superacid conditions. The terminal bromine adopts a bridging position in the resulting cation. 

Bromonium ions can be also produced by an electrophilic attack by a species that should generate a positive bromine ... 

The positive bromine which leads to bromonium ion intermediates is softer and also has unshared electron pairs which can permit a total of four electrons to participate in the bridged bromonium ion intermediate. This would be expected to lead to a more strongly bridged and more stable species than is possible in the case of the proton. The bromonium ion can be represented as having two covalent bonds to bromine and is electrophilic but not electron-deficient. 

This scheme represents an alkyne-bromine complex as an intermediate in all alkyne brominations. This is analogous to the case of alkenes. The complex may dissociate to a inyl cation when the cation is sufficiently stable, as is the case when there is an aryl substituent. It may collapse to a bridged bromonium ion or undergo reaction with a nucleophile. The latta is the dominant reaction for alkyl-substituted alkynes and leads to stereospecific anti addition. Reactions proceeding through vinyl cations are expected to be nonstereospecific. 

The elements of bromine azide have been added to steroid olefins. The addition can be rationalized as proceeding through a positive bromonium ion under the ionic conditions of Hassner and Boerwinkle (bromine plus sodium azide and hydrochloric acid in nitromethane-dichloromethane) or Ponsold (A-bromosuccinimide or A-bromoacetamide in chloroform contain-... 

In reaction with an alkene, initially a three-membered ring Lewis acid/Lewis base-complex 5 is formed, where the carbon-carbon double bond donates r-electron density into the empty p-orbital of the boron center. This step resembles the formation of a bromonium ion in the electrophilic addition of bromine to an alkene ... 

How does the formation of a bromonium ion account for the observed anti stereochemistry of addition to cyclopentene If a bromonium ion is formed as an intermediate, we can imagine that the large bromine atom might "shield" one side of the molecule. Reaction with Br ion in the second step could then occur only from the opposite, unshielded side to give trans product. 

Acid-catalyzed epoxide opening takes place by protonation of the epoxide to increase its reactivity, followed by nucleophilic addition of water. This nucleophilic addition is analogous to the final step of alkene bromination, in which a cyclic bromonium ion is opened by a nucleophile (Section 7.2). That is,... 

HC1, HBr, and HI add to alkenes by a two-step electrophilic addition mechanism. Initial reaction of the nucleophilic double bond with H+ gives a carbo-cation intermediate, which then reacts with halide ion. Bromine and chlorine add to alkenes via three-membered-ring bromonium ion or chloronium ion intermediates to give addition products having anti stereochemistry. If water is present during the halogen addition reaction, a halohydrin is formed. 

Bromonium ion (Section 7.2) A species with a divalent, positively charged bromine, R2Br+. 

Almost immediately, a Br ion swoops in for the attack, attracted by the positive charge of the bromonium ion. It forms a bond to one carbon atom, and the bromine atom already present forms another bond to the second carbon atom, giving 1,2-dibromoethane ... 

Some years ago, we tackled (ref. 7) the particular question of bromine bridging, related mainly to stereochemistry, postulating that bromonium ions and bromo-carbocations are formed in separate pathways as shown in Scheme 3. The relative rates of reaction by these pathways depend on the olefin structure. As demonstrated later... 

At present, this rule fails only when functional neighboring substituents, capable of anchimeric assistance and in a convenient position with respect to the developing positive charge, can compete with bromine in the charge stabilization of the cationic intermediate (ref. 15). For example, the reaction of some unsaturated alcohols (ref. 16) goes through five- or six-membered cyclic oxonium ions, rather than through bromonium ions. 

The Markovnikov regioselectivity of the gem-alkenes is associated with a chemoselectivity. in favour of methanol attack, significantly greater than that observed for the other alkenes. If no sodium bromide is added to the reaction medium, no dibromide is observed for this series. Therefore, these alkenes behave as highly conjugated olefins, as regards their regio- and chemo-selectivity. In other words, the bromination intermediates of gem-alkenes resemble P-bromocarbocations, rather than bromonium ions. Theoretical calculations (ref. 8) but not kinetic data (ref. 14) support this conclusion. 

The chemoselectivity of bromination going through bromocarbocations (highly conjugated olefins and also gem-alkenes ) is 100 % in favour of methanol, a nucleophile stronger than bromide ions. However, when the intermediates are bromonium ions, the chemoselectivity is poor. Branched substituents seem to favour the dibromide over the solvent-incorporated adduct, although the bromide ion is considered to be a bulkier nucleophile than methanol. 

Most of the olefins shown so far, for which reversibility of the bromonium ion formation had been demonstrated, are particular olefins, in which either steric bulk impedes the product forming step, or ring strain in the dibromide product retards this step. In order to check the general occurrence of the reversibility during the bromination reaction, a further approach, based on the cis-trans isomerization of stilbene derivatives during the bromination of the cis isomers, was devised. 

Reversible formation of ionic intermediates in halogenated solvents has been suggested to be due to the weakly nucleophilic character of the counteranion, the tribromide ion, which should dissociate into nucleophilic bromide and free bromine before reacting with the bromonium ion (refs. 11,25,26). In order to check this hypothesis the product distribution of the c/s-stilbene bromination in chloroform was investigated (ref. 27). In the latter solvent the formation constant of Br3 is considerably lower than in DCE, Kf = 2.77 (0.13) x 10 against > 2 x 107 M 1. (ref. 28). As a consequence, at 10 3 M [Br2] relevant amounts of bromide ions are present as counteranion of the bromonium intermediate. Nevertheless, the same trend for the isomerization of cis- to rran -stilbene, as well as an increase of... 

In these solvents at sufficiently low Br2 concentration (< 10-3 m) the kinetics are first order both in the olefin and in Br2 and the main solvent effect consists of an electrophilic solvation of the departing Br ion. A nucleophilic assistance by hydroxylic solvents has also been recognized recently (ref. 26) (Scheme 10). So far, return during the olefin bromination in methanol had been admitted only for alkylideneadamantanes, and was ascribed to steric inhibition to nucleophilic attack at carbons of the bromonium ion (ref. 26). 

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