Chlorination, radical mechanism

FIGURE 4 21 The initiation and propagation steps in the free radical mechanism for the chlorination of methane Together the two propaga tion steps give the overall equation for the reaction... 

The same products may be made from primary alkoxides by the violent reaction with elementary chlorine or bromine. A radical mechanism has been proposed to account for the oxidation of some of the alkoxy groups (54) ... 

Addition to the Double Bond. Chlorine, bromine, and iodine react with aHyl chloride at temperatures below the inception of the substitution reaction to produce the 1,2,3-trihaLides. High temperature halogenation by a free-radical mechanism leads to unsaturated dihalides CH2=CHCHC1X. Hypochlorous and hypobromous acids add to form glycerol dihalohydrins, principally the 2,3-dihalo isomer. Dehydrohalogenation with alkah to epicbl orobydrin [106-89-8] is ofgreat industrial importance. 

Reaction Mechanism. High temperature vapor-phase chlorination of propylene [115-07-17 is a free-radical mechanism in which substitution of an allyhc hydrogen is favored over addition of chlorine to the double bond. Abstraction of allyhc hydrogen is especially favored since the allyl radical intermediate is stabilized by resonance between two symmetrical stmctures, both of which lead to allyl chloride. 

The growth of long chains ( > 10 ) in the perfectly mixed 1 1 crystals of ethylene with chlorine and bromine at 20-70 K was studied in detail by Wight et al. [1993]. Active radicals were generated by pulse photolysis of CI2 or Br2. The rate constant was found to be /Cc = 8-12s below Tc = 45 K. The chain grows according to the well known radical mechanism including the reactions... 

Another reagent which effects chlorination by a radical mechanism is f-butyl hypochlorite. The hydrogen-abstracting species in the chain mechanism is the f-butoxy radical. 

Structurally simple alJkyl halides can sometimes be prepared by reaction of an alkane with Cl2 or Br2 through a radical chain-reaction pathway (Section 5.3). Although inert to most reagents, alkanes react readily with Cl2 or Br2 in the presence of light to give alkyl halide substitution products. The reaction occurs by the radical mechanism shown in Figure 10.1 for chlorination. 

The mechanism is usually electrophilic (see p. 972), but when free-radical initiators (or UV light) are present, addition can occur by a free-radical mechanism. Once Br-or Cl- radicals are formed, however, substitution may compete (14-1 and 14-2). This is espiecially important when the alkene has allylic hydrogens. Under free-radical conditions (UV light) bromine or chlorine adds to the benzene ring to give, respectively, hexabromo- and hexachlorocyclohexane. These are mixtures of stereoisomers (see p. 161). ... 

The mechanism(s) by which these photocatalyzed oxidations are initiated remain uncertain. Early proposals have included involvement of either the photo-produced holes (h+) arising directly from semiconductor photo-excitation, or the (presumed) derivative hydroxyl radical (OH) which was argued to arise from the hole oxidation of adsorbed hydroxyls (h+ + OH-—> OH ). Recent subambient studies [4] with physisorbed chloromethane and oxygen suggest the dioxygen anion (02 ) as a key active species, and the photocatalytic high efficiency chain destruction of TCE is argued to be initiated by chlorine radicals (Cl) [5]. The chlorine-enhanced photocatalytic destruction of air contaminants has been proposed [1, 2, 6] to depend upon reactions initiated by chlorine radicals. 

No systematic studies of a number of compoimds have yet appeared to discover correlations suggestive of mechanism. This paper presents the fractional conversions and reaction rates measured under reference conditions (50 mg contaminants/m ) in air at 7% relative humidity (1000 mg/m H2O), for 18 compounds including representatives of the important contaminant classes of alcohols, ethers, alkanes, chloroethenes, chloroalkanes, and aromatics. Plots of these conversions and rates vs. hydroxyl radical and chlorine radical rate constants, vs. the reactant coverage (dark conditions), and vs. the product of rate constant times coverage are constructed to discern which of the proposed mechanistic suggestions appear dominant. 

In the presence of chlorine atoms, the chlorine radical appears to be the active surface species. It is not possible from our limited data to establish whether most reaction occur via Langmuir-Hinshelwood or Rideal-Eley mechanisms. 

Typically, the reaction mechanism proceeds as follows [6], By photoreaction, two chlorine radicals are formed. These radicals react with the alkyl aromatic to yield a corresponding benzyl radical. This radical, in turn, breaks off the chlorine moiety to yield a new chlorine radical and is substituted by the other chlorine, giving the final product. Too many chlorine radicals lead to recombination or undesired secondary reactions. Furthermore, metallic impurities in micro reactors can act as Lewis catalysts, promoting ring substitution. Friedel-Crafts catalyst such as FeClj may induce the formation of resin-Uke products. 

The chlorination halogenation) reaction takes place by a radical mechanism. 

Sodium methylate acting on 2-chloroanthraquinone substitutes the methoxy group for chlorine and produces anion-radicals of the substrate (Shternshis et al. 1973). The study of kinetics has demonstrated that the amount of substrate anion-radical hrst increases and then sharply decreases. The inhibitor (p-BQ) decelerates the formation of anion-radicals. The rate of formation of 2-methoxy-anthraquinone also decreases. If anion-radicals are produced on the side pathway, the rate of formation of the end product on introduction of the inhibitor should not have decreased. Moreover, it should even rise because oxidation of anion-radicals regenerates uncharged molecules of the substrate. Hence, the anion-radical mechanism controls this reaction. 

The method of inhibitors has demonstrated that substitution of chlorine in triphenylchloro-methane by tert-butoxy anion does not follow anion-radical mechanism. This mechanism is widely accepted for the reactions shown in Scheme 4.20 (Bielevich et al. 1968, Ashby et al. 1981). 

Free-radical mechanisms obviously involve free radicals. A free radical is a species with an unpaired electron. In these mechanisms, single-headed curved arrows eire the norm. In Organic Chemistry 1, these free radicals first appear when excimining the chlorination of an alkane such as methane. The process begins with an initiation step as shown in Figure 2-14. (All initiation steps increase the number of free radicals.)... 

CIS-[Ru(H20)2(dinso) ] is made from as-RuClj(dmso) and Ag(BF ) in aq. EtOH. The system c/s-[Ru(H20)j(dmso) ] Vaq. Na(ClO) or TBHP/CH Cl oxidised alkanes such as adamantane, cyclo-octane, -heptane and -hexane to the corresponding alcohols and ketones as did [Ru(Hj0) PWjj(0)3g ] . A free-radical mechanism may be involved for the TBHP oxidations, but those with (C10) probably involve oxoruthenate(VI) or oxoruthenate(IV) intermediates [823], The oxidative destruction of a-chlorinated alkenes by CM-[Ru(HjO)2(dmso) ] Vaq. Oxone /Me(CH3) jN(HSO ) MCj to carboxylic acids and ultimately to CO and HCl was reported [946],... 

Bromination of alkanes follows the same mechanism as chlorination. The only difference is the reactivity of the radical i.e., the chlorine radical is much more reactive than the bromine radical. Thus, the chlorine radical is much less selective than the bromine radical, and it is a useful reaction when there is only one kind of hydrogen in the molecule. If a radical substitution reaction yields a product with a chiral centre, the major product is a racemic mixture. For example, radical chlorination of n-butane produces a 71% racemic mixture of 2-chlorobutane, and bromination of n-butane produces a 98% racemic mixture of 2-bromobutane. 

Thus the search began along the following three lines (1) irradiation of common monomers, such as styrene (5, 14, 19) at low temperature in chlorinated solvents (2) irradiation of common monomers in the presence of added solids (6) (3) irradiation of monomers that, like isobutene, do not normally polymerize by a free radical mechanism under conditions of high purity, including exhaustive drying. (2, 3, 10). 

Reaction between fluorine and maleic anhydride in a mixture of chloroform and fluorotrichloromethane with sodium fluoride gave a significant amount of chlorinated products indicating that radical processes were operating. Even at -25 °C, significant reaction took place by a radical mechanism and at about 0 °C this was the main process [183]. 

Chlorination can be effected by a variety of methods most of which involve free-radical mechanisms (8). In the present work, a chlorinating agent was sought that would preferentially attack the methyl group of polymethylstyrene so that a comparison with polychloromethylstyrene could be made. Both sulfuryl chloride (S02C12) and t-butyl hypochlorite (t-BuOCl) were suitable reagents for this purpose. 

As in the mechanism proposed by d Hennezel and Ollis, UV illumination was predicted to initiate the conversion of surface chloride groups into chlorine radicals. 

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