Dehydrohalogenation mechanisms

Obtaining both an isotope effect, k /k, and an element effect, k fk, are the experimental evidence that the C-H and C-X bonds are breaking in the transition structure. Since measurement of heavy atom isotope effects requires special instrumentation, the element effect has taken the place of heavy atom isotope effects in most investigations. The element effect was first proposed by Bunnett in a 1957 paper dealing with the nucleophilic substitution reactions of activated aromatic compounds [27], and later applied to dehydrohalogenation mechanisms by Bartsch and Burmett [28]. The lack of any incorporation of deuterium prior to elimination has also been used as experimental evidence favoring the concerted mechanism [29]. The stereochemistry should be a trans-elimination. 

Halogenocyclohexenes and l-halogeno-4-methylcyclohexenes react with potassium t-butoxide in tetrahydrofuran and DMSO by three competing dehydrohalogenation mechanisms, (q), (b), and (c) (Scheme 19). Besides substitution products, dimers from cyclohexa-1,2-diene and various cycloaddition products are obtained. ... 

In the 1920s Sir Christopher Ingold proposed a mechanism for dehydrohalogenation that IS still accepted as the best description of how these reactions occur Some of the mfor matron on which Ingold based his mechanism included these facts... 

On the basis of these observations Ingold proposed a one step bimolecular E2 mechanism for dehydrohalogenation... 

FIGURE 5 12 The El mechanism for the dehydrohalogenation of 2 bromo 2 methylbutane in ethanol... 

There is a strong similarity between the mechanism shown m Eigure 5 12 and the one shown for alcohol dehydration m Eigure 5 6 The mam difference between the dehy dration of 2 methyl 2 butanol and the dehydrohalogenation of 2 bromo 2 methylbutane IS the source of the carbocation When the alcohol is the substrate it is the correspond mg alkyloxonmm ion that dissociates to form the carbocation The alkyl halide ionizes directly to the carbocation... 

Section 5 15 Dehydrohalogenation of alkyl halides by alkoxide bases is not compli cated by rearrangements because carbocations are not intermediates The mechanism is E2 It is a concerted process m which the base abstracts a proton from the p carbon while the bond between the halogen and the a carbon undergoes heterolytic cleavage... 

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. 

No extensive investigation of mechanism has been undertaken for any of the methods of dehydrohalogenation described. 17-Bromo-20-ketones appear to undergo preferential /ran -elimination. 2-Halo-3-ketones suffer predominant loss of the la (axial) hydrogen, but the geometry of bromine loss is not known. 7>fl -diaxial elimination has sometimes been assumed in configurational assignments, but this is not necessarily correct (see ref. 6). 

Goering and coworkers201 studied the kinetics of base-promoted dehydrohalogenation of several series of cis- or frans-2-chlorocycloalkyl aryl sulfones. For the trans-2-chlorocyclohexyl series reacting with sodium hydroxide in 80% ethanol at 0 °C the p value was 1.42. The mechanism was considered to involve rate-determining carbanion formation, with the subsequent loss of chloride ion in a fast step. 

The antimony oxide/organohalogen synergism in flame retardant additives has been the subject of considerable research and discussion over the past twenty-five years (1-17). In addition to antimony oxide, a variety of bismuth compounds and molybdenum oxide have been the subject of similar studies (18-20). Despite this intensive investigation, relatively little has been conclusively established about the solid state chemical mechanisms of the metal component volatilization, except in those cases where the organohalogen component is capable of undergoing extensive intramolecular dehydrohalogenation. 

The activity as enzyme inhibitors of haloge-nated amino acids (which can be converted into allenic amino adds by enzymatic dehydrohalogenation) may be caused by the same mechanism (a) N. Esaki, H. Takada, M. Moriguchi, S. Hatanaka, H. Tanaka,... 

As an alternative to the extraction and interfacial mechanisms, hydroxide promoted dehydrohalogenation reactions may also occur, not by proton removal from the... 

The dehydrohalogenation of 1- or 2-haloalkanes, in particular of l-bromo-2-phenylethane, has been studied in considerable detail [1-9]. Less active haloalkanes react only in the presence of specific quaternary ammonium salts and frequently require stoichiometric amounts of the catalyst, particularly when Triton B is used [ 1, 2]. Elimination follows zero order kinetics [7] and can take place in the absence of base, for example, styrene, equivalent in concentration to that of the added catalyst, is obtained when 1-bromo-2-phenylethane is heated at 100°C with tetra-n-butyl-ammonium bromide [8], The reaction is reversible and 1-bromo-l-phenylethane is detected at 145°C [8]. From this evidence it is postulated that the elimination follows a reverse transfer mechanism (see Chapter 1) [5]. The liquidrliquid two-phase p-elimination from 1-bromo-2-phenylethanes is low yielding and extremely slow, compared with the PEG-catalysed reaction [4]. In contrast, solid potassium hydroxide and tetra-n-butylammonium bromide in f-butanol effects a 73% conversion in 24 hours or, in the absence of a solvent, over 4 hours [3] extended reaction times lead to polymerization of the resulting styrene. 

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