Electrophilic addition generality

When 2 mol are added, electrophilic addition generally gives 1,1 -dimetallic products I as with hydroboration), while free-radical addition usually gives the 1,2-dimetallic products. 

An electrophilic addition generally proceeds in two steps.126 In the first, the most important interaction occurs between the LUMO of the electrophile and the HOMO of the alkene. Orbital overlap is largest when the electrophile attacks at the center of the n bond ... 

We can extend the general principles of electrophilic addition to acid catalyzed hydration In the first step of the mechanism shown m Figure 6 9 proton transfer to 2 methylpropene forms tert butyl cation This is followed m step 2 by reaction of the car bocation with a molecule of water acting as a nucleophile The aUcyloxomum ion formed m this step is simply the conjugate acid of tert butyl alcohol Deprotonation of the alkyl oxonium ion m step 3 yields the alcohol and regenerates the acid catalyst... 

Recall from Chapter 6 the general mechanism for electrophilic addition to alkenes... 

Direct Chlorination of Ethylene. Direct chlorination of ethylene is generally conducted in Hquid EDC in a bubble column reactor. Ethylene and chlorine dissolve in the Hquid phase and combine in a homogeneous catalytic reaction to form EDC. Under typical process conditions, the reaction rate is controlled by mass transfer, with absorption of ethylene as the limiting factor (77). Ferric chloride is a highly selective and efficient catalyst for this reaction, and is widely used commercially (78). Ferric chloride and sodium chloride [7647-14-5] mixtures have also been utilized for the catalyst (79), as have tetrachloroferrate compounds, eg, ammonium tetrachloroferrate [24411-12-9] NH FeCl (80). The reaction most likely proceeds through an electrophilic addition mechanism, in which the catalyst first polarizes chlorine, as shown in equation 5. The polarized chlorine molecule then acts as an electrophilic reagent to attack the double bond of ethylene, thereby faciHtating chlorine addition (eq. 6) ... 

Reactions of alkynes with electrophiles are generally similar to those of alkenes. Because the HOMO of alkynes (acetylenes) is also of n type, it is not surprising that there IS a good deal of similarity between alkenes and alkynes in their reactivity toward electrophilic reagents. The fundamental questions about additions to alkynes include the following. How reactive are alkynes in comparison with alkenes What is the stereochemistry of additions to alkynes And what is the regiochemistry of additions to alkynes The important role of halonium ions and mercurinium ions in addition reactions of alkenes raises the question of whether similar species can be involved with alkynes, where the ring would have to include a double bond ... 

The three basic mechanisms that have been considered to be involved in electrophilic additions to alkynes are shown below. The first involves a discrete vinyl cation. In general, it can lead to either of the two stereoisomeric addition products. The second mechanism is a termolecular process which would be expected to lead to stereospecific anti addition. The... 

The most common method of epoxidation is the reaction of olefins with per-acids. For over twenty years, perbenzoic acid and monoperphthalic acid have been the most frequently used reagents. Recently, m-chloroperbenzoic acid has proved to be an equally efficient reagent which is commercially available (Aldrich Chemicals). The general electrophilic addition mechanism of the peracid-olefin reaction is currently believed to involve either an intra-molecularly bonded spiro species (1) or a 1,3-dipolar adduct of a carbonyl oxide, cf. (2). The electrophilic addition reaction is sensitive to steric effects. 

In other work Rozen added molecular fluorine to a steroidal ene-one dissolved in ethanol at low temperatures to produce a vicinal difluonde in a cleaner, better yield reaction than previously obtainable [55] Although the reaction was not general, the stereoselectivity was very high, and contrary to addition of other halogens, addition was r>ii, characteristic of an electrophilic addition pathway... 

Polyfluoroaroinatics show similar reactivity pauems, wherein the ease of electrophilic substitution generally decreases with increasing fluorine content Pentafluorobenzene undergoes substitution only under forcing conditions, and perfluoroaromadcs completely resist substitution, which would require displacement of F, but instead give addition products when they react with electrophiles [777, 772,126. ... 

Both steps in this general mechanism are based on precedent. It is called electrophilic addition because the reaction is triggered by the attack of an acid acting as an electrophile on the tt electrons of the double bond. Using the two tt electrons to fonn a bond to an electrophile generates a carbocation as a reactive intennediate normally this is the rate-detennining step. 

In general, alkyl substituents increase the reactivity of a double bond toward electrophilic addition. Alkyl groups are electron-releasing, and the more electron-rich a double bond, the better it can share its tt electrons with an electrophile. Along with the observed regioselectivity of addition, this supports the idea that carbocation fonrration, rather than carbocation capture, is rate-detenrrining. 

The activation energies were computed to 3.0 (toward 183), 0.3 (toward 182), and 21.8 kcal/mol (toward 184) at the B3-LYP/6-31G level, and thus the mechanism leading to 182 is the preferred one. The transition states of all three reactions belong to concerted but asynchronous reaction paths. The transacetalization of 177 with acylium cations results in the formation of the thermodynamically stabilized 187 (Scheme 121) [97JCS(P2)2105]. 186 is less stable than 187, and 185 is destabilized by 32.5 kcal/mol. Moreover, transacetalization of 177 with sulfinyl cations is not a general reaction. Further computational studies on dioxanes cover electrophilic additions to methylenedioxanes [98JCS(P2)1129] and the influence... 

The reaction is an example of a polar reaction type known as an electrophilic addition reaction and can be understood using the general ideas discussed in the previous section. Let s begin by looking at the two reactants. 

Carbon-carbon double bonds are present in most organic and biological molecules, so a good understanding of their behavior is needed. In this chapter, we ll look at some consequences of alkene stereoisomerism and then focus on the broadest and most general class of alkene reactions, the electrophilic addition reaction. 

Before beginning a detailed discussion of alkene reactions, let s review briefly some conclusions from the previous chapter. We said in Section 5.5 that alkenes behave as nucleophiles (Lewis bases) in polar reactions. The carbon-carbon double bond is electron-rich and can donate a pair of electrons to an electrophile (Lewis acid), for example, reaction of 2-methylpropene with HBr yields 2-bromo-2-methylpropane. A careful study of this and similar reactions by Christopher Ingold and others in the 1930s led to the generally accepted mechanism shown in Figure 6.7 for electrophilic addition reactions. 

One of the most striking differences between conjugated dienes and typical alkenes is in their electrophilic addition reactions. To review briefly, the addition of an electrophile to a carbon-carbon double bond is a general reaction of alkenes (Section 6.7). Markovnikov regiochemistry is found because the more stable carbo-cation is formed as an intermediate. Thus, addition of HC1 to 2-methylpropene yields 2-chloro-2-methylpropane rather than l-chloro-2-methylpropane, and addition of 2 mol equiv of HC1 to the nonconjugated diene 1,4-pentadiene yields 2,4-dichloropentane. 

The Lead-Off Reaction Addition of HBr to Alkenes Students usually attach great-importance to a text s lead-off reaction because it is the first reaction they see and is discussed in such detail. 1 use the addition of HBr to an alkene as the lead-off to illustrate general principles of organic chemistry for several reasons the reaction is relatively straightforward it involves a common but important functional group no prior knowledge of stereochemistry or kinetics in needed to understand it and, most important, it is a polar reaction. As such, 1 believe that electrophilic addition reactions represent a much more useful and realistic introduction to functional-group chemistry than a lead-off such as radical alkane chlorination. 

Although alkyl groups in general increase the rates of electrophilic addition, we have already mentioned (p. 974) that there is a different pattern depending on whether the intermediate is a bridged ion or an open carbocation. For brominations and other electrophilic additions in which the first step of the mechanism is rate determining, the rates for substituted alkenes correlate well with the ionization potentials of the alkenes, which means that steric effects are not important. Where the second step is rate determining [e.g., oxymercuration (15-3), hydroboration (15-17)], steric effects are important. ... 

The orientation of addition of an unsymmetrical adduct, HY or XY, to an unsymmetrically substituted alkene will be defined by the preferential formation of the more stabilised carbanion, as seen above (cf. preferential formation of the more stabilised carbocation in electrophilic addition, p. 184). There is little evidence available about stereoselectivity in such nucleophilic additions to acyclic alkenes. Nucleophilic addition also occurs with suitable alkynes, generally more readily than with the corresponding alkenes. 

Gallo, 1983), and how the polar effects disappear totally this result is probably fortuitous and again due to the relationship between a and Es. It must therefore be concluded that parameter scales are inadequate to describe the kinetic influence of alkyl groups in bromination and in electrophilic additions in general. 

It is well known that the rate of electrophilic addition to olefins generally increases as the HOMO of the alkene is raised energetically, i e its ionization potential is lowered. Pertinent experimental data have recently been reviewed308). 

Less common addition reactions such as the bromination of trifhioromethyl-substi-tuted butatrienes [30] or the reaction of tetrafluoroallene with boron trifluoride have also been reported [283]. Especially the interaction of phosphorylated allenes with electrophiles was summarized in a review by Alabugin and Brel [8], whereas Smadja [284] published a more general overview about the electrophilic addition to allenic derivatives. 

Ground-state alkenes generally undergo electrophilic addition with alcohols in the presence of a Bronsted acid catalyst, yielding the Markovnikov product ... 

The electrophilic addition of hydrogen sulfide and 1-butanethiol to 1,3-conjugated dienes49 in chloroform at —10 °C has been reported in a quite old paper of a Russian team. The yields were generally low, in the range of 20%, even when the reaction was catalyzed by a mixture of two Lewis acids, EtAlB /EtAlC however, polymerization of the diene was not significant. 

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