Electrophilic addition oxymercuration-demercuration

Mechanism. The reaction is analogous to the addition of bromine molecules to an alkene. The electrophilic mercury of mercuric acetate adds to the double bond, and forms a cyclic mercurinium ion intermediate rather than a planer carbocation. In the next step, water attacks the most substituted carbon of the mercurinium ion to yield the addition product. The hydroxymercurial compound is reduced in situ using NaBH4 to give alcohol. The removal of Hg(OAc) in the second step is called demer-curation. Therefore, the reaction is also known as oxymercuration-demercuration. 

Oxymercuration-demercuration of an unsymmetrical alkene generally gives Markovnikov orientation of addition, as shown by the oxymercuration of propene in the preceding example. The mercurinium ion has a considerable amount of positive charge on both of its carbon atoms, but there is more of a positive charge on the more substituted carbon atom, where it is more stable. Attack by water occurs on this more electrophilic carbon, giving Markovnikov orientation. The electrophile, +Hg(OAc), remains... 

In the oxymercuration process, the electrophilic addition of the mercuric species occurs resulting in a mercurinium ion which is a three-membered ring. This is followed by the nucleophilic attack of water and as the proton leaves, an organomercuric alcohol (addition product) is formed. The next step, demercuration, occurs when sodium borohydride (NaBH ) substitutes the mercuric acetate substituent with hydrogen. If an alkene is unsymmetric, Oxymercuration-demercuration results in Markovnikov addition. The addition of mercuric species and water follows an anti (opposite side) addition pattern. This reaction has good yield, since there is no possibility of rearrangement unlike acid-catalyzed hydration of alkenes. 

In the laboratory, alkenes are often hydrated by the oxymercuration-demercuration procedure. Oxymercuration involves electrophilic addition of Hg2+ to the alkene on reaction with mercury(II) acetate [(CH3C02)2Hg, often abbreviated Hg(OAc)2] in aqueous tetrahydrofuran (THF) solvent. When the intermediate organomercury compound is then treated with sodium borohydride, NaBH4, demercuration occurs to produce an alcohol. For example ... 

The last example in Table 12-2 is an electrophilic addition of a mercuric salt to an alkene. The reaction is called mercuration, and the resulting compound is an alkyl-mercury derivative, from which the mercury can be removed in a subsequent step. One particularly useful reaction sequence is oxymercuration-demercuration, in which mercuric acetate acts as the reagent. In the first step (oxymercuration), treatment of an alkene with this species in the presence of water leads to the corresponding addition product. 

---