Halogenation bromonium ions

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... 

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

The preparation of e/n-difluoro compounds by the oxidative fluorodesul-furization ot 1,3-dithiolanes readily proceeds by treatment with a pyridinium polyhydrogen fluoride-Af-halo compound reagent the latter serves as a bromonium ion source [2], l,3-Dibromo-5,5-dimethylhydantoin is the most effective of several At-halo oxidants. It is believed that /V-halo compounds combine with hydrogen fluoride to generate in situ halogen fluorides, the oxidants. Formation of gem-difluorides from dithiolanes derived from ketones is efficient and rapid, even at -78 °C, whereas the reaction of dithiolanes derived from aldehydes requires higher temperature (0 °C) (equation 4). 

The bromonium ion postulate, made more than 75 years ago to explain the stereochemistry of halogen addition to alkenes, is a remarkable example of deductive logic in chemistry. Arguing from experimental results, chemists were able to make a hypothesis about the intimate mechanistic details of alkene electrophilic reactions. Subsequently, strong evidence supporting the mechanism came from the work of George Olah, who prepared and studied stable... 

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. 

Halonium ion (Section 7.2) A species containing a positively charged, divalent halogen. Three-membered-ring bromonium ions are implicated as intermediates in the electrophilic addition of Br2 to alkenes. 

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... 

Brown s result was supported by later experiments in which bromonium ions were generated by bubbling gaseous hydrobromic acid through a solution of bromohydrins in halogenated solvents. Under these conditions, bromine is eliminated as it is formed, so that the resulting alkene is observed directly (Scheme 15). This method has been applied to the bromohydrins derived from cis- and trans-stilbenes (Scheme 16) and from 5//-dibenzo[a,d]-cycloheptene and -azepine systems ([29a] and [29b] respectively Scheme 17), in which steric constraints should favour elimination (path a) as against substitution (path b). 

More than six decades after the postulation of the cyclic bromonium ion intermediate in electrophilic bromination of alkenes important, new findings are still emerging.567 Updated general treatments of the halogenation of alkenes became available.568,569... 

The fact that the partially saturated derivative (64) is obtained only in the trans form (these reactions are regio- and sterespecific) indicates that the bromonium ion, 65, which is similar to that usually reported for halogenations of olefins, precedes the saturation of the C=C double bond. 

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