Halogenation vicinal dihalides

The products of these reactions are called vicinal dihalides Two substituents m this case the halogens are vicinal if they are attached to adjacent carbons The word is derived from the Latin vicinalis which means neighboring The halogen is either chlorine (CI2) or bromine (Br2) and addition takes place rapidly at room temperature and below m a variety of solvents mcludmg acetic acid carbon tetrachloride chloroform and dichloromethane... 

Addition of halogens (Sections 6 14-6 16) Bromine and chlorine add to alkenes to form vicinal dihalides A cy clic halonium ion is an intermediate Stereospecific anti addition is observed... 

Just as It IS possible to prepare alkenes by dehydrohalogenation of alkyl halides so may alkynes be prepared by a double dehydrohalogenation of dihaloalkanes The dihalide may be a geminal dihalide, one m which both halogens are on the same carbon or it may be a vicinal dihalide, one m which the halogens are on adjacent carbons... 

Double dehydrohalogenation of vicinal dihalides (Section 9 7) Dihalides in which the halogens are on adjacent carbons undergo two elimination processes analogous to those of gemmal dihalides... 

Double dehydrohalogenation (Section 9.7) Reaction in which a geminal dihalide or vicinal dihalide, on being treated with a very strong base such as sodium amide, is converted to an alkyne by loss of two protons and the two halogen substituents. 

The necessary vicinal dihalides are themselves readily available by addition of Br2 or Cl2 to alkenes. Thus, the overall halogenation/dehvdrohalogenation sequence makes it possible to go from an alkene to an alkyne. for example, diphenylethylene is converted into diphenylacetylene by reaction with Br2 and subsequent base treatment. 

Similar kinetics are exhibited by the reduction of vicinal dihalides by Cr(II) , which proceeds 10-40 times faster than that of the allylic halides. Such activation by a second halogen atom suggests a neighbouring group effect, viz. 

There is on the other hand a great deal of evidence showing that the electrochemical reduction of 1,2-dihalides to olefins can occur via a concerted pathway, i.e., via a transition state (39) in which both carbon-halogen bonds are partially broken and the carbon-carbon double bond is partially formed. An important, indeed critical, point of evidence supporting the conclusion that reduction is concerted lies in the remarkable ease with which vicinal dihalides are reduced. For example, the half-wave potentials of ethyl bromide and 1,2-dibromoethane are -2.08 V and -1.52 V (vs. s.c.e.), respectively 15 >46) those of ethyl iodide and /J-chloroethyl iodide are -1.6 V and -0.9 V, respectively 47). These very large differences must reflect the lower energy of delocalized transition state 39 relative to the transition state for reduction of an alkyl monohalide. 

Open-chain vicinal dihalides are apparently reduced conceitedly via a conformation in which the two halogen atoms are anti to each other. This conclusion is based upon the fact that meso isomers of structures 47 ait generally more easily reduced than the dl isomers, presumably because steric repulsions are less for meso than for dl in the transition state for electron transfer. The stereochemistry of the products of reduction of simple open chain vicinal di-... 

The validity of equation (12) has been checked for several families of alkyl halides for which D and E /x- are known (Ref. 32, see particularly figure 6 therein). It was thus found that for v = 0.1 V s the constant is equal to 0.3 eV at 20°C (expressing D in eV and the potentials in V). Equation (12) was then applied to the approximate determination of unknown BDEs in several series of compounds undergoing dissociative electron transfer, namely, TV-halosultams,32 sulfonium cations,33 vicinal dihalides,34 1,3-dihaloadamantes, 1,4-dihalo-bicyclo[2.2.2]octanes, and l,3-dihalobicyclo[l.l.l]pentanes.35 In the latter case, the mutual influence of the two halogens could be rationalized thanks to the conversion of the peak potential data to bond dissociation energies. 

Bromine and chlorine convert the 1- and 2-butenes to compounds containing two atoms of halogens attached to adjacent carbons (vicinal dihalides). Iodine fails to react. In this two-step addition mechanism the first step involves the formation of a cation. The halonium ion formed (a three-membered ring) requires antiaddition by the anion. 

The addition reaction of an alkene with a halogen like bromine or chlorine gives a vicinal dihalide. The halogen molecule is split and the halogens are added to each end of the double bond (Following fig.). Vicinal dibromides are quite useful in the... 

Azine approach. Vicinal dihalides with the halogens in activated azine positions will react with thiourea or thiosemicarbazone to form thiazoles as in the reactions of 2,3-dichloroquinoxaline (77ZC15). 

A geminal dihalide (Latin, geminus, twin ) has the two halogen atoms bonded to the same carbon atom. A vicinal dihalide (Latin, vicinus, neighboring ) has the two halogens bonded to adjacent carbon atoms. 

Halogenation is the addition of halogen X2 (X = Cl or Br) to an alkene, forming a vicinal dihalide. 

Because vicinal dihalides are synthesized by adding halogens to alkenes, an alkene can be converted to an alkyne by the two-step process illustrated in Sample Problem 11.2. 

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