Halohydrin Formation Stereochemistry

Stereochemistry of Halohydrin Formation Because the mechanism involves a halonium ion, the stereochemistry of addition is anti, as in halogenation. For example, the addition of bromine water to cyclopentene gives fran.v-2-bromocyclopentanol, the product of anti addition across the double bond. 

The Markovnikov orientation observed in halohydrin formation is explained by the structure of the halonium ion intermediate. The two carbon atoms bonded to the halogen have partial positive charges, with a larger charge (and a weaker bond to the halogen) on the more substituted carbon atom (Figure 8-5). The nucleophile (water) attacks this more substituted, more electrophilic carbon atom. The result is both anti stereochemistry and Markovnikov orientation. 

Bartnicki EW, CE Castro (1969) Biodehalogenation. The pathway for transhalogenation and the stereochemistry of epoxide formation from halohydrins. Biochemistry 8 4677-4680. 

Alkyl and acyl hypohalites, when adding to carbon-carbon double bond, afford halohydrin ethers and esters, respectively.151 Regioselective and syn stereoselective addition of CF3OF, CF3CF2OF, and CF3COOF to stilbenes was reported.152-154 The stereochemistry was explained to originate from the formation and immediate... 

Figure 11.5 shows a mechanism that has been postulated for this reaction. First, an electrophilic mercury species adds to the double bond to form a cyclic mercurinium ion. Note how similar this mechanism is, including its stereochemistry and regiochemistry, to that shown in Figure 11.4 for the formation of a halohydrin. The initial product results from anti addition of Fig and OH to the double bond. In the second step, sodium borohydride replaces the mercury with a hydrogen with random stereochemistry. (The mechanism for this step is complex and not important to us at this time.) The overall result is the addition of H and OH with Markovnikov orientation. 

One further point. We have encountered the two-step addition of unsym-metrical reagents in which the first step is attack by positive halogen formation of halohydrins (Sec. 6.14), and ionic addition of IN3 and BrN3 (Problem 7, p. 247). The orientation is what would be expected if a carbonium ion were the intermediate. Propylene chlorohydrin, for example, is CH3CHOHCH2CI IN3 adds to terminal alkenes to yield RCH(N3)CH2l. Yet the exclusively anti stereochemistry... 

The activation of a diol function could be performed in many different ways. As will be discussed later, vicinal diols can be easily transformed into epoxides, halohydrins and cyclic sulfates, all of them reacting readily and with high stereocontrol with a range of nucleophiles. An intermediate typically generated during the formation of cyclic sulfates [113] is the corresponding cyclic sulfite (Scheme 37). Several nucleophiles, e.g. N3, Cl and Br react readily with activated cychc sulfites to afford in good yield and with clean inversion of stereochemistry, the substitution products. 

---