Hydrogen bromide reaction with alkenes

Among the hydrogen halides only hydrogen bromide reacts with alkenes by both electrophilic and free radical addition mechanisms Hydrogen iodide and hydrogen chlo ride always add to alkenes by electrophilic addition and follow Markovmkov s rule Hydrogen bromide normally reacts by electrophilic addition but if peroxides are pres ent or if the reaction is initiated photochemically the free radical mechanism is followed... 

Exceptions to the Markovnikov rule when hydrogen bromide reacts with unsym-metric alkenes have long been known.117,118 The reaction for this anti-Markovnikov addition was explained as being a chain reaction with the involvement of bromine atoms influenced by the presence of peroxides.119-121 Both added peroxides and peroxides formed by the action of oxygen (air) on the alkene are effective. 

Scheme 6.20. A representation of the ionic and radical pathways for reaction of hydrogen bromide (HBr) with a generic terminal alkene [R2COCH2] showing both Markownikoff ...

If we take the addition of hydrogen bromide to an alkene as a model for the alkene halogenation reaction, we can build a mechanism quite quickly. Just as the alkene reacts with hydrogen bromide to produce a carbocation and bromide (Br ), so reaction with bromine-bromine might give a brominated cation and bromide (Fig. 10.9).The n bond of the alkene acts as a nucleophile, displacing Br from bromine. Addition of bromide to the carbocation would give the dibromide product. 

Isopropoxy-4/f-l,3,2-benzodioxaborin (18) has been synthesized and found to react with a variety of hydroxy compounds to replace the isopropoxy group on boron. Aryl boric acids, RB(OH)2, reportedly condense with diols of the type HO(CH a)nOH to yield oligomeric rings (19) of varying size. The reaction of allenyl borates (20) with hydrogen bromide to yield alkenes and alkynes has been published. ... 

The order of reactivity of the hydrogen halides is HI > HBr > HCl, and reactions of simple alkenes with HCl are quite slow. The studies that have been applied to determining mechanistic details of hydrogen halide addition to alkenes have focused on the kinetics and stereochemistry of the reaction and on the effect of added nucleophiles. The kinetic studies often reveal complex rate expressions which demonstrate that more than one process contributes to the overall reaction rate. For addition of hydrogen bromide or Itydrogen... 

The anti-Markownikoff addition of hydrogen bromide to alkenes was one of the earliest free-radical reactions to be put on a firm mechanistic basis. In the presence of a suitable initiator, such as a peroxide, a radical-chain mechanism becomes competitive with the ionic mechanism for addition of hydrogen bromide ... 

Electrophilic addition of hydrogen bromide to alkenes follows Markovnikov s rule, leading to the product with halogen on the more-substituted position. However, trace amounts of hydroperoxides (among other impurities ) may initiate a reaction that gives rise to the anti-Markovnikov product, with bromine in the less-substituted position. 

Let s look at a typical polar process—the addition reaction of an alkene, such as ethylene, with hydrogen bromide. When ethylene is treated with HBr at room temperature, bromoethane is produced. Overall, the reaction can be formulated as... 

Arenes are unsaturated but, unlike the alkenes, they are not very reactive. Whereas alkenes commonly take part in addition reactions, arenes undergo predominantly substitution reactions, with the TT-bonds of the ring left intact. For example, bromine immediately adds to a double bond of an alkene but reacts with benzene only in the presence of a catalyst—typically, iron(III) bromide—and it does not affect the bonding in the ring. Instead, one of the bromine atoms replaces a hydrogen atom to give bromobenzene, C H Br ... 

The reactions of halogens and hydrogen halides with alkenes are electrophilic addition reactions. This means that the initial attack on the organic molecule is by an electron-deficient species that accepts a lone pair of electrons to form a covalent bond. This species is called an electrophile. In the case of the reaction with hydrogen bromide, the mechanism for the reaction is as shown. 

Copper-catalyzed monoaddition of hydrogen cyanide to conjugated alkenes proceeded very conveniently with 1,3-butadiene, but not with its methyl-substituted derivatives. The most efficient catalytic system consisted of cupric bromide associated to trichloroacetic acid, in acetonitrile at 79 °C. Under these conditions, 1,3-butadiene was converted mainly to (Z )-l-cyano-2-butene, in 68% yield. A few percents of (Z)-l-cyano-2-butene and 3-cyano-1-butene (3% and 4%, respectively) were also observed. Polymerization of the olefinic products was almost absent. The very high regioselectivity in favor of 1,4-addition of hydrogen cyanide contrasted markedly with the very low regioselectivity of acetic acid addition (vide supra). Methyl substituents on 1,3-butadiene decreased significantly the efficiency of the reaction. With isoprene and piperylene, the mononitrile yields were reduced... 

From Chapter 7 it is apparent that the trichloromethyl anion is formed under basic conditions from chloroform, as a precursor of the carbene. The anion can also react with Jt-deficient alkenes (see Section 7.3) and participate in nucleophilic substitution reactions, e.g. 1,1-diacyloxy compounds are converted into 1,1,1-trichloroalkan-2-ols [58] (Scheme 6.35). Similarly, benzyl bromides are converted into (2-bromoethynyl)arenes via an initial nucleophilic displacement followed by elimination of hydrogen bromide [59] (Scheme 6.35). 

In the early days of alkene chemistry, some researchers found that the hydrohalogenation of alkenes followed Markovnikov s rule, while others found that the same reaction did not. For example, when freshly distilled but-l-ene was exposed to hydrogen bromide, the major product was 2-bromopropane, as expected by Markovnikov s rule. However, when the same reaction was carried out with a sample of but-l-ene that had been exposed to air, the major product was 1-bromopropane formed by antl-Markovnikov addition. This caused considerable confusion, but the mystery was solved by the American chemist, Morris Kharasch, in the 1930s. He realised that the samples of alkenes that had been stored in the presence of air had formed peroxide radicals. The hydrohalogenation thus proceeded by a radical chain reaction mechanism and not via the mechanism involving carbocation intermediates as when pure alkenes were used. 

The chain reaction is initiated by the interaction of a free radical [formed according to Eq. (6.12)] with hydrogen bromide to form a bromine atom [Eq. (6.13)], which, after reacting with the alkene, yields a bromoalkyl radical [Eq. (6.14)]. The reaction of this radical with HBr yields the alkyl bromide and regenerates the bromine atom [Eq. (6.15)] ... 

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