Carbocation primary

Carbocations are classified according to their degree of substitution at the positively charged carbon The positive charge is on a primary carbon m CH3CH2" a secondary car bon m (CH3)2CH" and a tertiary carbon m (CH3)3C Ethyl cahon is a primary carbocation isopropyl cation a secondary carbocation and tert butyl cation a tertiary carbocation... 

As carbocations go CH3" is particularly unstable and its existence as an inter mediate m chemical reactions has never been demonstrated Primary carbocations although more stable than CH3" are still too unstable to be involved as intermediates m chemical reactions The threshold of stability is reached with secondary carbocations Many reactions including the reaction of secondary alcohols with hydrogen halides are believed to involve secondary carbocations The evidence m support of tertiary carbo cation intermediates is stronger yet... 

The SnI mechanism is generally accepted to be correct for the reaction of tertiary and secondary alcohols with hydrogen halides It is almost certainly not correct for methyl alcohol and primary alcohols because methyl and primary carbocations are believed to be much too unstable and the activation energies for their formation much too high for them to be reasonably involved The next section describes how methyl and primary alcohols are converted to their corresponding halides by a mechanism related to but different from S l... 

Unlike tertiary and secondary carbocations methyl and primary carbocations are too high m energy to be intermediates m chemical reactions However methyl and primary... 

The major difference between the two mechanisms is the second step The second step m the reaction of tert butyl alcohol with hydrogen chloride is the ummolecular dis sociation of tert butyloxonium ion to tert butyl cation and water Heptyloxonium ion however instead of dissociating to an unstable primary carbocation reacts differently It IS attacked by bromide ion which acts as a nucleophile We can represent the transition state for this step as... 

As noted earlier (Section 4 10) primary carbocations are too high m energy to be intermediates m most chemical reactions If primary alcohols don t form primary car bocations then how do they undergo elimination s A modification of our general mech amsm for alcohol dehydration offers a reasonable explanation For primary alcohols it is... 

A mechanism for the formation of these three alkenes is shown m Figure 5 9 Dissociation of the primary alkyloxonmm ion is accompanied by a shift of hydride from C 2 to C 1 This avoids the formation of a primary carbocation leading instead to a sec ondary carbocation m which the positive charge is at C 2 Deprotonation of this carbo cation yields the observed products (Some 1 butene may also arise directly from the pri mary alkyloxonium ion)... 

Primary alcohols do not dehydrate as readily as secondary or tertiary alcohols and their dehydration does not involve a primary carbocation A proton is lost from the (3 carbon m the same step m which carbon-oxygen bond cleavage occurs The mechanism is E2... 

The notion that carbocation formation is rate determining follows from our previous experience and by observing how the reaction rate is affected by the shucture of the aUcene Table 6 2 gives some data showing that alkenes that yield relatively stable carbocations react faster than those that yield less stable carbocations Protonation of ethylene the least reactive aUcene m the table yields a primary carbocation protonation of 2 methylpropene the most reactive m the table yields a tertiary carbocation As we have seen on other occa sions the more stable the carbocation the faster is its rate of formation... 

Primary carbocations are so high m energy that their intermediacy m nucleophilic substitution reactions is unlikely When ethyl bromide undergoes hydrolysis m aqueous formic acid substitution probably takes place by an 8 2 like process m which water is the nucleophile... 

A rule of thumb is that a C=C substituent stabilizes a carbocation about as well as two methyl groups Al though allyl cation (H2C=CHCH2 ) is a primary carbocation it is about as stable as a typical secondary carbocation such as isopropyl cation (CH3)2CH-"... 

Less stable transition state has some of the character of a primary carbocation... 

For example, addition of H+ to 2-methylpropene yields the intermediate terticuy carbocation rather than the alternative primary carbocation, and addition to 1-methylcyclohexene yields a tertiary cation rather than a secondary one. Why should this be ... 

Electronically, aldehydes are more reactive than ketones because of the greater polarization of aldehyde carbonyl groups. To see this polarity difference, recall the stability order of carbocations (Section 6.9). A primary carbocation is higher in energy and thus more reactive than a secondary carbocation because... 

The stability order can be explained by hyperconjugation and by the field effect. In the hyperconjugation explanation, we compare a primary carbocation with a tertiary. It is seen that many more canonical forms are possible for the latter ... 

It is likely that protonated cyclopropane transition states or intermediates are also responsible for certain non-1,2 rearrangements. For example, in superacid solution, the ions 14 and 16 are in equilibrium. It is not possible for these to interconvert solely by 1,2 alkyl or hydride shifts unless primary carbocations (which are highly unlikely) are intermediates. However, the reaction can be explained " by postulating that (in the forward reaction) it is the 1,2 bond of the intermediate or transition state 15 that opens up rather than the 2,3 bond, which is the one that would open if the reaction were a normal 1,2 shift of a methyl group. In this case, opening of the 1,2 bond produces a tertiary cation, while opening of the 2,3 bond would give a secondary cation. (In the reaction 16 14, it is of course the 1,3 bond that opens). 

There were two ways that we could have protonated, and we chose the way that would produce the secondary carbocation (rather than producing a primary carbocation). Before we simply attack with the halide to end the reaction, we consider... 

An immediate presumption that the more stable allyl ion will be formed overlooks the stereoelectronic facets of the reaction. Protonation at the center carbon without rotation of one of the terminal methylene groups leads to a primary carbocation... 

Alkanes are formed when the radical intermediate abstracts hydrogen from solvent faster than it is oxidized to the carbocation. This reductive step is promoted by good hydrogen donor solvents. It is also more prevalent for primary alkyl radicals because of the higher activation energy associated with formation of primary carbocations. The most favorable conditions for alkane formation involve photochemical decomposition of the carboxylic acid in chloroform, which is a relatively good hydrogen donor. 

This reflects the greater stability of a secondary rather than a primary carbocation shifts in the reverse direction can, however, take place where this makes available the greater delocalisation possibilities of the ir orbital system of a benzene ring (i.e. tertiary — secondary) ... 

Ruasse et al, 1978) is totally regioselective and shows X-dependent chemoselectivity. This is partly in agreement with the kinetic data, which indicate no primary carbocation but rather a competition between the benzylic carbocation and the bromonium ion, depending on X. According to the data of Table 6, bridged intermediates would lead to more dibromide than open ions do. From these results and from those on gem-, cis- or frans-disubstituted alkenes, empirical rules have been inferred for chemoselectivity (i) more solvent-incorporated product is formed from open than from bridged ions (ii) methanol competes with bromide ions more efficiently than acetic acid. 

In the case of primary carbocation, reaction with nitrile oxide gives a mixture of two regioisomeric oximes (Scheme 1.41). Probably, this is a result of the attack of the nitrile oxide - BF3 complex on neutral 3-chloromethylanisole. 

The formation of the primary carbocation can be achieved by treatment of an alkene or an epoxide with a Bronsted or a Lewis add, by elimination of water from an alcohol or an alcohol from an acetal and by readion of enones and imines with Lewis acids. The two latter reactions may also be classified under anionic domino reactions depending on the following steps. 

Not only is the leaving group important, but if the reaction has SnI character, the stability of the positive charge left behind is also important. In the examples above, a primary carbocation is difficult to form and therefore the reaction of busulfan with glutathione would likely be a SN2-type reaction, whereas the nitrenium ion and carbocation formed from N -acetylaminofluorene and safrole, respectively, are relatively stable and likely to be Sn 1 -type reactions. 

This is because the greater the number of canonical forms, the greater is the stability. Let us see the canonical forms from a tertiary and a primary carbocation. 

Tertiary carbocations are more stable and therefore are easier to form than secondary and primary carbocations tertiary alcohols are the easiest to dehydrate. 

Primary carbocations Should you wish to use carbocations in a reaction mechanism, you must consider the relative stability of these entities. Tertiary carbocations are OK, and in many cases so are secondary carbocations. Primary carbocations are just not stable enough, unless there is the added effect of resonance, as in benzylic or ally lie systems. 

Accordingly, tertiary carbocations benefit from three such effects and are favoured over secondary carbocations with two effects, whilst the single effect in primary carbocations is insufficient to provide significant stabihzation. Thus, SnI reactions are highly favoured at tertiary carbon, and very much... 

Rearrangements may also be observed in these carbocations if they have the appropriate stmctnral featnres. It does not matter how the carbocation is prodnced, subsequent transformations will be the same as we have seen where rearrangements are competing reactions in nucleophilic substitution. Thus, electrophilic addition of HCl to 3,3-dimethylbut-l-ene proceeds via protonation of the alkene, and leads to the preferred secondary rather than primary carbocation (see Section 8.1.1). However, this carbocation may then undergo a methyl migration to produce the even more favonrable tertiary carbocation. Finally, the two carbocations are quenched by reaction with chloride ions. The prodnct mixture is found to contain predominantly the chloride from the rearranged carbocation. 

The enhanced stability of benzylic carbocations is nicely illustrated by the addition of HBr to the two alkenes shown below. In the case of 2-phenylbut-l-ene, protonation of the alkene leads to a carbocation that is both tertiary and benzylic, and is significantly favoured over an alternative primary carbocation. 

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