Vicinal dihalide

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 to form terminal alkynes may also be carried out by heating geminal and vicinal dihalides with potassium tert butoxide m dimethyl sulfoxide... 

Because vicinal dihalides are prepared by addition of chlorine or bromine to alkenes (Section 6 14) alkenes especially terminal alkenes can serve as starting mate rials for the preparation of alkynes as shown m the following example... 

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... 

Some instances of incomplete debromination of 5,6-dibromo compounds may be due to the presence of 5j5,6a-isomer of wrong stereochemistry for anti-coplanar elimination. The higher temperature afforded by replacing acetone with refluxing cyclohexanone has proved advantageous in some cases. There is evidence that both the zinc and lithium aluminum hydride reductions of vicinal dihalides also proceed faster with diaxial isomers (ref. 266, cf. ref. 215, p. 136, ref. 265). The chromous reduction of vicinal dihalides appears to involve free radical intermediates produced by one electron transfer, and is not stereospecific but favors tra 5-elimination in the case of vic-di-bromides. Chromous ion complexed with ethylene diamine is more reactive than the uncomplexed ion in reduction of -substituted halides and epoxides to olefins. ... 

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. 

Alkynes can be prepared by the elimination of HX from alkyl halides in much the same manner as alkenes (Section 7.1). Treatment of a 1,2-dihaloaJkane (a vicinal dihalide) with excess strong base such as KOH or NaNH2 results in a twofold elimination of HX and formation of an alkyne. As with the elimination of HX to form an alkene, we ll defer a discussion of the mechanism until Chapter 11. 

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. 

An alkyne is a hydrocarbon that contains a carbon-carbon triple bond. Alkyne carbon atoms are sp-hybridized, and the triple bond consists of one sp-sp a bond and two p-p tt bonds. There are relatively few general methods of alkyne synthesis. Two good ones are the alkylation of an acetylide anion with a primary-alkyl halide and the twofold elimination of HX from a vicinal dihalide. 

The chemistry of alkynes is dominated by electrophilic addition reactions, similar to those of alkenes. Alkynes react with HBr and HC1 to yield vinylic halides and with Br2 and Cl2 to yield 1,2-dihalides (vicinal dihalides). Alkynes can be hydrated by reaction with aqueous sulfuric acid in the presence of mercury(ll) catalyst. The reaction leads to an intermediate enol that immediately isomerizes to yield a ketone tautomer. Since the addition reaction occurs with Markovnikov regiochemistry, a methyl ketone is produced from a terminal alkyne. Alternatively, hydroboration/oxidation of a terminal alkyne yields an aldehyde. 

It is not surprising then that the first reported surface mediated reaction made use of vicinal dihalides. In addition to poly-p-nitrostyrene immobilized metallo-porphyrins and viologens were found to be catalytically active. Recently,... 

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. 

The reductive elimination of vicinal dihalides has been accomplished by using many reagents, including the use of aqueous media.16 An interesting method is the reductive elimination of vicinal dihalides by an electrochemical method using vitamin Bi2 in a water-in-oil microemulsion (Eq. 6.8).17... 

The addition of bromine or iodine to Mes2Ge=PAr (Ar = 2,4,6-tri-/-butylphenyl) gave two major products the vicinal dihalide and the (halo-germyl)phosphine.59... 

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. 

Reduction is probably stepwise when 0 = 90°. (The plot in fact resembles very closely in form the familiar Karplus plot of the magnitude of vicinal proton-proton coupling constants as a function of 0 48>. The half-wave potentials of 43 and 44 are representative the half-wave potential of a related monohalide (45) is given for reference 46>. These investigators did not examine the products of electrochemical reduction of the vicinal dihalides which they studied. If reduction is concerted, the products should... 

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-... 

On the other hand, benzylic polyhalides were converted to the corresponding olefins via vicinal dihalide intermediates. Metallic nickel was also shown to be useful for the dehalogenation of vicinal dihalides(36,43). 

Alkenes react rapidly with chlorine and bromine in non-nucleophilic solvents to form vicinal dihalides. 

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