8: Alkenes- Reactions and Synthesis
As you have seen, addition reactions dominate the chemistry of alkenes. This chapter shows how a variety of reagents can add to alkenes; how hydrogen bromide can be made to add to alkenes in a non-Markovnikov manner; and how alkene molecules can be cleaved into easily identifiable parts. First, you will examine the preparation of alkenes by elimination reactions.
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- 8.3: Halohydrins from Alkenes - Addition of HOX
- Lewis acids like the halogens, boron hydrides and certain transition metal ions are able to bond to the alkene pi-electrons, and the resulting complexes rearrange or are attacked by nucleophiles to give addition products.The electrophilic character of the halogens is well known. Chlorine (Cl2) and bromine(Br2) react selectively with the double bond of alkenes, and these reactions are what we will focus on. Fluorine adds uncontrollably with alkenes,and the addition of iodine is unfavorable, so th
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- 8.4: Hydration of Alkenes - Addition of H₂O by Oxymercuration
- Electrophilic hydration is the act of adding electrophilic hydrogen from a non-nucleophilic strong acid (a reusable catalyst, examples of which include sulfuric and phosphoric acid) and applying appropriate temperatures to break the alkene's double bond. After a carbocation is formed, water bonds with the carbocation to form a 1º, 2º, or 3º alcohol on the alkane.
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- 8.6: Reduction of Alkenes - Hydrogenation
- Addition of hydrogen to a carbon-carbon double bond is called hydrogenation. The overall effect of such an addition is the reductive removal of the double bond functional group. Regioselectivity is not an issue, since the same group (a hydrogen atom) is bonded to each of the double bond carbons. The simplest source of two hydrogen atoms is molecular hydrogen, but mixing alkenes with hydrogen does not result in any discernible reaction.
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- 8.7: Oxidation of Alkenes - Epoxidation and Hydroxylation
- Oxacyclopropane rings, also called epoxide rings, are useful reagents that may be opened by further reaction to form anti vicinal diols. One way to synthesize oxacyclopropane rings is through the reaction of an alkene with peroxycarboxylic acid.
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- 8.8: Oxidation of Alkenes - Cleavage to Carbonyl Compounds
- Ozonolysis is a method of oxidatively cleaving alkenes or alkynes using ozone ( O 3 O3 ), a reactive allotrope of oxygen. The process allows for carbon-carbon double or triple bonds to be replaced by double bonds with oxygen. This reaction is often used to identify the structure of unknown alkenes. by breaking them down into smaller, more easily identifiable pieces. Ozonolysis also occurs naturally and would break down repeated units used in rubber and other polymers.
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- 8.9: Addition of Carbenes to Alkenes - Cyclopropane Synthesis
- The highly strained nature of cyclopropane compounds makes them very reactive and interesting synthetic targets. Additionally cyclopropanes are present in numerous biological compounds. One common method of cyclopropane synthesis is the reaction of carbenes with the double bond in alkenes or cycloalkenes. Methylene, H2C, is simplest carbene, and in general carbenes have the formula \(R_2C\).
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- 8.10: Radical Additions to Alkenes - Chain-Growth Polymers
- All the monomers from which addition polymers are made are alkenes or functionally substituted alkenes. The most common and thermodynamically favored chemical transformations of alkenes are addition reactions. Many of these addition reactions are known to proceed in a stepwise fashion by way of reactive intermediates, and this is the mechanism followed by most polymerizations.