8.11: Elimination Reactions

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Generally, an alkyl derivative, under appropriate conditions, will eliminate \(HX\), where \(X\) is commonly a halide, ester, or -onium function, provided that there is a hydrogen located on the carbon adjacent to that bearing the \(X\) function:

Roberts and Caserio Screenshot 8-7.5-1.png

An important feature of many elimination reactions is that they occur with the same combination of reagents that cause nucleophilic substitution. In fact, elimination and substitution often are competitive reactions. Therefore it should be no surprise that substitution and elimination have closely related mechanisms.

Contributors and Attributions

John D. Robert and Marjorie C. Caserio (1977) Basic Principles of Organic Chemistry, second edition. W. A. Benjamin, Inc. , Menlo Park, CA. ISBN 0-8053-8329-8. This content is copyrighted under the following conditions, "You are granted permission for individual, educational, research and non-commercial reproduction, distribution, display and performance of this work in any format."