use Markovnikov’s rule to predict the product formed when a protic acid, HX, reacts with an alkene.
distinguish among primary, secondary and tertiary carbocations.
Recall the definitions of primary, secondary and tertiary hydrogen atoms given in Section 3.3. It follows that a “primary carbocation” is a carbocation in which the carbon atom carrying the positive charge is bonded to only one other carbon atom, a “secondary carbocation” is one in which the carbon atom carrying the positive charge is bonded to two other carbon atoms, and so on.
The addition of hydrogen halides is one of the easiest electrophilic addition reactions because it uses the simplest electrophile: the proton. Hydrogen halides provide both a electrophile (proton) and a nucleophile (halide). First, the electrophile will attack the double bond and take up a set of \(\pi\) electrons, attaching it to the molecule (1). This is basically the reverse of the last step in the E1 reaction (deprotonation step). The resulting molecule will have a single carbon-carbon bond with a positive charge on one of them (carbocation). The next step is when the nucleophile (halide) bonds to the carbocation, producing a new molecule with both the original hydrogen and halide attached to the organic reactant (2). The second step will only occur if a good nucleophile is used.
There are two ways of looking at the reasons for this - both of which need you to know about the mechanism for the reactions. Alkenes react because the electrons in the pi bond attract things with any degree of positive charge. Anything which increases the electron density around the double bond will help this.
If more than one reaction could occur between a set of reactants under the same conditions giving products that are constitutional isomers and if one product forms in greater amounts than the others, the overall reaction is said to be regioselective.
Say three reactions could occur between the hypothetical reactants A and B under the same conditions giving the constitutionally isomeric products C, D, and E.
If this is what is observed, the overall reaction between A and B is not regioselective.
2. One product forms in greater amounts than the others. Say, for example, the relative yields of C, D, and E are 25%, 50%, and 25%, respectively.
If this is what is observed, the overall reaction between A and B is regioselective.
Experimentally, 2 is the major product; 3 is the minor product. Thus, the overall reaction between 1 and HBr is regioselective toward 2.
If more than one reaction could occur between a set of reactants under the same conditions giving products that are constitutional isomers and if only one product is observed, the overall reaction is said to be 100% regioselective or regiospecific.
The only observed product is 5. (Relative yields of 5 and 6 are 100% and 0%, respectively.) Thus the overall reaction between 4 and HBr is regiospecific toward 5.
Regiospecificity is merely the limiting case of regioselectivity. All regiospecific reactions are regioselective, but not all regioselective reactions are regiospecific.
In each case, suggest an alkene that would give the product shown.