Relativities of Alkyl Halides in Nucleophilic Substitution Reactions

The objective of this lab was to create a ketone through an oxidation reaction using a using a secondary alcohol and oxidizing agent in order to use that ketone in a reduction reaction with a specific reducing agent to determine the affect of that reducing agent on the diastereoselectivity of the product. In the first part of this experiment, 4-tert-butylcyclohexanol was reacted with NaOCl, an oxidizing agent, and acetic acid to form 4-tert-butylcyclohexanone. In the second part of this experiment, 4-tert-butylcyclohexanone was reacted with a reducing agent, either NaBH4 in EtOH or Al(OiPr)3 in iPrOH, to form the product 4-tert-butylcyclohexanol. 1H NMR spectroscopy was used to determine the cis:trans ratio of the OH relative to the tert-butyl group in the product formed from the reduction reaction with each reducing agent. Thin-layer chromatography was used in both the oxidation and reduction steps to ensure that each reaction ran to completion.

During the halogenation reactions of 1-butanol, 2-butanol, and 2-methyl-2-propanol, there is a formation of water from the OH atom of the alcohol, and the H atom from the HCl solution. The OH bond of the alcohol is then substituted with the Cl atom. Therefore all of the degrees of alcohol undergo halogenation reactions, and form alkyl halides as products. This is because the functional group of alkyl halides is a carbon-halogen bond. A common halogen is chlorine, as used in this experiment.

The Purpose of this experiment is for the students to learn how to use sodium borohydride to reduce benzil to its secondary alcohol product via reduction reaction. This two-step reaction reduces aldehydes by hydrides to primary alcohols, and ketones to secondary alcohols. In order for the reaction to occur and to better control the stereochemistry and yield of the product, the metal hydride nucleophile of the reducing agents such as LiH, LiAlH4, or NaBH4 must be carefully chosen. Being that LiAlH4 and NaBH4 will not react with isolated carbon-carbon double bonds nor the double bonds from aromatic rings; the chosen compound can be reduce selectively when the nucleophile only react with

small pieces of raw potato (yeast or beef liver may be substituted for the potato)

The Diels-Alder reaction was discovered and named after the Nobel Prize winning scientists Kurt Alder and Otto Diels in 1928. Such a reaction occurs when a diene with two adjacent double bonds is mixed with a dienophile consisting of a double bond in order to create a cyclohexene. The diene must be in the s-cis conformation in order for the electron transfer to engage correctly. If the diene in question is in s-trans conformation then the access to the molecules is limited, thus, no reaction can occur. The dienophile we used was maleic anhydride. Maleic anhydride possesses high electron withdrawing characteristics which caused a very quick reaction. The reaction will

The purpose of this experiment is to synthesize 1-bromobutane from 1-butanol and sodium bromide. In order for this reaction to reach completion there are four major operations that need to be performed. The four major operations include refluxing, simple distillation, separation, and drying.

The objective of this laboratory experiment is to study both SN1 and SN2 reactions. The first part of the lab focuses on synthesizing 1-bromobutane from 1-butanol by using an SN2 mechanism. The obtained product will then be analyzed using infrared spectroscopy and refractive index. The second part of the lab concentrates on how different factors influence the rate of SN1 reactions. The factors that will be examined are the leaving group, Br – versus Cl-; the structure of the alkyl group, 3◦ versus 2◦; and the polarity of the solvent, 40 percent 2-propanol versus 60 percent 2-propanol.

6. Purpose: to clarify the mechanism for the cycloaddition reaction between benzonitrile oxide and an alkene, and to test the regiochemistry of the reaction between benzonitrile oxide and styrene; to purify the crude product of either trans-stilbene, cis-stilbene, or styrene reaction.

The purpose of this experiment is to distinguish the relationships between reactants and products, in addition to expanding on concepts such as single displacement reactions, mole ratio values, moles to mass, theoretical yields, limiting reactants, excess, stoichiometric relationships and percentage errors.

The solvolysis of t-butyl bromide is an SN1 reaction, or a first order nucleophilic substitution reaction. An SN1 reaction involves a nucleophilic attack on an electrophilic substrate. The reaction is SN1 because there is steric obstruction on the electrophile, bromine is a good leaving group due to its large size and low electronegativity, a stable tertiary carbocation is formed, and a weak nucleophile is formed. Since a strong acid, HBr, is formed as a byproduct of this reaction, SN1 dominates over E1. The first step in an SN1 reaction is the formation of a highly reactive carbocation, in which a leaving group is ejected. The ionization to form a carbocation is the rate limiting step of an SN1 reaction, as it is highly endothermic and has a large activation energy. The subsequent nucleophilic attack by solvent and deprotonation is fast and does not contribute to the rate law for the reaction. The Hammond Postulate predicts that the transition state for any process is most similar to the higher energy species, and is more affected by changes to the free energy of the higher energy species. Thus, the reaction rate for the solvolysis of t-butyl bromide is unimolecular and entirely dependent on the initial concentration of t-butyl bromide.

A unimolecular nucleophilic substitution or SN1 is a two-step reaction that occurs with a first order reaction. The rate-limiting step, which is the first step, forms a carbocation. This would be the slowest step in the mechanism. The addition of the nucleophile speeds up the reaction and stabilizes the carbocation. This reaction is more favorable with tertiary and sometimes secondary alkyl halides under strong basic or acidic conditions with secondary or tertiary alcohols. In this experiment, the t-butyl halide underwent an SN1 reaction. Nucleophiles do not necessarily effect the reaction because the nucleophile is considered zero order, (which makes it a first order reaction.) The ion that should have the strongest effect in an SN1 reaction is the bromide ion. The bromide ion should be stronger because it has a lower electronegativity than chloride as well as a smaller radius.

The purpose of this experiment is to examine the reactivities of various alkyl halides under both SN2 and SN1 reaction conditions. The alkyl halides will be examined based on the substrate types and solvent the reaction takes place in.

SN1 reactions are considered unimolecular nucleophilic substitution mechanisms and are a first-order process. Meaning that the reaction forms a carbocation intermediate and that the concentration of the nucleophile does not play a role in the rate-determining step, which is the slowest step in the reaction. All of the SN1 reaction mechanisms in this procedure can react two different ways. The expected mechanism for these reactions would be that the carbocation would react with the weak nucleophile nitrate, attaching the nitrogen to the positively charged carbon. However, while nitrate is the intended nucleophile in all of the reactions, it is a poor nucleophile. The ethanol used in this reaction is a polar protic ionizing solvent,

The purposes of this experiment were to model a bimolecular nucleophilic substitution reaction between potassium hydroxide (KOH) with 1-bromopropane and determine whether it follows a second-order rate law mechanism. A rate constant of 0.0684 M-1 min-1 was obtained for this reaction at 45.1°C, which was determined through equilibrating the reaction and performing titrations of 0.390 M KOH with 0.1000 M hydrochloric acid (HCl). The activation energy calculated from class data was 50.188 kJ/mol, which deviated largely from the literature range value of 72.80–83.76 kJ/mol. It was concluded that the reaction was consistent with the predicted SN2 mechanism, based on the regression of a trendline.

In the other test tube, 0.5mL of 0.2 M 2-chloro-2-methylpropane was added. At the same time, 1mL of 1.0 M AgNO3 in absolute ethanol was added to each test tube. Observations were recorded and rates of reactions were compared.