'A' Level Chemistry Problem Analysis: Reaction of 2,3-Dimethyl-1,3-butadiene with Bromine |
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 Thought process: For the mechanism, the first step is a nucleophilic attack resulting in electrophilic addition (where the pi bond acts as the nucleophile); the second step is a nucleophilic attack resulting in nucleophilic addition (where the bromide ion(or hydroxide ion if aqueous conditions are used) acts as the nucleophilie). Four points to consider : 1) The solvent used matters. With a non-polar, inert solvent, you'll get the addition of bromine only. Using aqueous bromine, you have a competing hydroxide ion nucleophile that will attack the cyclic bromonium carbocation intermediate, in effect adding not just Br, but also OH, across the double bonds. 2) If we regard the cyclic bromonium ion as a non-cyclic carbocation, (eg. imagine you're adding H-Br instead of Br-Br), then the more stable carbocation would be the one with more electron donating (non-electronegative-substituted) alkyl groups. If both double bonds are added across simultaneously, and based on this argument alone, you would end up with 1,4-dibromo-2,3-dihydroxy-2,3-dimethyl-butane. 3) However, because oxygen is significantly more electronegative than bromine, the resulting electronic instability of 1,4-dibromo-2,3-dihydroxy-2,3-dimethyl-butane (with the two partial +ve Cs being adjacent)may see the emergence of 2 other slightly more stable isomers (at least in regard to the two partial +ve adjacent Cs), 1,3-dibromo-2,4-dihydroxy-2,3-dimethyl-butane and 2,3-dibromo-1,4-dihydroxy-2,3-dimethyl-butane. 4) Let's consider sterics. Br is huge, but OH is small. But Br has to be added first, since the pi-bond acts as a nucleophile (and attacks the +ve charged Br). So the next step of OH- nucleophile attacking the carbocation (or bromonium carbocation), might preferentially add on to the terminal C's to minimize steric repulsion (or van der Waals repulsion), so this argument tends towards the isomer 2,3-dibromo-1,4-dihydroxy-2,3-dimethyl-butane. The answer (single major product) isn't directly provided here, but hopefully the 4 points mentioned above might have possibly helped you understand the processes or considerations involved a little better. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The above content is contributed by Mr Heng, owner and 'A' Level Chemistry tutor at Bedok Funland JC. He also goes by the handle UltimaOnline on various online popular homework forums. |
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