Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Markovnikov's rule
Summary
In organic chemistry, Markovnikov's rule or Markownikoff's rule describes the outcome of some addition reactions. The rule was formulated by Russian chemist Vladimir Markovnikov in 1870.
The rule states that with the addition of a protic acid HX or other polar reagent to an asymmetric alkene, the acid hydrogen (H) or electropositive part gets attached to the carbon with more hydrogen substituents, and the halide (X) group or electronegative part gets attached to the carbon with more alkyl substituents. This is in contrast to Markovnikov's original definition, in which the rule is stated that the X component is added to the carbon with the fewest hydrogen atoms while the hydrogen atom is added to the carbon with the greatest number of hydrogen atoms.
The same is true when an alkene reacts with water in an addition reaction to form an alcohol which involve formation of carbocations. The hydroxyl group (OH) bonds to the carbon that has the greater number of carbon–carbon bonds, while the hydrogen bonds to the carbon on the other end of the double bond, that has more carbon–hydrogen bonds.
The chemical basis for Markovnikov's Rule is the formation of the most stable carbocation during the addition process. The addition of the hydrogen ion to one carbon atom in the alkene creates a positive charge on the other carbon, forming a carbocation intermediate. The more substituted the carbocation, the more stable it is, due to induction and hyperconjugation. The major product of the addition reaction will be the one formed from the more stable intermediate. Therefore, the major product of the addition of HX (where X is some atom more electronegative than H) to an alkene has the hydrogen atom in the less substituted position and X in the more substituted position. But the other less substituted, less stable carbocation will still be formed at some concentration, and will proceed to be the minor product with the opposite, conjugate attachment of X.
Also called Kharasch effect (named after Morris S.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Ontological neighbourhood
Related courses (1)
CH-120: Advanced general chemistry II
Acquisition des notions fondamentales liées à la réactivité des molécules organiques, identification de la structure de petites molécules organiques au moyen des techniques de spectrométrie de masse,
Related publications (25)
Related concepts (12)
Hydration reaction
In chemistry, a hydration reaction is a chemical reaction in which a substance combines with water. In organic chemistry, water is added to an unsaturated substrate, which is usually an alkene or an alkyne. This type of reaction is employed industrially to produce ethanol, isopropanol, and butan-2-ol. Several million tons of ethylene glycol are produced annually by the hydration of oxirane, a cyclic compound also known as ethylene oxide: C2H4O + H2O → HO–CH2CH2–OH Acid catalysts are typically used.
Addition reaction
In organic chemistry, an addition reaction is an organic reaction where two or more molecules combine to form a larger one (the adduct). Addition reactions are limited to chemical compounds that have multiple bonds, such as molecules with carbon–carbon double bonds (alkenes), or with triple bonds (alkynes), and compounds that have rings, which are also considered points of unsaturation. Molecules containing carbon—hetero double bonds like carbonyl () groups, or imine () groups, can undergo addition, as they too have double-bond character.
Electrophile
In chemistry, an electrophile is a chemical species that forms bonds with nucleophiles by accepting an electron pair. Because electrophiles accept electrons, they are Lewis acids. Most electrophiles are positively charged, have an atom that carries a partial positive charge, or have an atom that does not have an octet of electrons. Electrophiles mainly interact with nucleophiles through addition and substitution reactions.