Chapter 15 - Haloalkanes Flashcards
Module 4
What elements do haloalkanes contain?
They contain the elements carbon, hydrogen, and at least one halogen.
How to name a haloalkane?
Add the prefix to the longest carbon chain to indicate its identity and if there are mutliple groups/branches present in the structure they should be arranged by alphabetical order.
What are the classifications for haloalkanes?
These can be either primary, secondary, or tertiary.
What are nucleophiles?
Species that can donate a lone pair of electrons. OR. They are an atom/group of atoms that are attached to an electron deficient electrons resulting in the formation of a new covalent bond.
Give 3 examples of nucleophiles.
:OH-
H₂O:
:NH₃
What occurs when a haloalkane reacts with a nucleophile.
The nucleophile replaces the halogen in a substituition reaction to produce a new compound containing a different functional group (generally alcohols) and a halogen ion. This reaction mechanism is known as nucleophilic substituition.
What is hydrolysis?
It is the splitting of a chemical entity using water that causes the bond to break in a molecule. This results it being split into two products.
What occurs in the hydrolysis of a haloalkane?
The halogen atom of a haloalkane is replaced by an -OH group.
State the steps involved in nucleophilic substitution.
- Nucleophile (OH-) approaches the carbon atom that it attached to the halogen atom from the opposite side of carbon-halogen bond.
- This direction of attack by the OH- ion minimises the repulsion between the nucleophile and the electronegative halogen atom.
- A lone pair of electrons are donated from the O in OH- to the carbon atom.
- A new bond is formed between the hydroxide ion and the carbon atom and the carbon-halogen bond is broken via homolytic fission.
- A new organic product is formed - an alcohol and a halide ion.
