Β-Bromostyrene Isomers

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When reacting with different solvents, the relative ratio of β-bromostyrene isomers can give a hint about the mechanisms the reaction underwent. By an atom attaching to either a cis or trans side of a molecule, the production of different isomers occurs. Using stereochemistry, there are clues that can be gathered about the mechanism used. In order for the elimination reaction to occur there are two options, either E2 or E1 pathway. Both of these pathways have characteristics that must be present for the reaction to occur. The E2 reaction need the molecule to have anti-coplanar stereochemistry, while the E1 reaction needs a strong leaving group, which will create a tertiary or secondary carbocation. The E2 reaction also needs a strong base in …show more content…

The first method is using the integrated NMR doublets and dividing them by the values of the integrated ether quartet (divided by two) and the value of the integrated doublets again. Another method is using GC. In this method, the area of the peak for trans peak needs to be divided by the total area of the peaks for both trans and cis peaks (Experiment VII). The reaction with 2-butanone produced a one and five percent trans isomer fr0m GC and NMR respectively. Water as a solvent produced 79 and 80 percent trans isomer from GC and NMR (Kimmell). Both relative percentages feel within the accepted range of similarity (5-10%). The class data showed similar trends to the experimental data of relative percent mentioned above. The trans isomer relative percent for the solvent of 2-butanone is six percent and the trans isomer relative percent of the water acting as a solvent is 79 percent. (Compiled data). There were a few miscellaneous missing data points and most of the results were within the five to ten percent error margin. The class set of data held true to the personal experimental values achieved through the NMR characterization for the 2-butanone and the GC and NMR characterization of the reaction using the water. In terms of reaction pathways, it seems the reaction with water as a solvent acted in the E1 pathway and the 2-butanone reaction followed the E2 pathway. This can be determined because the E1 pathway produces more trans isomers than the E2 pathway does, which are congruent to our findings. The E2 reaction in figure 1 and 2 shows how the cis isomer is formed by decarboxylation. The figures of 3 and 4 show the trans isomer formation of β-bromostyrene via the E1 pathway. The solvents used played a role in which mechanistic pathways the reaction underwent. The solvent effect caused a difference of 75 percent in the stereochemistry of the molecules.

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