Home > Community > Why don't hydride shifts occur with hydrohalogenation of 4-methyl-cyclohexene?
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Mehedi Hasan

Why don't hydride shifts occur with hydrohalogenation of 4-methyl-cyclohexene?

Atilla  Follow

The reason for not having consecutive hydride shifts is that generally, a new carbocation is formed through shift only when it is more stable than the immediately previous one.

To form a tertiary carbocation, 3 consecutive hydride shifts would have to occur consecutively (when + is at c-4 from the alkyl group, your first product) in which more than one intermediates have same stability (same number of alpha-H). Hydride shifts will not occur for your second product to form tertiary carbocation as the next intermediate is infact less stable (3 alpha-H as compared to 4 alpha-H previously).

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Since the ring already has 6 members (least strain) so ring expansion/contraction will not occur either.

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Frank Snitz  Follow
For rearrangement of carbocation there should be some driving force like increase in stability of carbocation.More
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Jamie E  Follow
Please check out the mechanism of squalene cyclisation which includes four consecutive methyl and hydride Wagner-Meerwein rearrangements, neither of which is truly downhill.More
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Edna Chitamba Banda  Follow
On second thought, there will also be (+)ve inductive effect on the c+ in my first product, increasing its stability but I think that HyperConjugation has greater effect on stability of carbocation than inductive effect so loss of alpha-H should have a greater effect.More
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