Home > Community > Why is vicinal diiodopropane unstable, leading to deiodination?
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Adam Wu

Why is vicinal diiodopropane unstable, leading to deiodination?

Andy White  Follow

That 1,2-diodopropane is unstable does not indicate whether it is as the neat halide or in solution. Breaking (BDE) two $\ce{C-I}$ bonds costs $\pu{+114 kcal/mol}$ while forming the $\pi$-bond of propene is worth approximately $\pu{-62 kcal/mol}$ and the formation of iodine, $\pu{-36 kcal/mol}$. The net reaction is endothermic by $\pu{+16 kcal/mol}$. The reaction is entropically favored and the products are volatile. Therefore, the unfavorable equilibrium can be shifted to the right.

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Frank Ferrarini  Follow
Is this in clayden @user55119 ? And can this happen in other like vicinal chlorides / bromides ?More
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Douglas Klein  Follow
Ashish Ahuja: Try this. More
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Jana Schwehm  Follow
Could you share a reference for the mechanism?More
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J?rgen Pallesen  Follow
Hey i found an interesting observation, C-C single bond length is 134 pm. While van der wall radius of Iodine is 198 pm and that of chlorine is 175 pm. That means even if we count opposite orientation in Iodine, van der wall repulsions are too significant unlike in case of Chlorine.More
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Haiping Li  Follow
pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ja01607a037More
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