Organic Chemistry/Introduction to reactions/Free-radical halogenation

Free-radical halogenation
Free-radical halogenation is "a way to do a substitution other than by nucleophilic substitution."

or, simplified:

H's come off as H+ not H-, making nucleophilic substitution impossible.

We must first remove a H+ to perform the reaction.

Free radicals as a rule violate the octet rule and are highly reactive, reacting even with strong bonds.

then

The reaction continues happening in a chain mechanism called a free radical chain reaction.

Free radical chain reaction
This has three steps:


 * 1) Initiation step: this generates radicals
 * 2) Propagation step: this is where the bulk of the action lies. Chain carriers generate reaction products.
 * 3) Termination step: anything that consumes the free radicals.

Running free radical chain reactions with Chlorine and Bromine yield their respective end products in different proportions, a quality that can be useful in the laboratory.

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