Question

I have a question over Problem 9.36 from David Klein’s Chapter 9 on Addition Reactions of Alkenes.

I’ve noted acid-catalyzed hydrations in Chapter 9 don’t seem to note anything about their properties of syn- or anti- addition processes.

Why don’t acid-catalyzed hydrations contain descriptions of whether they’re anti- or syn- additions? I know that the compound in Problem 9.36 doesn’t contain a hydrogen whose stereochemistry would matter, but what about the acid-catalyzed hydrations with hydrogens whose stereochemistry does matter?

9.36 Predict the products of each of the following reactions: HO* (e) (e) The reagent indicates an acid-catalyzed hydration, so the net result will be the addition of H and OH across the alkene. We expect a Markovnikov addition, so the OH group wil be placed at the more-substituted position. Only one chirality center is formed, so we expect the following pair of enantiomers: OH Hао" En