Question

Predict the major organic product of the following reaction sequence.

Predict the major organic product of the following reaction sequence.

Answer 1

Concepts and reason

The reaction of an alkene with mercuric acetate in presence of methanol followed by treatment with sodium borohydride is given and the product needs to be drawn. Such a reaction is known as oxymercuration-demercuration reaction.

[Explanation]

Oxymercuration-demercuration reaction: As the name suggests, it is a double reaction as described below:

Oxymercuration: It involves the formation of hydroxymercurial/methoxymercurial compound via the reaction of alkenes with mercuric acetate and water/methanol in presence of tetrahydrofuran.

Demercuration: It involves the formation of alcohol/ether via the reduction of the hydroxymercurial/lmethoxymercurial compound with sodium borohydride.

Firstly, the reaction of the alkene with mercuric acetate and methanol takes place to give methoxymercurial compound as follows:

The final product is formed via reduction of methoxymercurial compound with sodium borohydride as shown below:

Ans:

The product of the reaction is as follows: