Q.State Markovnikov's rule and explain it by the addition of HBr to propene.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Markovnikov's rule says the H of HX adds to the carbon with more hydrogens already, and X adds to the more substituted carbon; for propene + HBr, this gives 2-bromopropane as the major product, via the more stable secondary carbocation.
Markovnikov's rule: When an unsymmetrical reagent of the type HX (e.g. HBr, HCl, HI, or H-OH) adds to an unsymmetrical alkene (a double bond where the two carbon atoms are not equivalently substituted), the negative (more electronegative) part of the reagent, X, gets attached to the carbon atom of the double bond that already carries the fewer number of hydrogen atoms (i.e. the more substituted carbon), while the hydrogen (H) of the reagent attaches to the carbon that already carries the greater number of hydrogen atoms.
Illustration with propene and HBr:
CH3-CH=CH2 + HBr -> ?
Here, C1 (=CH2) has 2 hydrogens, and C2 (=CH-) has 1 hydrogen (it is attached to the CH3 group too). By Markovnikov's rule, H (from HBr) adds to C1 (which already has more H atoms), and Br adds to C2 (which has fewer H atoms and is more substituted):
CH3-CH=CH2 + HBr -> CH3-CHBr-CH3 (2-bromopropane, the major product)
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