A rule stating that an elimination reaction will give as the major product the most stable alkene, that is, the alkene with the most highly substituted double bond.
For example, dehydrohalogenation of alkyl halide 2-Bromo-2-methylbutane can proceed in two ways to give two types of alkenes, of which only one is a major product.
| Alkanes | Alkenes | Alkynes |
|---|---|---|---|
Bond type | Class of organic compounds made of only carbon and hydrogen atoms (hydrocarbon), linked using a single covalent bond.
| Class of hydrocarbon compounds with at least one carbon-carbon double covalent bond. | Class of hydrocarbons containing carbon atoms held in a triple covalent bond. |
Nucleophiles are electron-rich species that can donate a pair of electrons and form a new covalent bond with an electron-deficient counterpart called the electrophiles. That is why electrophiles are referred to as lovers of electrons.
The nucleophiles donate electrons as lone pairs, pie bonds, or sigma bonds.
Read- What are nucleophiles?
The stability order of different alkene substitution patterns is measured by comparing their heat of hydrogenations (denoted as ∆Ho) in kJ/mole or kcal/mol.
Alkene is a double bond containing hydrocarbon compound. Since the hydrocarbon compounds can be short or long chained, the double bond's position could be anywhere along the hydrocarbon chain.
Alkenes are double bonds containing molecules. These double bonds are called pie bonds and are made up of two electrons. Due to the presence of the pie electron cloud, alkenes are electron-rich species and interact with electron-deficient species, the electrophiles. The reaction between alkenes and the electrophiles is an addition reaction.
Alkenes undergo addition reactions where it loses one pie bond to form two new sigma bonds to add a reagent across the double bond.