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Topic: Stability of Dihalocarbenes  (Read 3240 times)

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Offline GPhab

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Stability of Dihalocarbenes
« on: September 06, 2008, 08:41:45 AM »
Dihalocarbenes exist in singlet state. Wiki says that singlet carbenes can be stabilized by electron donating groups as they help in delocalizing the electrons into an empty p-orbital. So why is CF2 the most stable

Offline azmanam

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Re: Stability of Dihalocarbenes
« Reply #1 on: September 06, 2008, 09:52:36 AM »
It's a bit like halogen substituents for electrophilic aromatic substitution.  While electronegative (and thus electron withdrawing), the lone pairs of electrons can donate into the benzene ring through resonance and stabilize the intermediate in the substitution leading to ortho and para products.  In this sense, the halogen is more like a methoxy substituent than a nitro substituent.

Same logic applies here.

http://www.cem.msu.edu/~reusch/VirtTxtJml/benzrx1.htm#benz1
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