Question

preparation of isopropyl chloride reagent socl2
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Answer 1

Answer:

In   a blatant plug for the Reagent Guide and the Reagents App for iPhone, each Friday  I profile a different reagent that is commonly encountered in Org 1/ Org 2.  

If there’s one thing you learn how to do well in Org 1, it’s make alcohols. Let’s count the ways: hydroboration, acid-catalyzed hydration, oxymercuration for starters, and then substitution of alkyl halides with water or HO(–). If you want to extend it even further, there’s dihydroxylation (to make diols) using OsO4 or cold KMnO4, and even opening of epoxides under acidic or basic conditions to give alcohols.

There’s just one issue here and it comes up once you try to use alcohols in synthesis. Let’s say you want to use that alcohol in a subsequent substitution step, getting rid of the HO(–) and replacing it with something else. See any problems with that? Remember that good leaving groups are weak bases – and the hydroxide ion, being a strong base, tends to be a pretty bad leaving group.