ABSTRACT
Alkyl halides are molecules with one or more alkyl fluorides, chlorides, bromides, or iodides atoms attached to a carbon. The alkyl halides are generally insoluble in water so the tetrahydrofuran is there to solubilize the starting material. Ionization of an alkyl halide is too slow to be of value in any protic solvent except water. The water can be the only solvent, although with organic halides, a cosolvent is usually necessary in addition to the water. Comparison of the curves for methyl halide with a tertiary halide shows that the activation energy for the tertiary is much higher, so the transition state energy is much higher. In water, the substitution reaction occurs after ionization to a carbocation intermediate. Substitution reactions can occur with tertiary halides in highly polar, protic media such as water via ionization, for example, and the reaction follows first-order kinetics.
