Question #edc6b

1 Answer
Apr 21, 2017

I'm a bit rusty with these sort of things, but I would think you'd get a Markovnikov addition to form 2-chloroethanol.

Explanation:

Initial attack of the ethylene double bond by the electrophile chlorine leads to addition of the chlorine atom in the formation of an intermediate carbocation:

H_2C=CH_2 + HOCl -> C^+H_2-CH_2-Cl

This carbocation then reacts with the nucleophilic OH to form the final product HO-CH2-CH2-Cl.