Halonium ion

A halonium ion is any onium ion containing a halogen atom carrying a positive charge. This cation has the general structure R−+X−R′ where X is any halogen and no restrictions on R, this structure can be cyclic or an open chain molecular structure. Halonium ions formed from fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine are called fluoronium, chloronium, bromonium, and iodonium, respectively. The 3-membered cyclic variety commonly proposed as intermediates in electrophilic halogenation may be called haliranium ions, using the Hantzsch-Widman nomenclature system.

Structure

The simplest halonium ions are of the structure H−+X−H (X = F, Cl, Br, I). Many halonium ions have a three-atom cyclic structure, similar to that of an epoxide, resulting from the formal addition of a halogenium ion X+ to a C=C double bond, as when a halogen is added to an alkene. The formation of 5-membered halonium ions (e.g., chlorolanium, bromolanium ions) via neighboring group participation is also well studied.

Diaryliodonium ions ([Ar2I]+X−) are generally stable, isolable salts which exhibit a T-shaped geometry with the aryl groups at ~90 degrees apart; for more details, see hypervalent iodine.

The tendency to form bridging halonium ions is in the order I > Br > Cl > F. Whereas iodine and bromine readily form bridged iodonium and bromonium ions, fluoronium ions have only recently been characterized in designed systems that force close encounter of the fluorine lone pair and a carbocationic center. In practice, structurally, there is a continuum between a symmetrically bridged halonium, to an unsymmetrical halonium with a long weak bond to one of the carbon centers, to a true β-halocarbocation with no halonium character.