Halogenation Reaction

While the reactions possible with alkanes are few, there are many reactions that involve haloalkanes. In order to better understand the mechanism we will closely examine the chlorination of methane. When methane (CH₄) and chlorine (Cl₂) are mixed together in the absence of light at room temperature nothing happens. However, if the conditions are changed, so that either the reaction is taking place at high temperatures (denoted by Δ) or there is ultra violet irradiation, a product is formed, chloromethane (CH₃Cl).