Hydroboration step In the first step,
borane (BH3) adds to the
double bond, transferring one of the hydrogen atoms to the carbon adjacent to the one that becomes bonded to the
boron. This
hydroboration is repeated two additional times, successively reacting each B–H bond so that three alkenes add to each BH3. The hydroboration step is a concerted process, as no carbocation is produced, meaning that no rearrangement occurs. The resulting trialkylborane is treated with hydrogen peroxide in the second step. This process replaces the B-C bonds with HO-C bonds. The boron reagent is converted to
boric acid. The reaction was originally described by
H.C. Brown in 1957 for the conversion of
1-hexene into
1-hexanol. Knowing that the group containing the boron will be replaced by a hydroxyl group, it can be seen that the initial hydroboration step determines the regioselectivity. Hydroboration proceeds in an
anti-Markovnikov manner. The reaction sequence is also
stereospecific, giving
syn addition (on the same face of the alkene): the hydroboration is syn-selective and the oxidation replaces the boron with hydroxyl having the same geometric position. Thus 1-methylcyclopentene reacts with diborane predominantly to give
trans-1-hydroxy-2-methylcyclopentane—the newly added H and OH are
cis to each other. Until all hydrogens attached to boron have been transferred away, the boron group BH2 will continue adding to more alkenes. This means that one mole of hydroborane will undergo the reaction with three moles of alkene. Furthermore, it is not necessary for the hydroborane to have more than one hydrogen. For example, reagents of the type R2BH are commonly used, where R can represents the remainder of the molecule. Such modified hydroboration reagents include
9-BBN,
catecholborane, and
disiamylborane. These modified hydroboration agents; however, will only proceed to the monoalkylborane stage, as they only contain a single B-H bond.
Oxidation step In the second step of the reaction sequence, the nucleophilic
hydroperoxide anion attacks the boron atom. Alkyl migration to oxygen gives the alkyl borane with
retention of stereochemistry (in reality, the reaction occurs via the trialkyl
borate B(OR)3, rather than the monoalkyl borinic ester BH2OR). The 'H' atom in the reaction comes from B2H6, the 'O' atom comes from hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) whereas the O attached 'H' atom comes from the solvent (refer mechanism). ==Alkyne hydroboration==