The Kharasch addition is an organic reaction and a metal-catalysed free radical addition of CXCl3 compounds (X = Cl, Br, H) to alkenes. The reaction was discovered by Morris S. Kharasch in the 1940s.
The basic reaction scheme runs as follows:
R2C=CH2 + R'X → R2CX-CH2R':and proceeds through the CXCl2 free radical. Examples of organohalides are carbon tetrachloride and chloroform. The addition is an anti-Markovnikov addition. Early work linked the addition to olefin polymerization and is therefore considered a first step into what was to become atom transfer radical polymerization.
An example of Karasch addition is the synthesis of 1,1,3-trichloro-n-nonane from 1-octene, chloroform and ferric chloride.
References
Kharasch addition Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA