A Novel and Highly Effective Halogenation of Alkanes with Halides on Oxidation with m-Chloroperbenzoic Acid: Looks Old, but New Reaction.

The combination of tetraalkylammonium halides (Cl-, Br-) and m-chloroperbenzoic acid in CH3CN effectively halogenated alkanes accompanied by the formation of alkyl In-chlorobenzoate; for which the alkyl halides were formed via a non-photoinduced radical mechanism and the esters were derived from a non-radical process and concomitant with the formation of corresponding trialkylamine.