I think that your first reaction is correct. Each bond of the P takes and
OH from the alcohol. The P makes three bonds so you would want 3 OHs for
each P. What the book is trying to say is that one mole of PBr3 can react
with three moles of alcohol to produce three moles of alkyl halides.
Hope this clears things up
Kristina
On Wed, 4 Dec 1996 jonesjd@plu.edu wrote:
>
> On page 441 it says that 3R-OH + PBr3 ---> 3R-Br + H3PO3. Does that
> mean " " ---> 3(R-Br) + H3PO3 or does it mean " "----> 3(R)-Br +HP3O3.
>
> Jason
>
>