I was wondering the same thing myself... I did the reaction that way too.
I wonder what's right, since no one has responded. :)
Shana
On Mon, 2 Dec 1996 ulamce@plu.edu wrote:
> HI there! I had a question about 9.26a&b. The problem says to outline a
> synthesis for different compounds. For a and b, the answer book uses a
> lithium dialkylcuprate reaction to combine the the alkyl chains, using
> radical reactions to produce the alkyl halides for the (R2)LiCu reaction.
> My question is why you can't just have the two alkane chains react with
> radicals to produce alkyl radicals, and then have the two alkyl radicals
> combine to form the longer alkyl chain? Wouldn't this be a possible
> chain-terminating step that could happen in the reaction if you had both
> alkanes present originally in the mixture?
>
> Hopefully someone understood what I was babling about.... =)
>
> ulamce
>
>