In the presence of peroxide, hydrogen chloride and hydrogen iodide do not give anti-Markovnikov's addition to alkenes because:

Options

A. both are highly ionic
B. one is oxidising and the other is reducing
C. one of the steps is endothermic in both the cases
D. all the steps are exothermic in both the cases.

Answer

C

Explanation

In the presence of peroxide, `HCl` and `Hl` react with alkene as follows `:`
First step `:`
`a.` `underset(Pero x ide )(R-O-O-R)overset(Delta)rarr2R-O^(*) overset (HX)rarrROH+X^(*)`
Second step `:`

For `HCl`, step `I(b)` is endothermic and step `II` is exothermic, while for `HI,` step `I(b)` is exothermic and step `II`is endothermic. Hence, in each case, one of the steps is exothermic, due to this reason `HCl` and `Hl` do not give anti`-`Markovnikov's addition to alkenes.