Question: how are alkyl halides formed?
Answer: 1. Adding Acid To Alcohol Results In A Good Leaving Group. ... Treating alcohols with HCl, HBr, or HI (which all fall under the catch-all term “HX” where X is a halide) results in the formation of alkyl halides. This occurs in a two step process: first, the alcohol is protonated to give its conjugate acid.