Acid catalyzed hydrolysis reaction rate

Abiotic hydrolysis of pollutants in subsurface waters is pH dependent. The predominant pathways are acid-catalyzed, base-mediated, and neutral (pH-independent) hydrolysis. The acid-catalyzed hydrolysis reaction rate is dependent on proton concentration increases with a decrease in pH. This behavior occurs because the proton is not consumed in the reaction. 

This review, then, reports results of experiments which provide information that can be used to test the hypothesis that hydrolysis reactions proceed at substantially reduced rates when the molecules undergoing hydrolysis are sorbed to sediments. Results are reported for a variety of pesticides and for model compounds that are similar in structural features to pesticides. Included are neutral, base-catalyzed and, to a limited extent, acid-catalyzed hydrolysis reactions. 

On the other hand, the concentration of positive ions, including H2O, near sediment particle surfaces would be expected to be enhanced relative to the bulk solution concentrations. From this consideration, we would predict that acid-catalyzed hydrolysis reactions should occur at enhanced rates for sorbed molecules. 

In contrast to acid-catalyzed hydrolysis, the rate of neutral and base-catalyzed hydrolysis is strongly dependent on both the structure of the acid and the alcohol moiety (see Fig. 3). As is illustrated in Figure 4, for the base-catalyzed reaction, I lie dissociation of the alcohol moiety [reaction (2)] may or may not be rate-dciermining, depending on how good a leaving group the alcohol moiety (actually the alcoholate species, i.e., RO) is. As a rule of thumb, we can relate... 

In contrast, Perdue and Wolfe (1982) observed that DOM retarded the basic hydrolysis of the octyl ester of 2,4-D. They found that the base-catalyzed rate constant was reduced in proportion to the fraction of the hydrophobic ester that was associated with the DOM. Perdue (1983) has proposed a micelle-type model to rationalize these results and those presented for atrazine. Perdue compares the physical characteristics of DOM, which is negatively charged at environmental pHs, to those of anionic surfactants. Anionic surfactants have been demonstrated to increase hydrolysis rates for acid-catalyzed processes and decrease rates for base-catalyzed processes (Fendler and Fendler, 1975). Rate enhancements for acid-catalyzed hydrolysis reactions are attributed to stabilization of the positive charge that is developed in the transition state, whereas base-catalyzed hydrolysis reactions are impeded due to destabilization of the negatively charged transition state. Although this is an attractive model, it remains largely untested. 

Manufacture of Fatty Acids and Derivatives. Splitting of fats to produce fatty acids and glycerol (a valuable coproduct) has been practiced since before the 1890s. In early processes, concentrated alkaU reacted with fats to produce soaps followed by acidulation to produce the fatty acids. Acid-catalyzed hydrolysis, mostly with sulfuric and sulfonic acids, was also practiced. Pressurized equipment was introduced to accelerate the rate of the process, and finally continuous processes were developed to maximize completeness of the reaction (105). Lipolytic enzymes maybe utilized to spHt... 

Taft, following Ingold," assumed that for the hydrolysis of carboxylic esters, steric, and resonance effects will be the same whether the hydrolysis is catalyzed by acid or base (see the discussion of ester-hydrolysis mechanisms. Reaction 10-10). Rate differences would therefore be caused only by the field effects of R and R in RCOOR. This is presumably a good system to use for this purpose because the transition state for acid-catalyzed hydrolysis (7) has a greater positive charge (and is hence destabilized by —I and stabilized by +1 substituents) than the starting ester. 

The intermediates 74 and 76 can now lose OR to give the acid (not shown in the equations given), or they can lose OH to regenerate the carboxylic ester. If 74 goes back to ester, the ester will still be labeled, but if 76 reverts to ester, the 0 will be lost. A test of the two possible mechanisms is to stop the reaction before completion and to analyze the recovered ester for 0. This is just what was done by Bender, who found that in alkaline hydrolysis of methyl, ethyl, and isopropyl benzoates, the esters had lost 0. A similar experiment carried out for acid-Catalyzed hydrolysis of ethyl benzoate showed that here too the ester lost However, alkaline hydrolysis of substimted benzyl benzoates showed no loss. This result does not necessarily mean that no tetrahedral intermediate is involved in this case. If 74 and 76 do not revert to ester, but go entirely to acid, no loss will be found even with a tetrahedral intermediate. In the case of benzyl benzoates this may very well be happening, because formation of the acid relieves steric strain. Another possibility is that 74 loses OR before it can become protonated to 75. Even the experiments that do show loss do not prove the existence of the tetrahedral intermediate, since it is possible that is lost by some independent process not leading to ester hydrolysis. To deal with this possibility. Bender and Heck measured the rate of loss in the hydrolysis of ethyl trifluorothioloacetate- 0 ... 

Having seen that the excess acidity method works for second-order as well as for first-order acid-catalyzed processes, it is of interest to see whether it extends to reactions that are not acid catalyzed. The hydrolysis of acylimidazoles, equation (68), takes place in aqueous acids the substrate is protonated on the ring nitrogen in the pH range, and in acid media the reaction rate constants decrease steadily with increasing acidity.251,253... 

The observation of a primary solvent deuterium isotope effect (kH/fa>) = 2-4 on the specific acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of vinyl ethers provides evidence for reaction by rate-determining protonation of the alkene.69 Values of kHikD 1 are expected if alkene hydration proceeds by rate-determining addition of solvent to an oxocarbenium ion intermediate, since there is no motion of a solvent hydron at the transition state for this step. However, in the latter case, determination of the solvent isotope effect on the reaction of the fully protonated substrate is complicated by the competing exchange of deuterium from solvent into substrate (see above). 

Quantitative measurements of simple and enzyme-catalyzed reaction rates were under way by the 1850s. In that year Wilhelmy derived first order equations for acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of sucrose which he could follow by the inversion of rotation of plane polarized light. Berthellot (1862) derived second-order equations for the rates of ester formation and, shortly after, Harcourt observed that rates of reaction doubled for each 10 °C rise in temperature. Guldberg and Waage (1864-67) demonstrated that the equilibrium of the reaction was affected by the concentration ) of the reacting substance(s). By 1877 Arrhenius had derived the definition of the equilbrium constant for a reaction from the rate constants of the forward and backward reactions. Ostwald in 1884 showed that sucrose and ester hydrolyses were affected by H+ concentration (pH). 

Fig. 5.7. The acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of penicillins involves first the formation of an acylium ion (5.22), which, by reacting with H20, yields penicil-loic acids 5.24 (Pathway b). The participation of a neighboring 6-acylamido group increases the rate of hydrolysis. During this intramolecular reaction (Pathway a), oxazolylthiazolidines (5.23) are formed and then give rise to the degradation products penicilloic acids 5.24, penicillenic acids 5.25,...

Such a difference in partial double-bond character has implications for the mechanism, and, hence, the reaction rate, of acid-catalyzed hydrolysis (Fig. 6.15). In delocalized peptide bonds (Fig. 6.15,a), protonation involves the carbonyl O-atom with its partial negative charge. In non-delocalized peptide bonds (Fig. 6.15,b), protonation involves the N-atom, which is rendered more basic by the lack of delocalization [73],... 

This method was the first accurate spectroscopic method for determining chemical reaction rates. In the mid-eighteenth century, kinetic measurements of changes in the rotation of plane polarized light upon acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of sucrose led to the concept of a dynamic equilibrium. 

As expected, mesoporous silica-supported sulfonic sites were able to catalyze the hydrolysis of cellobiose. Indeed, at 448 K, 90% of cellobiose was hydrolyzed within 30 min of reaction with an apparent activation energy ( = 130 kJ moF ) similar to that of reactions promoted by homogeneous organic acid catalysts [33]. The hydrolysis reaction rate is proportional to the concentration of hydrated... 

We conclude that the neutral substrate enters 1 to form a host-guest complex, leading to the observed substrate saturation. The encapsulated substrate then undergoes encapsulation-driven protonation, presumably by deprotonation of water, followed by acid-catalyzed hydrolysis inside 1, during which two equivalents of the corresponding alcohol are released. Finally, the protonated formate ester is ejected from 1 and further hydrolyzed by base in solution. The reaction mechanism (Scheme 7.7) shows direct parallels to enzymes that obey Michaelis-Menten kinetics due to the initial pre-equilibrium followed by a first-order rate-limiting step. 

As indicated in Fig. 13.10, the slowest, and therefore rate-determining, reaction step is then the nucleophilic attack of a water molecule at the carbonyl carbon of the protonated species. This carbonyl is much more susceptible to nucleophilic attack than in the neutral ester. Since the dissociation of the (protonated) leaving group (HO-R2) is fast (forward portion of reaction 4 in Fig. 13.10), the rate of ester disappearance through acid-catalyzed hydrolysis is given by ... 

The effects of added salts are shown in Fig. 8. Sodium chloride has a small positive effect on the hydrolysis rate, and sodium chloride and sodium perchlorate have a similar, rather larger, effect on the rate of lactone formation. This is the expected result, for many salts increase the protonating power of the medium as measured by Hammett s acidity function116, and thus assist acid-catalyzed reactions. Sodium perchlorate, unusually, has a small negative effect on the hydrolysis rate. Qualitatively similar results have been found by Bunton et al,56, who studied the effects of added salts on the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of ethyl acetate. Added lithium and sodium chloride assist the Aac2 hydrolysis of ethyl acetate, but the perchlorates have essentially no effect. In each case the effect is a little more positive than for y-butyrolactone hydrolysis, and, in particular, chloride anions appear to assist Aac2 hydrolysis more effectively than do the perchlorates. 

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