Activation proton transfer

Figure 2.4 Carboxylic acid dimer in the potential energy minima with local vibrational states. OV represents the correlation time for a thermally activated proton transfer, and TU, the correlation time for tunneling transfer. (Reproduced with permission from ref. 29.)...

Another intriguing photochemical reaction known for over 70 years is the photo-induced and thermally activated proton transfer between the colorless CH and blue NH forms of 2-(2, 4 -dinitrobenzyl)pyridine (DNBP). The reaction process was... 

Figure A3.8.3 Quantum activation free energy curves calculated for the model A-H-A proton transfer reaction described 45. The frill line is for the classical limit of the proton transfer solute in isolation, while the other curves are for different fully quantized cases. The rigid curves were calculated by keeping the A-A distance fixed. An important feature here is the direct effect of the solvent activation process on both the solvated rigid and flexible solute curves. Another feature is the effect of a fluctuating A-A distance which both lowers the activation free energy and reduces the influence of the solvent. The latter feature enliances the rate by a factor of 20 over the rigid case.

Proton transfers from strong acids to water and alcohols rank among the most rapid chemical processes and occur almost as fast as the molecules collide with one another Thus the height of the energy barrier the activation energy for proton transfer must be quite low... 

Steps 2 and 4 are proton transfer reactions and are very fast Nucleophilic addi tion to the carbonyl group has a higher activation energy than dissociation of the tetra hedral intermediate step 1 is rate determining... 

Molecular chlorine is believed to be the active electrophile in uncatalyzed chlorination of aromatic compounds. Simple second-order kinetics are observed in acetic acid. The reaction is much slower in nonpolar solvents such as dichloromethane and carbon tetrachloride. Chlorination in nonpolar solvents is catalyzed by added acid. The catalysis by acids is probably the result of assistance by proton transfer during the cleavage of the Cl-Cl bond. ... 

The concerted nature of proton transfer contributes to its rapid rate. The energy cost of breaking the H—Cl bond is partially offset by the energy released in forming the new bond between the transfened proton and the oxygen of the alcohol. Thus, the activation energy is far- less than it would be for a hypothetical two-step process in which the H—Cl bond breaks first, followed by bond formation between FF and the alcohol. 

Even without a cage effect, the entropy effect will be somewhat more favorable for ortho reaction when hydrogen bonding to an azine-nitrogen atom generates the necessary nucleophile. The possibility of proton transfers between the solvent molecules (MeOH) near the reaction site and the more distant MeO is expected to produce a favorable increase (relative to other solvents) in the entropy of activation, which can reinforce the effect of a favorable point of... 

Lifnbach et al. [92JA9657 97BBPG889] made an exhaustive study of proton transfer in solid pyrazoles. For instance, the activation barriers, isotope and tunneling effects of the dimer 67, the trimer 68, and the tetramer 69 were determined. Catemers, like pyrazole itself, do not show dynamic behavior. 

No proton transfers were observed in linear oligomers (catemers) of pyrazoles 8 in the solid, a fact which was understandable because such rearrangements would require a very high activation energy [97JCS(P2)101]. A possible exception to this rule is a catemer 8f, for which slow proton transfer was observed in the solid state [97JCS(P2)1867]. 

Clusters Ru3(CO)l2 and Os3(CO)l2 as well as their substitution products, e.g. [Os3(CO)lo(AN)2], activate pyrrole and its derivatives in many different ways. Thus, dihydrides 43 (R = H, Me) follow from triosmium dodecacarbonyl and pyrrole or 1-methylpyrrole [82JCS(D)2563 84P1175 86JOM(311)371]. Complex 43 (R = H) isomerizes as a result of proton transfer to the more stable species 44 and... 

Many computational studies in heterocyclic chemistry deal with proton transfer reactions between different tautomeric structures. Activation energies of these reactions obtained from quantum chemical calculations need further corrections, since tunneling effects may lower the effective barriers considerably. These effects can either be estimated by simple models or computed more precisely via the determination of the transmission coefficients within the framework of variational transition state calculations [92CPC235, 93JA2408]. 

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