Aromatic acid esters, hydrolysis

Taft began the LFER attack on steric effects as part of his separation of electronic and steric effects in aliphatic compounds, which is discussed in Section 7.3. For our present purposes we abstract from that treatment the portion relevant to aromatic substrates. Hammett p values for alkaline ester hydrolysis are in the range +2.2 to +2.8, whereas for acid ester hydrolysis p is close to zero (see Table 7-2). Taft, therefore, concluded that electronic effects of substituents are much greater in the alkaline than in the acid series and. in fact, that they are negligible in the acid series. This left the steric effect alone controlling relative reactivity in the acid series. A steric substituent constant was defined [by analogy with the definition of cr in Eq. (7-22)] by Eq. (7-43), where k is the rate constant for acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of an orr/to-substituted benzoate ester and k is the corresponding rate constant for the on/to-methyl ester note that CH3, not H, is the reference substituent. ... 

N-Benzylamides are recommended when the corresponding acid is liquid and/or water-soluble so that it cannot itself serve as a derivative. Phe benzylamides derived from the simple fatty acids or their esters are not altogether satisfactory (see Table below) those derived from most hydroxy-acids and from poly basic acids or their esters are formed in good yield and are easily purified. The esters of aromatic acids yield satisfactory derivatives but the method must compete with the equally simple process of hydrolysis and precipitation of the free acid, an obvious derivative when the acid is a solid. The procedure fails with esters of keto, sul phonic, inorganic and some halogenated aliphatic esters. 

In 1990, Choudary [139] reported that titanium-pillared montmorillonites modified with tartrates are very selective solid catalysts for the Sharpless epoxidation, as well as for the oxidation of aromatic sulfides [140], Unfortunately, this research has not been reproduced by other authors. Therefore, a more classical strategy to modify different metal oxides with histidine was used by Moriguchi et al. [141], The catalyst showed a modest e.s. for the solvolysis of activated amino acid esters. Starting from these discoveries, Morihara et al. [142] created in 1993 the so-called molecular footprints on the surface of an Al-doped silica gel using an amino acid derivative as chiral template molecule. After removal of the template, the catalyst showed low but significant e.s. for the hydrolysis of a structurally related anhydride. On the same fines, Cativiela and coworkers [143] treated silica or alumina with diethylaluminum chloride and menthol. The resulting modified material catalyzed Diels-Alder reaction between cyclopentadiene and methacrolein with modest e.s. (30% e.e.). As mentioned in the Introduction, all these catalysts are not yet practically important but rather they demonstrate that amorphous metal oxides can be modified successfully. 

Twenty-five acidic pesticides, most of which resulted from the rapid hydrolysis of the ester formulations, were isolated from the two pits. Thirty-nine substituted aromatic acids and phenols were also isolated from the pits. The source of these components was most likely the degradation of aromatic pesticides and the... 

Aspirin is an ester, bnt it still contains a carboxylic acid fnnction (p/Ca 3.5). In aqueous solntion, there will thus be significant ionization. However, this ionization now provides an acid catalyst for ester hydrolysis and initiates autolysis (autohydrolysis). The hydrolysis product salicylic acid (pACa 3.0) is also acidic both aspirin and salicylic acid are aromatic acids and are rather stronger acids than aliphatic compounds such as acetic acid (pACa 4.8) (see Section 4.3.5). An aqueous solution of aspirin has a half-life of about 40 days at room temperature. In other words, after about 40 days, half of the material has been hydrolysed, and the biological activity will have deteriorated similarly. 

This would have both a solvent effect and a mass law effect on the rate of ester formation. The error is systematic, since it is most serious for the slower ester formation reactions, and consequently the p value calculated by Jaffe144 from the data of Hartman and Borders142 is not accurate. Later workers allowed for this side-reaction 46 or used aromatic sulphonic acids rather than HC1 as the catalyst145147. However, whatever the exact p values, it is quite clear that the polar effects of substituents on acid-catalyzed ester hydrolysis and formation are small. 

A quantitative assessment of the effects of head group bulk on, S k2 and E2 reactions in cationic micelles has been made.148 The kinetics of the acid-catalysed hydrolysis of methyl acetate in the presence of cationic, anionic, and non-ionic surfactants has been reported on.149 The alkaline hydrolysis of -butyl acetate with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide has also been investigated.150 The alkaline hydrolysis of aromatic and aliphatic ethyl esters in anionic and non-ionic surfactants has been studied.151 Specific salting-in effects that lead to striking substrate selectivity were observed for the hydrolysis of /j-nitrophenyl alkanoates (185 n = 2-16) catalysed by the 4-(dialkylamino)pyridine-fimctionalized polymer (186) in aqueous Tris buffer solution at pH 8 and 30 °C. The formation of a reactive catalyst-substrate complex, (185)-(186), seems to be promoted by the presence of tris(hydroxymethyl)methylammonium ion.152... 

Ester hydrolysis.1 Pyridinium chloride selectively demethylates methyl esters of o-substituted aromatic carboxylic acids. 

Aromatic aldehydes were condensed with the 2-methyl group of 4-oxopyrido[l,2-a]pyrimidine-7-carboxylates 389 in boiling methanol in the presence of sodium methylate for 20-96 hours to give 2-trans isomers 390 (83MI12 84FES837). Ester hydrolysis also occurred and 7-carboxylic acids 390 were obtained. Condensation did not occur when the pyrido[l, 2-a]pyrimidin-4-one 389 (R = OH) contained a free hydroxyl group at position 3 (84FES837). 

It is not possible to prepare biaryls containing a free carboxyl group directly by the diazo reaction. No biaryl is formed when (a) diazotized aniline and sodium benzoate, (b) diazotized anthranilic acid and aqueous sodium benzoate, or (c) diazotized anthranilic acid and benzene are used as components in the reaction.13 On the other hand, the reaction proceeds normally if methyl benzoate is used in reaction (a) or when methyl anthranilate replaces the anthranilic acid in (b) and in (c). The success of the diazohydroxide reaction appears to lie in the ability of the non-aqueous liquid to extract the reactive diazo compound from the aqueous layer.4 However, esters and nitriles can be prepared from esters of aromatic amino acids and cyanoanilines and also by coupling with esters of aromatic acids, and from the products the acids can be obtained by hydrolysis. By coupling N-nitrosoacetanilide with ethyl phthalate, ethyl 4-phenylphthalate (VIII) is formed in 37% yield. 

This reaction is known as the Pinner synthesis. The salt formed may be converted to the free imino ester by treatment with a weak base. It may also be converted to the corresponding ester by an aqueous acid catalyzed hydrolysis. The Pinner reaction is of a general nature and is applicable to aliphatic, aromatic and heterocyclic alcohols. 

Estimation methods for the hydrolysis rates of several types of carboxylic acid esters, carbamates, aromatic nitriles, and phosphoric acid esters have been reported. Hydrolysis rates are subject to substituent effects, and consequently LFERs, as represented by Hammett or Taft correlations, have been applied to their estimations. Reviews (e.g., Harris, 1990 Peijnenburg, 1991 Nendza, 1998) reveal that QSARs are available only for a few compound classes and are based mostly on... 

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