Autocatalytic isomerization

The smallest member of a new family of prolyl iso-merases (unrelated to the cyclophilins or the FK-506 binding proteins) that catalyzes the proline-limited folding of a variant of ribonuclease T1 with a KJK value of 30,000 M s With the tetrapeptide succinyl-Ala-Leu-Pro-Phe-4-nitroanilide as a substrate in parvulin-catalyzed prolyl isomerization, this parameter is 1.1 x 10 M s Parvulin also accelerates its own refolding in an autocatalytic fashion. 

Diazomethane yields the isomeric pyrazolines 40 and 41, respectively, from the bromo esters 38 and 39. These undergo an autocatalytic exothermic conversion to the same 1 //-pyrazole 42 on heating, or on standing in solution (Scheme 13). This is taken as evidence that 25 is an intermediate, because if group migration was concerted with loss of Br , 40 and 41 should give different products.89... 

Data on alkyl radical oxidation between 300° and 800°K. have been studied to establish which of the many elementary reactions proposed for systems containing alkyl radicals and oxygen remain valid when considered in a broad framework, and the rate constants of the most likely major reactions have been estimated. It now seems that olefin formation in autocatalytic oxidations at about 600°K. occurs largely by decomposition of peroxy radicals rather than by direct abstraction of H from an alkyl radical by oxygen. This unimolecular decomposition apparently competes with H abstraction by peroxy radicals and mutual reaction of peroxy radicals. The position regarding other peroxy radical isomerization and decomposition reactions remains obscured by the uncertain effects of reaction vessel surface in oxidations of higher alkanes at 500°-600°K. 

Radical X , which initiates the reaction, is regenerated in a chain propagation sequence that, at the same time, produces an organic peroxide. The latter can be cleaved to form two additional radicals, which can also react with the unsaturated fatty acids to set up the autocatalytic process. Isomerization, chain cleavages, and radical coupling reactions also occur, especially with polyunsaturated fatty acids. For example, reactive unsaturated aldehydes can be formed (Eq. 21-14). 

The importance of alkylperoxy radicals as intermediates had long been realized (see Sect. 2) and their subsequent reaction to yield the alkyl-hydroperoxide or decomposition products such as aldehydes and alcohols had been reasonably successful in describing the mechanism of the autocatalytic oxidation of alkanes. However, even though 0-heterocycles (which cannot be derived from intermediate aldehydes) had been found in the products of the oxidation of n-pentane as early as 1935 [66], the true extent of alkylperoxy radical isomerization reactions has been recognized only recently. Bailey and Norrish [67] first formulated the production of O-heterocycles in terms of alkylperoxy radical isomerization and subsequent cyclization in order to explain the formation of 2,5-dimethyl-tetrahydrofuran during the cool-flame oxidation of n-hexane. Their mechanism was a one-step process which involved direct elimination of OH. However, it is now generally formulated as shown in reactions (147) and(I67)... 

Studies of benzene and toluene oxidation in the turbulent flow reactor at Princeton University have provided valuable information on the mechanisms of oxidation at temperatures in excess of 1000 K [213]. The first extensive study of benzene and toluene at temperatures of about 750 K was made by Burgoyne [35]. Apart from CO and CO2, the major products of benzene oxidation that were detected were phenols and acids. An autocatalytic reaction was observed by Burgoyne [35] presumably driven by H2O2 formation and decomposition. Amongst the main products of toluene slow oxidation were benzyl alcohol, benzaldehyde and benzoic acid. Phenolic compounds were also reported. This reaction also showed an autocatalytic development. An equilibrium constant for the equilibrium between benzyl and benzylperoxy radicals has been measured by Fenter et al. [214], but this cannot be followed by an isomerization in the way that is possible in alkanes. 

Meisenheimer et were the first to study the kinetics of allylic ester isomerizations. They followed the isomerization of a-phenylallyl p-nitroben-zoate and a-phenylallyl 3,4,5-tribromobenzoate to the corresponding cinnamyl benzoates by a tedious analytical procedure involving use of melting point-composition diagrams. They observed that isomerization of the molten esters at 137°C is autocatalytic due to partial slow decomposition of the esters to substituted benzoic acids and unidentified products, and demonstrated that the reaction is catalyzed by added benzoic acids. The rate law for these reactions is... 

Scheme 5.40 depicts the plausible mechanism of the isomerization of trans-dimethylpalladium complex with phosphine ligands to its cis isomer [205]. The three-coordinated dimethylpalladium complex, which is formed via dissociation of a phosphine ligand, reacts with the four-coordinated complex to cause intramolecular methyl ligand exchange. The reaction of trans and cis complexes affords two cis complexes as shown in the above scheme. This promoting effect of the cis complex in the isomerization of trans to cis complex gives autocatalytic type kinetics of the reaction. 

H NMR analysis of the kinetics of skeletal rearrangement of optically pure 3,3-xylyl-2-exo-bornyl tosylate in CDCI3 indicates the operation of tandem autocatalytic and pseudo-first-order transformations, leading sequentially to a pair of isomeric cam-phene derivatives and involving partial racemization (Scheme... 

New data on the inhibited oxidation of polymers, just like the results obtained in a study of a freely developing autocatalytic process, unambiguously indicate the correctness of the mechanism of isomerization of peroxide radicals of polymers even at moderate temperatures (80-110°C). This, of course, is specific only for polymers, as a result of the high viscosity of which the lifetime of the free radicals is increased, and favorable conditions are created for the occurrence of the reaction of their monomolecular decomposition. 

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