Azide clock

Both these parameters reflect a moderate stability for BrN3 in methanol. This feature made it impossible to apply the azide clock method to determine the lifetime of the ionic intermediates arising from deactivated alkenes (for example, / ,p -bis(trifluoromethyl)stilbenes). Nevertheless, for a couple of p-methoxy substituted stilbenes and unsubstituted stilbenes the selectivity ratios reported in Table II have been found. (IT)... 

The determination of the lifetime of the ionic intermediates using the azide-clock method has been however useful in showing that electrophilic addition of Br2 can occur, even through a fully concerted mechanism, definable as SN2-like. Bromination of cyclic enol ethers (glycals) 8-10 in methanol in the presence of... 

Lifetimes of the ionic intermediates of nucleophilic substitution are generally correlated to the pathways followed under given reaction conditions. Information on the lifetimes of ionic intermediates formed by bromine addition to olefins in methanol, as determined by the azide clock method, do not allow the different reaction pathways to be distin-... 

Recognizing this, Richard and Jencks, proposed using azide ion as a clock for obtaining absolute reactivities of less stable cations. The basic assumption is that azide ion is reacting at the diffusion limit with the cation. Taking 5 x 10 M s as the second-order rate constant for this reaction, measurement of the selectivity fcaz Nu for the competition between azide ion and a second nucleophile then provides the absolute rate constant since feaz is known. The clock approach has now been applied to a number of cations, with measurements of selectivities by both competition kinetics and common ion inhibition. Other nucleophiles have been employed as the clock. The laser flash photolysis (LFP) experiments to be discussed later have verified the azide clock assumption. Cations with lifetimes in water less than about 100 ps do react with azide ion with a rate constant in the range 5-10x10 M- s-, " which means that rate constants obtained by a clock method can be viewed with reasonable confidence. 

Figure 13.62. Azide clock method for determining arylnitrenium ion reaction rate constants.

The application of the azide clock methodology to nitrenium ions was made by Fishbein and McClelland who showed that NJ trapped a reactive intermediate identified as the nitrenium ion 75m, during the Bamberger rearrangement of N-(2,6-dimethylphenyl)hydroxylamine (Scheme 33)7 Kinetic studies showed that the NJ-solvent partitioning occurred after the rate-limiting step of the reaction so an Sn2 process could be eliminated. The selectivity ratio, was determined to be 7.5 M . Assuming that k is... 

Azide/solvent selectivity data in predominately aqueous solution have been collected for over 30 nitrenium ions either by the azide clock method or by direct measurement of k - and k on ions generated by laser flash... 

Conditions 5% CH3CH-H2O, = 0.5 (NaC104), T = 20°C, unless otherwise indicated. If and are reported, the rate constants were directly measured from photochemically generated ions. If only log 5 is reported, the selectivity was measured by the azide clock procedure. X is the observed [azide adduct]/[hydration product] ratio extrapolated to 1 M NJ. 

Effects of the aryl substituents X on knuc for alcohols and H2O were different from those expected for arylcarbenium ions, but were very similar to those deduced for from azide-clock experiments on similarly substituted nitrenium ions generated by solvolysis reactions in... 

Shortly after Anderson and Falvey reported the first observation of a shortlived nitrenium ion in CH3CN by UV spectroscopy, Novak and McClelland and co-workers demonstrated that the nitrenium ions 75h and 75o could be observed in aqueous solution after LFP of the pivalic acid ester 76h, the sulfuric acid ester 76o, and its N-chloro analogue N-chloro-4-phenylacetanilide. The transients with A ax of ca. 450 nm were identified as singlet nitrenium ions, based on the kinetics of their decomposition in the presence of NJ, the equivalence of kaz/ks determined by the azide clock method and by direct observation, the lack of sensitivity of the transients to O2, product studies that showed similar products from solvolytic and photolytic decomposition of N-chloro-4-phenylacetanilide, and identical transient UV spectra for 75o derived either from 76o or its N-chloro analogue. A comparison of azide/solvent selectivity data obtained by azide clock and direct observation of 7Sh and 75o is presented in Table 1. 

Care also needs to be taken with the interpretation of UV-visible spectra in concentrated acid solutions. Richard and Amyes have shown that p fR2° = —16.6 for the 9-methylfluorenyl cation involves an incorrect assignment of spectra and that a value based on azide clock measurements (see below) is —11.9.69... 

Richard and Jencks combined the above method with use of the azide clock to determine values of pA R for a-phenethyl carbocations bearing electron-donating substituents in the benzene ring and for the cumyl cation for a wider range of substituents.22,89 They inferred values for the parent... 

A further indication of aromatic stability is provided by measurement of pAR for the cycloheptadienyl cation 35. This ion is a homolog of the cyclohex-adienyl cation (pAR = -2.3) and might have been expected to have a similar stability. In practice, measurements in aqueous solution using the azide clock show that pAR is —11.6, which corresponds to a decrease in stability of 12.5kcalmol-1.88 It seems unlikely that this difference arises solely from strain in the cycloheptadienyl ring. Moreover, for the dibenzocycloheptadienyl cation, 36, a pAR = -8.7 can be deduced from measurements in aqueous trifluoroacetic acid (Scheme 25).170 Despite the difference in solvents it seems clear that in this case and in contrast to its effect in Scheme 24 dibenzoannelation strongly stabilizes the cation. 

A further dependence of the selectivity between different nucleophiles on the stability and reactivity of carbocations was found by Richard and Amyes in a study of reactions of alcohols and carboxylate anions with -substituted a-trifluoromethyl benzyl cations (75, X = Me, OMe, SMe, N(Me)CH2CF3, and NMe2) monitored using the azide clock.305 Apart from the methyl-substituted substrate, for which the reactions approached diffusion control,... 

Scheme 2.24 The azide clock involving competitive trapping of a carbenium ion by water and azide.

The reaction of azide ions with carbocations is the basis of the azide clock method for estimating carbocation lifetimes in hydroxylic solvents (lifetime = 1 lkiy where lq, is the first-order rate constant for attack of water on the carbocation) this is analogous to the radical clock technique discussed in Chapter 10. In the present case, a rate-product correlation is assumed for the very rapid competing product-forming steps of SN1 reactions (Scheme 2.24). Because the slow step of an SN1 reaction is formation of a carbocation, typical kinetic data do not provide information about this step. Furthermore, the rate constant for the reaction of azide ion with a carbocation (kaz) is assumed to be diffusion controlled (ca. 5 x 109 M 1 s 1). The rate constant for attack by water can then be obtained from the mole ratio of azide product/solvolysis product, and the molar concentrations of azide (Equation 2.18, equivalent to Equation 2.14) [48]. The reliability of the estimated lifetimes was later... 

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