Bimolecular conjugate addition

Anionic polymerization of methacrylates involves enolate intermediates of diverse molecular weight. These distinctive enolates are readily formed via a number of consecutive conjugate addition steps. As discussed in Section 6.1, control of reactivity and selectivity of enolates should directly reflect the stereoselective synthesis of poly(methyl methacrylate)s (PMMA). Thus it is advisable to compare the nature of aluminum enolates involved in bimolecular and polymolecular reactions. 

In addition to solvolysis and nitrenium ion formation, Af-aLkoxy-A-chloroamides (2) also undergo bimolecular reactions with nucleophiles at nitrogen. Not only is the configuration destabilized by the anomeric effect, it also parallels that of a-halo ketones, where halogen on an sp carbon is activated towards reactions by the adjacent carbonyl. This rate-enhancing effect on 8 /2 processes at carbon is well-known, and has been attributed to conjugation of the p-orbital on carbon with the carbonyl jr-bond in the S 2 transition state stabilization of ionic character at the central carbon as outlined by Pross as weU as electrostatic attraction to the carbonyl carbon. The transition states are also affected by the nature of the nucleophile. ... 

Non-activated double bonds, e.g. in the allylic disulfide 1 (Fig. 10.2) in which there are no substituents in conjugation with the double bond, require high initiator concentrations in order to achieve reasonable polymerisation rates. This indicates that competition between addition of initiator radicals (R = 2-cyanoisopropyl from AIBN) to the double bond of 1 and bimolecular side reactions (e.g. bimolecular initiator radical-initiator radical reactions outside the solvent cage with rate = 2A t[R ]2 where k, is the second-order rate constant) cannot be neglected. To quantify this effect, [R ] was evaluated using the quadratic Equation 10.5 describing the steady-state approximation for R (i.e. the balance between the radical production and reaction). In Equation 10.5, [M]0 is the initial monomer concentration, k is as in Equation 10.4 (and approximately equal to the value for the addition of the cyanoisopropyl radical to 1-butene) [3] and k, = 109 dm3 mol 1 s l / is assumed to be 0.5, which is typical for azo-initiators (Section 10.2). The value of 11, for the cyanoisopropyl radicals and 1 was estimated to be less than Rpr (Equation 10.3) by factors of 0.59, 0.79 and 0.96 at 50, 60 and 70°C, respectively, at the monomer and initiator concentrations used in benzene [5] ... 

Ad 2 (Addition, Electrophilic, Bimolecular), A -i- An and Hetero Ad Z, p.t. + AdN El (Elimination, Unimolecular), Dn + Dg and Lone-Pair-Assisted El, Ep + p.t. Se2Ar Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution, Ag + Dg ElcB (Elimination, Unimolecular, Conjugate Base), p.t.-i-Ep AdN2 (Addition, Nucleophilic, Bimolecular), AdN + P f ... 

A third member of the bimolecular then unimolecular reaction class is a variant of the previous mechanism. In this case, the conjugate base of biotin reacts with bicarbonate to produce an addition intermediate that then reacts with ATP (Scheme 23). It is likely that the phosphorus of the terminal group of ATP would preassociate with an oxygen of bicarbonate. In particular, if the anionic center of bicarbonate associates with a cation, the 7r-electron density of bicarbonate would align with the phosphorus of the terminal phosphate of ATP. The addition of the conjugate base of a urea to a carboxylate is an appropriate model for this mechanism. The intermediate should be very reactive toward ATP based on the observation that the conjugate base of a carbonyl hydrate reacts rapidly with an internal phosphate ester (59). 

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