Reaction borderline

Several proposals have been made to fit the borderline reactions into a well-defined mechanistic scheme. Most of these adopt one of two viewpoints either (1) borderline substrates undergo concurrent SnI and Sn2 processes, with the particular system determining which mechanism, if either, predominates or (2) all Sn reactions are related by essentially the same mechanism, which differs from case to case in the detailed disposition of electrons in the transition state. In this view pure SnI and Sn2 processes are merely the extreme limiting forms of a single mechanism, and the borderline mechanism is a merged process having some features of both. 

The notion of concurrent SnI and Sn2 reactions has been invoked to account for kinetic observations in the presence of an added nucleophile and for heat capacities of activation,but the hypothesis is not strongly supported. Interpretations of borderline reactions in terms of one mechanism rather than two have been more widely accepted. Winstein et al. have proposed a classification of mechanisms according to the covalent participation by the solvent in the transition state of the rate-determining step. If such covalent interaction occurs, the reaction is assigned to the nucleophilic (N) class if covalent interaction is absent, the reaction is in the limiting (Lim) class. At their extremes these categories become equivalent to Sn and Sn , respectively, but the dividing line between Sn and Sn does not coincide with that between N and Lim. For example, a mass-law effect, which is evidence of an intermediate and therefore of the SnI mechanism, can be observed for some isopropyl compounds, but these appear to be in the N class in aqueous media. 

The chemical behavior of ions, ion pairs, and polarizable molecules partakes of the same indistinctness as the definitions of these species. Any attempt to make a complete catalog of the reactions of ions will almost certainly include borderline reactions whose intermediates are in fact ion-pairs or even covalent molecules. For many purposes the identification of a reaction as carbonium ion-like, or what the Germans would call Krypto-ionenreaktion, is as useful as the certain knowledge that the intermediate is actually a carbonium ion. Many of the ionic reaction mechanisms in the literature do not represent actual free ions and were not so intended by their authors. The ionic representation is often merely a convenient simplification if it is an oversimplification it is one that is easily rectified when the pertinent data become available. The value of such approximate mechanisms is that... 

The essential features of the mechanism for aliphatic nucleophilic substitution at tertiary carbon were established in studies by Hughes and Ingold." ° However, as chemists probed more deeply, the problems associated with the characterization of borderline reaction mechanisms were encountered, and controversy remains to this day about whether these problems have been entirely solved." What is generally accepted is that ferf-butyl derivatives undergo borderline solvolysis reactions through a ferf-butyl carbocation intermediate that is too unstable to diffuse freely through nucleophilic solvents such as methanol and water. The borderline nature of substitution reactions at tertiary carbon is exemplihed by the following observations. 

The rate constant for solvolysis of the model tertiary substrate 5-Cl is independent of the concentration of added azide ion, and the reaction gives only a low yield of the azide ion adduct (e.g., 16% in the presence of 0.50 M NaNa in 50 50 (v/v) water/trifluoroethanol]." Therefore, this is a borderline reaction for which it is not possible to determine the kinetic order with respect to azide ion, because of uncertainties about specific salt effects on the reaction." ... 

An early example of dynamical bifurcation is seen for SN2/ET borderline reaction shown in Scheme 7.65 68,70 75... 

Bodenstein approximation, 101 Boltzmann constant, 202 Boltzmann distribution, 157, 201 Bond dissociation curve, 191, 293 Bond dissociation eneigy, 196 Bond order, 223 Borderline reactions, 429 Bom equation, 408... 

The balance between the S l and 8 2 reactions can be altered by changes in the solvent or by suitable substituents. Thus we have already seen (Table 5.2) that polar solvents accelerate reactions of neutral alkyl derivatives RX but retard their S 2 reactions with anionic nucleophiles. In such cases, an increase in solvent polarity favors the S l reaction, and a decrease favors the S 2. This is seen nicely in the case of borderline reactions such as that of benzyl chloride. In aqueous alcohol, hydrolysis is of an intermediate character, hydroxide ion accelerating the reaction, which, however, is not of first order in HO. In the more ionizing solvent, formic acid, for-molyis is of zeroth order in formate ion, the reaction being S l. In acetone, on the other hand, a poor ionizing solvent, benzyl chloride readily undergoes normal 5 2 reactions. Thus ... 

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