C—H bond breaking

In the El mechanism, the leaving group has completely ionized before C—H bond breaking occurs. The direction of the elimination therefore depends on the structure of the carbocation and the identity of the base involved in the proton transfer that follows C—X heterolysis. Because of the relatively high energy of the carbocation intermediate, quite weak bases can effect proton removal. The solvent m often serve this function. The counterion formed in the ionization step may also act as the proton acceptor ... 

In the ElcB reaction, C-H bond-breaking occurs first. A base abstracts a proton to give an anion, followed by loss of the leaving group from the adjacent carbon in a second step. The reaction is favored when the leaving group is two carbons removed from a carbonyl, which stabilizes the intermediate anion by resonance. Biological elimination reactions typically occur by this ElcB mechanism. 

In contrast to these studies, bromination of 1,5-dimethylnaphthalene in 90 % aqueous acetic acid at 25°C did not give a linear correlation of kobI. versus K/(K+ [Br ]), thereby indicating a change in mechanism, so that rate-determining incursion of C-H bond-breaking through steric hindrance was postulated (E. Berliner, J. B. Kim and M. Link, J. Org. Chem., 33 (1968) 1160). 

As has been indicated, since there is a ring isotope effect there must be a degree of C-H bond breaking in the transition state of the rate-determining stage. Clearly further work is required in this system before a definitive mechanism can be established for the intramolecular rearrangement. 

As in the E2 mechanism, it is not necessary that the C—H and C—X bond be equally broken in the transition state. In fact, there is also a spectrum of mechanisms here, ranging from a mechanism in which C—X bond breaking is a good deal more advanced than C—H bond breaking to one in which the extent of bond breaking is virtually identical for the two bonds. Evidence for the existence of the Ei mechanism is... 

Hence, the appearance of gas-phase methane marks Ae occurrence of a C-H bond-breaking step. 

Mechanistic studies have been designed to determine if the concerted cyclic TS provides a good representation of the reaction. A systematic study of all the E- and Z-decene isomers with maleic anhydride showed that the stereochemistry of the reaction could be accounted for by a concerted cyclic mechanism.19 The reaction is only moderately sensitive to electronic effects or solvent polarity. The p value for reaction of diethyl oxomalonate with a series of 1-arylcyclopentenes is —1.2, which would indicate that there is little charge development in the TS.20 The reaction shows a primary kinetic isotope effect indicative of C—H bond breaking in the rate-determining step.21 There is good agreement between measured isotope effects and those calculated on the basis of TS structure.22 These observations are consistent with a concerted process. 

Oxidative additions involving C-H bond breaking have recently been the topic of an extensive study, usually referred to as C-H activation the idea is that the M-H and M-hydrocarbyl bonds formed will be much more prone to functionalization than the unreactive C-H bond. Intramolecular oxidative additions of C-H bonds have been known for quite some time see Figure 2.15. This process is named orthometallation or cyclometallation. It occurs frequently in metal complexes, and is not restricted to "ortho" protons. It is referred to as cyclometallation and is often followed by elimination of HX, while the metal returns to its initial (lower) oxidation state. 

---