Carbocations in solvolysis

Reference has already been made in the last chapter to the generation of carbocations, in ion pairs, as intermediates in some displacement reactions at a saturated carbon atom, e.g. the solvolysis of an alkyl halide via the SN1 mechanism. Carbocations are, however, fairly widespread in occurrence and, although their existence is often only transient, they are of considerable importance in a wide variety of chemical reactions. 

Silyl effects in carbocations which were predicted computationally and have been observed in the gas phase and in solvolysis reactions have been proven by NMR spectroscopic investigation of long-lived silyl-substftuted carbocations in... 

The typical reactions of carbocation intermediates were discussed in Chapter 7. The solvolysis of alkyl halides is an example of the involvement of carbocations in the SnI mechanism, in other words, where the final outcome is a nucleophilic substitution. The first step is a heterolytic cleavage of the C—X bond. Properties of X which favor heterolytic cleavage, namely electronegativity difference with carbon (the larger, the better) and the degree of overlap of the X orbital with the spn orbital of carbon (the smaller the better), have already been elucidated (Chapter 4). The transition state has partial... 

Carbocations with trivalent carbon may have carbon with coordination number 2. Acyl ions have already been mentioned the vinyl cations, or car-bynium ions (26), have been detected as intermediates in addition of electrophiles to acetylenes and allenes and in solvolysis reactions with the highly reactive trifluoromethanesulfonate (triflate) leaving group.84 Vinyl cations are expected... 

Shiner and coworkers also studied optically active acyclic secondary sulphonate esters and found rate accelerations of about 100 in solvolysis in TFA at 25 °C compared with the alkyl reference (Table 8)93-95. From the product distribution and the stereochemical outcome of the solvolysis Shiner and coworkers proposed the reaction course outlined in equation 37 for the brosylate 23994. The transition state for the ionization adopts the W conformation and, to a smaller extent, the ewrfo-Sickle conformation and results in the formation of /-silicon carbocation which is stabilized by a percaudal interaction. The incoming nucleophile attacks the bridged ion from the front side94. 

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