Carbocations transition states

There is a very close relationship, based on electron count, among boranes, carboranes, and carbocations. Transition states located in the study of a surface related by the same electron count would also serve as an excellent guess. 

This order compares well with that of the decreasing susceptibility to elearophilic substitution of the three positions of the ring and of benzene. This comparison is justified by the analogy of the transition states of both reactions. The observed order agrees also with that of the calculated v net charge on the site of fixation of the incipient carbocation (133) ... 

The transition state is closer m energy to the carbocation (tert butyl cation) so Its structure more closely resembles the carbocation than it resembles tert butyloxonium ion The transition state has considerable carbocation character meaning that a significant degree of positive charge has developed at carbon... 

The major difference between the two mechanisms is the second step The second step m the reaction of tert butyl alcohol with hydrogen chloride is the ummolecular dis sociation of tert butyloxonium ion to tert butyl cation and water Heptyloxonium ion however instead of dissociating to an unstable primary carbocation reacts differently It IS attacked by bromide ion which acts as a nucleophile We can represent the transition state for this step as... 

FIGURE 5 8 Methyl migration in 1 2 2 tnmethylpropyl cation Structure (a) is the initial second ary carbocation structure (b) is the transition state for methyl migration and structure (c) is the final tertiary carbocation... 

Dehydrohalogenation of alkyl halides (Sections 5 14-5 16) Strong bases cause a proton and a halide to be lost from adjacent carbons of an alkyl halide to yield an alkene Regioselectivity is in accord with the Zaitsev rule The order of halide reactivity is I > Br > Cl > F A concerted E2 reaction pathway is followed carbocations are not involved and rearrangements do not occur An anti coplanar arrangement of the proton being removed and the halide being lost characterizes the transition state... 

This suggests that as water attacks the bromonium ion positive charge develops on the carbon from which the bromine departs The transition state has some of the character of a carbocation We know that more substituted carbocations are more stable than less substituted ones therefore when the bromonium ion ring opens it does so by breaking the bond between bromine and the more substituted carbon... 

More stable transition state has some of the character of a tertiary carbocation... 

Section 16 13 Under conditions of acid catalysis nucleophiles attack the carbon that can better support a positive charge Carbocation character is developed m the transition state... 

The sp hybridized carbon of an acyl chloride is less sterically hindered than the sp hybridized carbon of an alkyl chloride making an acyl chloride more open toward nude ophilic attack Also unlike the 8 2 transition state or a carbocation intermediate m an Stvfl reaction the tetrahedral intermediate m nucleophilic acyl substitution has a stable arrangement of bonds and can be formed via a lower energy transition state... 

Electronegative, nonconjugating groups (which interact with an incipient carbocation only by an inductive or field effect) discourage attack at C. This is due to destabilization of transition state (49) by the juxtaposition of positive charge. 

Application of Hammond s postulate indicates that the transition state should resemble the product of the first step, the carbocation intermediate. Ionization is facilitated by factors that either lower the energy of the carbocation or raise the energy of the reactant. The rate of ionization depends primarily on how reactant structure and solvent ionizing power affect these energies. 

For many secondary sulfonates, nucleophilic substitution seems to be best explained by a concerted mechanism with a high degree of carbocation character at the transition state. This has been described as an exploded transition state. Both the breaking and forming bonds are relatively weak so that the carbon has a substantial positive charge. However, the carbocation per se has no lifetime because bond breaking and fonnadon occur concurrently."... 

Substitution reactions by the ionization mechanism proceed very slowly on a-halo derivatives of ketones, aldehydes, acids, esters, nitriles, and related compounds. As discussed on p. 284, such substituents destabilize a carbocation intermediate. Substitution by the direct displacement mechanism, however, proceed especially readily in these systems. Table S.IS indicates some representative relative rate accelerations. Steric effects be responsible for part of the observed acceleration, since an sfp- caibon, such as in a carbonyl group, will provide less steric resistance to tiie incoming nucleophile than an alkyl group. The major effect is believed to be electronic. The adjacent n-LUMO of the carbonyl group can interact with the electnai density that is built up at the pentacoordinate carbon. This can be described in resonance terminology as a contribution flom an enolate-like stmeture to tiie transition state. In MO terminology,.the low-lying LUMO has a... 

Even though the rearrangements suggest that discrete carbocation intermediates are involved, these reactions frequently show kinetics consistent with the presence of at least two hydrogen chloride molecules in the rate-determining transition state. A termolecular mechanism in which the second Itydrogen chloride molecule assists in the ionization of the electrophile has been suggested. ... 

An interpretation of activation parameters has led to the conclusion that the bromination transition state resembles a three-membered ring, even in the case of alkenes that eventually react via open carbocation intermediates. It was foimd that for cis trans pairs of alkenes tiie difference in enthalpy at the transition state for bromination was greater than the enthalpy difference for the isomeric alkenes, as shown in Fig. 6.2. This... 

There is another useiiil way of depicting the ideas embodied in the variable transition state theory of elimination reactions. This is to construct a three-dimensional potential energy diagram. Suppose that we consider the case of an ethyl halide. The two stepwise reaction paths both require the formation of high-energy intermediates. The El mechanism requires formation of a carbocation whereas the Elcb mechanism proceeds via a caibanion intermediate. 

Fig. 6.5. Representation of changes in transition-state character in the variable transition state E2 elimination reaetion, showing displacement of transition-state location as a result of substituent effects (a) substituent Z stabilizes catfaanion character of Elcb-like transition state (b) substituent R stabilizes carbocation character of El-like transitions state.

The transition state is closer in energy to the car bocation and more closely resembles it than the alkyloxonium ion. Thus, structural features that stabilize car bocations stabilize transition states leading to them. It follows, therefore, that alkyloxonium ions derived from tertiary alcohols have a lower energy of activation for dissociation and are converted to their- corresponding carbocations faster than those derived from secondary and primar y alcohols. Simply put more stable carbocations are formed faster than less stable ones. Figure 4.17 expresses this principle via a potential energy diagran. 

This reanangement is shown in orbital terms in Figure 5.8. The relevant orbitals of the secondary car bocation are shown in structure (a), those of the transition state for reanangement in (b), and those of the tertiary carbocation in (c). Delocalization of the electrons of the C—CH3 a bond into the vacant p orbital of the positively charged car bon by hyperconjugation is present in both (a) and (c), requires no activation energy, and... 

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