Carboxylate ions nucleophilic addition

The effect of a carboxy group is illustrated by the reactivity of 2-bromopyridine-3- and 6-carboxylic acids (resonance and inductive activation, respectively) (cf. 166) to aqueous acid under conditions which do not give hydroxy-debromination of 2-bromopyridine and also by the hydroxy-dechlorination of 3-chloropyridine-4-car-boxylic acid. The intervention of intermolecular bifunctional autocatalysis by the carboxy group (cf. 237) is quite possible. In the amino-dechlorination (80°, 4 hr, petroleum ether) of 5-carbethoxy-4-chloropyrimidine there is opportunity for built-in solvation (167) in addition to electronic activation. This effect of the carboxylate ion, ester, and acid and its variation with charge on the nucleophile are discussed in Sections I,D,2,a, I,D,2,b, and II,B, 1. A 5-amidino group activates 2-methylsulfonylpyridine toward methanolic am-... 

Following formation of the amide intermediate, a second nucleophilic addition of hydroxide ion to the amide carbonyl group then yields a tetrahedral alkoxide ion, which expels amide ion, NHZ-, as leaving group and gives the car-boxylate ion, thereby driving the reaction toward products. Subsequent acidification in a separate step yields the carboxylic acid. We ll look at this process in more detail in Section 21.7. 

Nitriles are similar in some respects to carboxylic acids and are prepared either by SN2 reaction of an alkyl halide with cyanide ion or by dehydration of an amide. Nitriles undergo nucleophilic addition to the polar C=N bond in the same way that carbonyl compounds do. The most important reactions of nitriles are their hydrolysis to carboxylic acids, reduction to primary amines, and reaction with organometallic reagents to yield ketones. 

Lster hydrolysis occurs through a typical nucleophilic acyl substitution pathway in which hydroxide ion is the nucleophile that adds to the ester carbonyl group to give a tetrahedral intermediate. Loss of alkoxide ion then gives a carboxylic acid, which is deprotonated to give the carboxylate ion. Addition of aqueous HC1 in a separate step after the saponification is complete then pro-tonates the carboxylate ion and gives the carboxylic acid (Figure 21.17). 

Basic hydrolysis occurs by nucleophilic addition of OH- to the amide carbonyl group, followed by elimination of amide ion (-NH2) and subsequent deprotonation of the initially formed carboxylic acid by amide ion. The steps are reversible, with the equilibrium shifted toward product by the final deprotonation of the carboxylic acid. Basic hydrolysis is substantially more difficult than the analogous acid-catalyzed reaction because amide ion is a very poor leaving group, making the elimination step difficult. 

Reductive animations also occur in various biological pathways, fn the biosynthesis of the amino acid proline, for instance, glutamate 5-semjaldehyde undergoes internal imine formation to give 1-pyrrolinium 5-carboxylate, which is then reduced by nucleophilic addition of hydride ion to the C=N bond. 

The nucleophiles that are used for synthetic purposes include water, alcohols, carboxylate ions, hydroperoxides, amines, and nitriles. After the addition step is complete, the mercury is usually reductively removed by sodium borohydride, the net result being the addition of hydrogen and the nucleophile to the alkene. The regio-selectivity is excellent and is in the same sense as is observed for proton-initiated additions.17... 

In HO -catalyzed hydrolysis (specific base catalyzed hydrolysis), the tetrahedral intermediate is formed by the addition of a nucleophilic HO ion (Fig. 3.1, Pathway b). This reaction is irreversible for both esters and amides, since the carboxylate ion formed is deprotonated in basic solution and, hence, is not receptive to attack by the nucleophilic alcohol, phenol, or amine. The reactivity of the carboxylic acid derivative toward a particular nucleophile depends on a) the relative electron-donating or -withdrawing power of the substituents on the carbonyl group, and b) the relative ability of the -OR or -NR R" moiety to act as a leaving group. Thus, electronegative substituents accelerate hydrolysis, and esters are more readily hydrolyzed than amides. 

The value of = 1 X 10 s for the first-order rate constant for collapse of an ion pair between Me-4 and pentaflourobenzoate ion is larger than the second-order rate constant rcoo = 5x10 M s reported for the bimolecular addition of alkane carboxylates to Me-4. This second-order rate constant is limited by the rate constant for formation of an ion pair between Me-4 and a carboxylate ion. The larger barrier to encounter-limited reactions of carboxylate ions compared with the diffusion-limited reactions of anions such as azide ion, = 5 X 10 represents the barrier to desolvation of nucleophile that must precede formation of an ion pair between Me-4 and a carboxylate ion (Scheme 13). ... 

Nucleophilic addition to C=0 (contd.) ammonia derivs., 219 base catalysis, 204, 207, 212, 216, 226 benzoin condensation, 231 bisulphite anion, 207, 213 Cannizzaro reaction, 216 carbanions, 221-234 Claisen ester condensation, 229 Claisen-Schmidt reaction, 226 conjugate, 200, 213 cyanide ion, 212 Dieckmann reaction, 230 electronic effects in, 205, 208, 226 electrons, 217 Grignard reagents, 221, 235 halide ion, 214 hydration, 207 hydride ion, 214 hydrogen bonding in, 204, 209 in carboxylic derivs., 236-244 intermediates in, 50, 219 intramolecular, 217, 232 irreversible, 215, 222 Knoevenagel reaction, 228 Lewis acids in, 204, 222 Meerwein-Ponndorf reaction, 215 MejSiCN, 213 nitroalkanes, 226 Perkin reaction, 227 pH and, 204, 208, 219 protection, 211... 

In, tiie first part of tiie program we considered only aldehydes and ketones. We re now going t o look at tiie full range of structures including carboxylic acids, RCO.OH acid chlorides RC0.C1, and esters RCO.OR. Using your knowledge of nucleophilic addition, what would be the first reaction between hydroxide ion and benzoyl chloride PhCO.Cl ... 

The 7-formyl- and 7-acetyl- pyrrolizines are formed by an iminium carboxylate intermediate followed by decarboxylation to the cyclic iminium ion which underwent nucleophilic addition followed by aldol ring closure. This pathway accounts for the 7-formyl-5-methyl [vi] and 7-acetyl-5-methyl [vii] depending if the iminium addition is by OHCCH2OH or CH3COCH2O. 

The methoxide ion uses of its lone pairs of electrons to form a bond to the electrophilic carbonyl carbon of the acid chloride. Simultaneously, the relatively weak n bond of the carbonyl group breaks and both of the n electrons move onto the carbonyl oxygen to give it a third lone pair of electrons and a negative charge. This is exactly the same first step involved in nucleophilic addition to aldehydes and ketones. However, with an aldehyde or a ketone, the tetrahedral structure is the final product. With carboxylic acid derivatives, the lone pair of electrons on oxygen return to reform the carbonyl n bond (Step 2). As this happens, the C-Cl o bond breaks with both electrons moving onto the chlorine to form a chloride ion that departs the molecule. 

Carboxylic acid derivatives undergo nucleophilic substitution whereas aldehydes and ketones undergo nucleophilic addition. This is because nucleophilic substitution of a ketone or an aldehyde would generate a carbanion or a hydride ion respectively (Following fig.). These ions are unstable and highly reactive, so they are only formed with difficulty. Furthermore, C-C and C-H o bonds are easily broken. Therefore, nucleophilic substitutions of aldehydes or ketones are not feasible. 

Carboxylic acids, acid chlorides, acid anhydrides and esters get reduced to primary alcohols when treated with lithium aluminium hydride (LiAlH) (Fig.M). The reaction involves nucleophilic substitution by a hydride ion to give an intermediate aldehyde. This cannot be isolated since the aldehyde immediately undergoes a nucleophilic addition reaction with another hydride ion (Fig.N). The detailed mechanism is as shown in fig.O. 

Reduction to Aldehydes Reduction of carboxylic acids to aldehydes is difficult because aldehydes are more reactive than carboxylic acids toward most reducing agents. Almost any reagent that reduces acids to aldehydes also reduces aldehydes to primary alcohols. In Section 18-10, we saw that lithium tri-ferf-butoxyaluminum hydride, LiAlH(0-f-Bu)3 is a weaker reducing agent than lithium aluminum hydride. It reduces acid chlorides to aldehydes because acid chlorides are strongly activated toward nucleophilic addition of a hydride ion. Under these conditions, the aldehyde reduces more slowly and can be isolated. Therefore, reduction of an acid to an aldehyde is a two-step process Convert the acid to the acid chloride, then reduce using lithium tri-ferf-butoxyaluminum hydride. 

The mechanism of Orignard carboxylation is similfir to that of other Grignard reaction. a G bond of carbon dioxide in a typical nucleophilic addit ion reaction. Pro-tonotion of the carboxylaic by addilion of aqueous MCI in a separate step then gives the free carboxylic acid product... 

The mechanism of the btiaic hydrolysis involves nucleophilic addition uf hydrnucleophilic addition to a polar carbonyl OO bund. Next, the initially formed Itydrojiy iminc isomerizes to an amide in a etep similar to tht isomorixa-tion of an enol to a kctoiw (Section 8.5 J. FVrther hydrolyaie of the amide, as discussed in the previous section, then yields the carboxylic acid i Figure 21.121. 

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