Carboxylic acid derivatives protonation

A classical way to achieve regioselectivity in an (a -i- d -reaction is to start with a-carbanions of carboxylic acid derivatives and electrophilic ketones. Most successful are condensations with 1,3-dicarbonyl carbanions, e.g. with malonic acid derivatives, since they can be produced at low pH, where ketones do not enolize. Succinic acid derivatives can also be de-protonated and added to ketones (Stobbe condensation). In the first example given below a Dieckmann condensation on a nitrile follows a Stobbe condensation, and selectivity is dictated by the tricyclic educt neither the nitrile group nor the ketone is enolizable (W.S. Johnson, 1945, 1947). 

When a Br nsted base functions catalytically by sharing an electron pair with a proton, it is acting as a general base catalyst, but when it shares the electron with an atom other than the proton it is (by definition) acting as a nucleophile. This other atom (electrophilic site) is usually carbon, but in organic chemistry it might also be, for example, phosphorus or silicon, whereas in inorganic chemistry it could be the central metal ion in a coordination complex. Here we consider nucleophilic reactions at unsaturated carbon, primarily at carbonyl carbon. Nucleophilic reactions of carboxylic acid derivatives have been well studied. These acyl transfer reactions can be represented by... 

The addition of a nucleophile to a polar C=0 bond is the key step in thre< of the four major carbonyl-group reactions. We saw in Chapter 19 that when. nucleophile adds to an aldehyde or ketone, the initially formed tetrahedra intermediate either can be protonated to yield an alcohol or can eliminate th< carbonyl oxygen, leading to a new C=Nu bond. When a nucleophile adds to carboxylic acid derivative, however, a different reaction course is followed. Tin initially formed tetrahedral intermediate eliminates one of the two substituent originally bonded to the carbonyl carbon, leading to a net nucleophilic acy substitution reaction (Figure 21.1. ... 

This is a consequence of delocalization, with resonance stabilization being possible when the carbonyl oxygen is protonated, but not possible should the OR oxygen become protonated. This additional resonance stabilization is not pertinent to aldehydes and ketones, which are thus less basic than the carboxylic acid derivatives. However, these oxygen derivatives are still very weak bases, and are only protonated in the presence of strong acids. 

Acyl halides and anhydrides are the most reactive class of carboxylic acid derivatives, and readily react with amines to give amides. It should be noted that in both cases the leaving group is a conjugate base that, upon protonation during the reaction, will become an... 

Therefore, using either direct Birch reduction alkylation or Birch reduction-protonation-enolate formation alkylation, both followed by auxiliary removal, it is possible to prepare either enantiomer of a desired 2,5-cyclohexadiene-l -carboxylic acid derivative in excellent enantiomeric purity from the same starting materials. 

Earlier attempted interpretations of the hydrogen bond with the help of resonance or delocalization forces, e.g. in the case of the dimeric carboxylic acids (Illa-d) or, in particular, of substances containing intramolecular hydrogen bonds such as o-nitrosophenol (IVa-d), were shown to be untenable by unambiguous experimental evidence. Thus, in the dimer carboxylic acids the proton is not in the centre of the 0. O distance and the C=0 and C—OH distances are not identical [7], and derivatives of ortho-hydroxyazobenzene and of ortho-nitrosophenol have been shown to exist as solvent-dependent tautomeric equilibria (II), in spite of the presence of the internal hydrogen bond in both tautomers [3, 4]. 

Unsaturated hydrocarbons (alkenes, dienes) react with carbon monoxide and a proton source (H20, alcohols, amines, acids) under strong acidic conditions to form carboxylic acids or carboxylic acid derivatives. Since a carbocationic mechanism is operative, not only alkenes but also other compounds that can serve as the carbocation source (alcohols, saturated hydrocarbons) can be carboxylated. Metal catalysts can also effect the carboxylation of alkenes, dienes, alkynes, and alcohols. 

The standard notation for successive acid dissociation constants of a polyprotic acid is Kt, K2, K2, and so on, with the subscript a usually omitted. We retain or omit the subscript as dictated by clarity. For successive base hydrolysis constants, we retain the subscript b. The preceding examples illustrate that Kal (or K ) refers to the acidic species with the most protons, and Kbl refers to the basic species with the least number of protons. Carbonic acid, a very important diprotic carboxylic acid derived from COz, is described in Box 6-4. 

Theoretical studies have been reported for the neutral29 and alkaline30,31 hydrolysis of formamide. A theoretical study of the acid hydrolysis of iV-formylaziridine concluded that both N- and O-protonated pathways compete.32 In an historical overview of tetrahedral intermediates in the reactions of carboxylic acid derivatives with nucleophiles, several citations of amide reactions are included.33... 

Tab. 6.2 Energy Gain through Resonance in Nonprotonated and Protonated Carboxylic Acid Derivatives...

The mechanism for acidic conditions is very similar, except that the carbonyl oxygen and/or the leaving group is protonated. The reactivity of the carboxylic acid derivative is affected by the following ... 

The structural analysis has been carried out right up to the recognition of molecular Level (i, 2). a-Chymotrypsin is poly(amino acid) consisting of 245 amino adds, having relatively deep grooves. It catalyzes the hydrolysis of carboxylic acid derivatives such as protein, simple amides, esters, etc. The active site is composed of aspartic add, Asp (102). .. histidine, His (57). .. serine, Ser (195), and the distances between Asp. .. His and His... Ser are 2.8 A and 3.0 A, respectively. Electronic structures of these moieties depend on the pH of the reaction system. In the range of pH > 7 at which a-chymotrypsin is active, —COO" of Asp attracts N4 proton in imidazolyl of His, and Nj in the imidazolyl of His attracts the proton in OH of Ser. It is called charge-relay system . 

Figure 6.2 shows the standard mechanism of substitution reactions carried out on carboxylic acid derivatives in neutral or basic solutions. The tetrahedral intermediate— formed in the rate-determining step—can be converted to the substitution product via two different routes. The shorter route consists of a single step the leaving group X is eliminated with a rate constant elim. In this way the substitution product is formed in a total of two steps. The longer route to the same substitution product is realized when the tetrahedral intermediate is protonated. To what extent this occurs depends, according to Equation 6.1, on the pH value and on the equilibrium constant Xeq defined in Figure 6.2 ...

The proton spectra of 1-substituted 3-nitropyrazoles [296], 5-substituted 3-methyl-l-aryl-4-nitropyrazoles [297, 298], 1,3- and l,5-diphenyl-4-nitropyra-zoles [281], 5-iodo-4-nitro-l,3-dimethylpyrazole [299], l-methyl-3-nitro-4- and l,3-methyl-4-nitro-5-phenylethynylpyrazoles [300], l-methyl-3-nitro-5-methoxy-carbonylpyrazole [301], l-methyl-3-nitro- and l-methyl-5-nitro-4-cyanopyrazoles [302], A-(2,4-dinitrophenyl)nitropyrazoles [303], a- and [3-anomers of 3-nitro-and4-nitropyrazolyl-l-ribonucleosides [304, 305], 3-substituted 1,5-dimethyl- [306] and 5-substituted l,3-dimethyl-4-nitropyrazoles [279], l-acetyl-3-anilino-4-nitro-5-dimethylaminopyrazoles [307], 3-substituted 4-nitro-5-carboxylic acid derivatives [308, 309], 4-nitropyrazolo[4,3-e][l, 4]diazepin-5,8-diones showing antimicrobial activity [310], l-heteryl-4-nitropyrazole derivatives [311], 3-nitro- and 5-nitro-l-methylpyrazole [312], 4-nitro-5-(trimethylsilyl)pyrazole [313], 3-methyl-4-nitro-pyrazol-5-ones [298], and some other nitropyrazoles [248, 314-320] have been examined. 

Mass spectrometry is one of the major techniques in the interdisciplinary field of proteomics. It provides a rapid, sensitive and reliable means of protein identification and structural determination, allowing for development in this newly baptised but yet classical field of biochemistry and biomedicine. The use of electrospray ionisation in conjunction with a tandem mass spectrometer (MS/MS) provides essential amino acid sequence information from the m/z values of the so-called b andy ions formed from cleavage of the amide bond of a protonated peptide. This reaction requires proton catalysis, and the mechanism is of interest in the present context, since it is closely related to the processes occurring in other protonated carboxylic acid derivatives. 

In all of these reactions, a nucleophile adds to a positively polarized carbonyl carbon to form a tetrahedral intermediate. There are three possible fates for the tetrahedral intermediate (1) The intermediate can be protonated, as occurs in Grignard reactions, reductions, and cyanohydrin formation. (2) The intermediate can lose water (or OH), as happens in imine and enamine formation. (3) The intermediate can lose a leaving group, as occurs in most reactions of carboxylic acid derivatives. 

To model the moiety of glycoproteins which coimects the protein and carbohydrate parts of the molecule, amino acid - carbohydrate adducts (e.g. V-D-gluconylamino acids, thiazolidine-4-carboxylic acid derivatives of carbohydrates, " D-fructose amino acid derivates, etc.) have been synthetized. The protonation and metal ion (Cu2+, Ni2+, Co ", Zn2+ and Et2Sn2+) coordination equilibria of these model compounds have been studied by means of potentiometric equilibrium measurements. CD, EPR, NMR, EXAFS and MSssbauer investigations (the latter in frozen solutions) have been used to determine the structure and symmetry of the coordination sphere of the complexes. >6... 

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