Carboxylic acid derivatives resonance stabilization

Second, the weaker the basicity of Y, the smaller is the contribution from the resonance contributor with a positive charge on Y (Section 17.2) the less the carboxylic acid derivative is stabilized by electron delocalization, the more reactive it will be. 

Another example of the effect of resonance is in the relative acidity of carboxylic acids as compared to alcohols. Carboxylic acids derived from saturated hydrocarbons have ipK values near 5, whereas saturated alcohols have pA values in the range 16-18. This implies that the carboxylate anion can accept negative charge more readily than an oxygen on a saturated carbon chain. This can be explained in terms of stabilization of the negative charge by resonance, ... 

There are large differences in reactivity among the various carboxylic acid derivatives, such as amides, esters, and acyl chlorides. One important factor is the resonance stabilization provided by the heteroatom. This decreases in the order N > O > Cl. Electron donation reduces the electrophilicity of the carbonyl group, and the corresponding stabilization is lost in the tetrahedral intermediate. 

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. 

The reaction involves the transfer of an electron from the alkali metal to naphthalene. The radical nature of the anion-radical has been established from electron spin resonance spectroscopy and the carbanion nature by their reaction with carbon dioxide to form the carboxylic acid derivative. The equilibrium in Eq. 5-65 depends on the electron affinity of the hydrocarbon and the donor properties of the solvent. Biphenyl is less useful than naphthalene since its equilibrium is far less toward the anion-radical than for naphthalene. Anthracene is also less useful even though it easily forms the anion-radical. The anthracene anion-radical is too stable to initiate polymerization. Polar solvents are needed to stabilize the anion-radical, primarily via solvation of the cation. Sodium naphthalene is formed quantitatively in tetrahy-drofuran (THF), but dilution with hydrocarbons results in precipitation of sodium and regeneration of naphthalene. For the less electropositive alkaline-earth metals, an even more polar solent than THF [e.g., hexamethylphosphoramide (HMPA)] is needed. 

Because carboxylic acid derivatives (RCOZ) all contain an atom Z with a nonbonded electron pair, three resonance structures can be drawn for RCOZ, compared to just two for aldehydes and ketones (Section 20.1). These three resonance structures stabilize RCOZ by delocalizing electron density. In fact, the more resonance structures 2 and 3 contribute to the resonance hybrid, the more stable RCOZ is. 

Thus, the carbonyl group of an acid chloride and anhydride, which are least stabilized by resonance, absorb at higher frequency than the carbonyl group of an amide, which is more stabilized by resonance. Table 22.4 lists specific values for the carbonyl absorptions of the carboxylic acid derivatives. 

Fulling and Sih reported one of the earliest examples to exploit racemization of carboxylic acid derivatives in order to achieve a dynamic kinetic resolution1311. The anti-inflammatory drug Ketorolac was prepared by hydrolysis of the corresponding ester. Whilst most lipases afforded the undesired enantiomer preferentially, a protease from Streptomyces griseus afforded the required (S)-enantiomer of product with good selectivity. The substrate was particularly prone to racemization since the intermediate enolate is well stabilized by resonance effects, although a pH 9 7 buffer was required to achieve a useful dynamic resolution reaction. Thus the acid was formed with complete conversion and with 76 % enantiomeric excess. 

Amides as stereoelectronic chameleons The higher stability of amides in the family of carboxylic acid derivatives stems from the large magnitude of amide resonance interaction). In this system, nitrogen... 

In principle, this reaction occurs with carboxylic acids, where X = OH in 72. The reaction occurs for carboxylic acid derivatives 56-60, where the X group in 72 and in 73 is Cl for an acid chloride, O2CR for an anhydride, OR for an ester, or NR2 for an amide. For these derivatives 73, a heteroatom is attached to the 6+ carbon, and there is additional resonance stabilization due to the lone electron pairs on these atoms. How oxocarbenium ions might react after they are formed has not been discussed, but it is clear that the carbonyl group of an acid derivative can react as a base in the presence of an appropriate acid. Reactions of oxocarbenium ions are discussed in Chapters 18 and 20. 

The second effect derives from the relative resonance stabilization of the carboxylic acid derivatives. As follows, each derivative can be written with contributing structures that will be stabilizing to some extent. The second contributing structure that we show for each carboxylic acid derivative has a positive charge on the carbonyl carbon. This structure reflects the electrophilicity of these carbons. However, for ea derivative, it is the other contributing structures that reflect the relative resonance stabilization of the derivatives. 

The transfonnation is called nucleophilic aromatic substitution. The key to its success is the presence of one or more strongly electron-withdrawing groups on the benzene ring located ortho or para to the leaving group. Such substituents stabilize an intermediate anion by resonance. In contrast with the Sn2 reaction of haloalkanes, substitution in these reactions takes place by a two-step mechanism, an addition-elimination sequence similar to the mechanism of substitution of carboxylic acid derivatives (Sections 19-7 and 20-2). 

The reaction is less selective than the related benzoylation reaction (/pMe = 30.2, cf. 626), thereby indicating a greater charge on the electrophile this is in complete agreement with the greater ease of nuclophilic substitution of sulphonic acids and derivatives compared to carboxylic acids and derivatives and may be rationalized from a consideration of resonance structures. The effect of substituents on the reactivity of the sulphonyl chloride follows from the effect of stabilizing the aryl-sulphonium ion formed in the ionisation step (81) or from the effect on the preequilibrium step (79). 

Vitamin C, also known as L-ascorbic acid, clearly appears to be of carbohydrate nature. Its most obvious functional group is the lactone ring system, and, although termed ascorbic acid, it is certainly not a carboxylic acid. Nevertheless, it shows acidic properties, since it is an enol, in fact an enediol. It is easy to predict which enol hydroxyl group is going to ionize more readily. It must be the one P to the carbonyl, ionization of which produces a conjugate base that is nicely resonance stabilized (see Section 4.3.5). Indeed, note that these resonance forms correspond to those of an enolate anion derived from a 1,3-dicarbonyl compound (see Section 10.1). Ionization of the a-hydroxyl provides less favourable resonance, and the remaining hydroxyls are typical non-acidic alcohols (see Section 4.3.3). Thus, the of vitamin C is 4.0, and is comparable to that of a carboxylic acid. 

Amides. Although similar to esters in terms of being a functional derivative of a carboxylic acid, amides, unlike esters, are relatively metabolically stable. In general, amides are stable to acid- and base-catalyzed hydrolysis. This stability is related to the overlapping electron clouds within the amide functionality and the corresponding multiple resonance forms. Amidases are enzymes that can catalyze the hydrolysis of amides. Nevertheless, amides are much more stable than esters. 

In the first step of the conversion catalyzed by pyruvate decarboxylase, a carbon atom from thiamine pyrophosphate adds to the carbonyl carbon of pyruvate. Decarboxylation produces the key reactive intermediate, hydroxyethyl thiamine pyrophosphate (HETPP). As shown in figure 13.5, the ionized ylid form of HETPP is resonance-stabilized by the existence of a form without charge separation. The next enzyme, dihydrolipoyltransacetylase, catalyzes the transfer of the two-carbon moiety to lipoic acid. A nucleophilic attack by HETPP on the sulfur atom attached to carbon 8 of oxidized lipoic acid displaces the electrons of the disulfide bond to the sulfur atom attached to carbon 6. The sulfur then picks up a proton from the environment as shown in figure 13.5. This simple displacement reaction is also an oxidation-reduction reaction, in which the attacking carbon atom is oxidized from the aldehyde level in HETPP to the carboxyl level in the lipoic acid derivative. The oxidized (disulfide) form of lipoic acid is converted to the reduced (mer-capto) form. The fact that the two-carbon moiety has become an acyl group is shown more clearly after dissocia-... 

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