Chloride ion, as a leaving group

Once the alcohol has been activated by being converted into a sulfonate ester, the appropriate nucleophile is added, generally under conditions that favor Sn2 reactions. The reactions take place readily at room temperature because the leaving group is so good. For example, a para-toluenesulfonate ion is about 100 times better than a chloride ion as a leaving group. Sulfonate esters react with a wide variety of nucleophiles, so they can be used to synthesize a wide variety of compounds. 

The carbonyl group Is re-formed by expelling a chloride Ion as a leaving group... 

All lation. In alkylation, the dialkyl sulfates react much faster than do the alkyl haHdes, because the monoalkyl sulfate anion (ROSO ) is more effective as a leaving group than a haHde ion. The high rate is most apparent with small primary alkyl groups, eg, methyl and ethyl. Some leaving groups, such as the fluorinated sulfonate anion, eg, the triflate anion, CF SO, react even faster in ester form (4). Against phenoxide anion, the reaction rate is methyl triflate [333-27-7] dimethyl sulfate methyl toluenesulfonate [23373-38-8] (5). Dialkyl sulfates, as compared to alkyl chlorides, lack chloride ions in their products chloride corrodes and requires the use of a gas instead of a Hquid. The lower sulfates are much less expensive than lower bromides or iodides, and they also alkylate quickly. 

In solvolyses of polyhalogenated alkoxycyclopropanes the chloride ion of a CFCl group was the strongly preferred leaving group as compared to the bromide ion of a CBr2 or the chloride ion of a CClj group under acidic [silver(I) acetate/pyridine] as well as under basic (butanol/ pyridine conditions). 

When acid derivative 2 reacts with sulfuric acid, the oxygen atom is the base and the conjugate acid product of this acid-base reaction is oxocarbenium ion 3, which is resonance stabilized. When 2 is an acid chloride, anhydride, ester, or amide, a heteroatom is attached to the positive carbon in 3. As in Chapter 18 (Section 18.1), the acid-base reaction of the carbonyl unit in 2 to give 3 facilitates reactions with nucleophiles. The reaction of intermediate 3 with a nucleophile ( Y) gives tetrahedral intermediate 4 contrary to acyl addition, reaction 4 contains an X group that can function as a leaving group. Loss of X leads to the final product of this reaction 5. If the nucleophile ( Y) is hydroxide, compormd 5 is the carboxylic acid (X = OH). If the nucleophile Y is an alcohol, the product 5 is an ester, and if Y is an amine, the product 5 is an amide. This first reaction is therefore the acid-catalyzed acyl substitution reaction of acid derivatives. 

Step 3 Break a bond to give stable molecules or ions. The tetrahedral carbonyl addition intermediate then expels the chloride as a leaving group. 

Notice in both of the previous reactions that only "half" of the anhydride molecule is used the other half acts as the leaving group during the nucleophilic acyl substitution step and produces acetate ion as a by-product. Thus, anhydrides are inefficient to use, and acid chlorides are normally preferred for introducing acyl substituents other than acetyl groups. 

There are various ways wherein esters can be synthesised. An effective method is to react an acid chloride with an alcohol in the presence of pyridine yield. Acid anhydrides also react with alcohols to esters, but are less reactive. Moreover, the reaction is wasteful because half of the acyl content on the acid anhydride is wasted as the leaving group (i.e. the carboxylate ion). If the acid anhydride is cheap and readily available, this method can be used, e.g., acetic anhydride is useful for the synthesis of a range of acetate esters ... 

A second method to generate a carbene is to eliminate a proton and a leaving group, such as chloride or bromide ion, from the same carbon ... 

---