Competion ratios

When an ion-pair recombines, it may form an excited state which can luminesce. The intensity of luminescence is a direct monitor of the competing ratio of recombination and luminescence. With steady-state conditions, the luminescence intensity is proportional to the rate of recombination. For instance, Morrow et al. [380] have radio lysed solutions of pyrene in cyclohexane. Solvated electrons and pyrene cations are produced. On recombination, an excited singlet state is produced which can fluoresce. If two pyrene molecules are in (or near) contact when one or other molecule is in the excited singlet state, then excimer fluorescence may be observed. The intensity of fluorescence can be decreased by application of an electric field, since fewer ion-pairs recombine to form the excited state. Jarnagin [381] and Holroyd and Russell [382] have photoionised iVjA iV. iV -tetramethyl-p-phenylenedia-mine (TMPD) with light (of photon energy 5.5—6 eV) in hydrocarbon solvents and measured the photocurrent at various electric field strengths. 

The kinetic chain length has a slightly different definition in the presence of chain transfer. Instead of being simply the ratio Rp/R, it is redefined to be the rate of propagation relative to the rates of all other steps that compete with propagation specifically, termination and transfer (subscript tr) ... 

Alkylphenols have been substituted for phenol as chain teaninatois in polycarbonates. In this role, PTBP (14) competes with the diol monomer for reactive chlorocarbonate sites. The ratio of butylphenol to diol controls the molecular weight of the polymer. 

The poly(vinyl alcohol) made for commercial acetalization processes is atactic and a mixture of cis- and /n j -l,3-dioxane stereoisomers is formed during acetalization. The precise cis/trans ratio depends strongly on process kinetics (16,17) and small quantities of other system components (23). During formylation of poly(vinyl alcohol), for example, i j -acetalization is more rapid than /ra/ j -acetalization (24). In addition, the rate of hydrolysis of the trans-2iQ. -A is faster than for the <7 -acetal (25). Because hydrolysis competes with acetalization during acetal synthesis, a high cis/trans ratio is favored. The stereochemistry of PVF and PVB resins has been studied by proton and carbon nmr spectroscopy (26—29). 

Let us consider cases 1-3 in Fig. 4.4. In case 1, AG s for formation of the competing transition states A and B from the reactant R are much less than AG s for formation of A and B from A and B, respectively. If the latter two AG s are sufficiently large that the competitively formed products B and A do not return to R, the ratio of the products A and B at the end of the reaction will not depend on their relative stabilities, but only on their relative rates of formation. The formation of A and B is effectively irreversible in these circumstances. The reaction energy plot in case 1 corresponds to this situation and represents a case of kinetic control. The relative amounts of products A and B will depend on the heights of the activation barriers AG and G, not the relative stability of products A and B. 

The product ratio is therefore determined not by AG but by the relative energy of the two transition states A and B. Although the rate of the formation of the products is dependent upon the relative concentration of the two conformers, since AGJ is decreased relative to AG to the extent of the difference in the two conformational energies, the conformational preequilibrium is established rapidly, relative to the two competing... 

It is possible to measure equilibrium constants and heats of reaction in the gas phase by using mass spectrometers of special configuration. With proton-transfer reactions, for example, the equilibrium constant can be determined by measuring the ratio of two reactant species competing for protons. Table 4.13 compares of phenol ionizations. 

Interpretation of tiie ratio of capture of competing nucleophiles has led to the estimate that bromonium ions have lifetimes on the order of 10 s in methanol. This lifetime is about 100 times longer than fliat for secondary caibocations. There is also direct evidence for the existence of bromonium ions. The bromonium ion related to propene can be observed by NMR spectroscopy when l-bromo-2-fluoropropane is subjected to superacid conditions. The terminal bromine adopts a bridging position in the resulting cation. 

Absolute rate data for Friedel-Crafts reactions are difficult to obtain. The reaction is complicated by sensitivity to moisture and heterogeneity. For this reason, most of the structure-reactivity trends have been developed using competitive methods, rather than by direct measurements. Relative rates are established by allowing the electrophile to compete for an excess of the two reagents. The product ratio establishes the relative reactivity. These studies reveal low substrate and position selectivity. 

After allowing for the performance penalties arising from the CO2 removal, Lozza and Chiesa estimated an efficiency of 46.1%, for a maximum gas turbine temperature of 1641 K and a pressure ratio of 15 (compared with the basic CCGT plant efficiency of 56.1%). They concluded that the plant cannot compete, in terms of electricity price, with a semi-closed combined cycle with CO2 removal (Cycle A2). 

In hydroxyUc solvents, the reaction with aniline follows a bi-molecular course but is complicated by competing solvolysis. This is a striking result when compared with the behavior of picryl chloride, which is much more selective with regard to the same reagents (aniline and alcohol), and has been interpreted to mean that bond-breaking has made appreciable progress in the rate-determining step of the reaction of phosphonitrilic chloride. Furthermore, the same indication is obtained from the fact that in the reactions of the halides, the fluorine chlorine ratios are less than one. ... 

It should be noted that positional selectivity is never complete even when a clean reaction gives only one isolated product.Reaction occurs at all positions in proportion to the ratio of the rate constants. The difference between a clean reaction (e.g., rate 9 times that of a competing reaction) and one giving a troublesome mixture can be merely a moderate quantitative increase in one rate (e.g., to a 9 7 rate ratio) or a change in both rates (e.g., to a 3 4 ratio). Work such as that of Kauffmann and Boettcher on heteroarynes illustrates the potential of modern forms of chromatography for determining the true proportion of even very minor products. 

With secondary and tertiary alkyl halides an Ea-elimination is often observed as a side-reaction. As the alkyl halide reactant an iodide is most often employed, since alkyl iodides are more reactive than the corresponding bromides or chlorides. With phenoxides as nucleophiles a C-alkylation can take place as a competing reaction. The ratio of 0-alkylation versus C-alkylation strongly depends on the solvent used. For example reaction of benzylbromide 4 with /3-naphth-oxide 5 in yV,A-dimethylformamide (DMF) as solvent yields almost exclusively the /3-naphthyl benzylether 6, while the reaction in water as solvent leads via intermediate 7 to formation of the C-benzylated product—l-benzyl-2-naphthol 8—as the major product ... 

Titanium has an unusually high ratio of strength to weight. It is considerably stronger than either aluminum or steel, two metals with which it competes (for special purposes). Its density (4.5 g/cm3) is intermediate between that of Al (2.7 g/cm3) and that of Fe (7.9 g/cm3). Titanium is extremely resistant to corrosion by air, soil, seawater, and even such reactive chemicals as nitric acid and chlorine gas. Like aluminum, it forms a thin, tightly adherent oxide layer that protects the metal from further attack. 

The nucleophilic addition of Grignard reagents to a-epoxy ketones 44 proceeds with remarkably high diastereoselectivity70. The chelation-controlled reaction products are obtained in ratios >99 1 when tetrahydrofuran or tetrahydrofuran/hexamethylphosphoric triamide is used as reaction solvent. The increased diastereoselectivity in the presence of hexamethylphos-phoric triamide is unusual as it is known from addition reactions to a-alkoxy aldehydes that co-solvents with chelating ability compete with the substrate for the nucleophile counterion, thus reducing the proportion of the chelation-controlled reaction product (vide infra). 

If, for the purpose of comparison of substrate reactivities, we use the method of competitive reactions we are faced with the problem of whether the reactivities in a certain series of reactants (i.e. selectivities) should be characterized by the ratio of their rates measured separately [relations (12) and (13)], or whether they should be expressed by the rates measured during simultaneous transformation of two compounds which thus compete in adsorption for the free surface of the catalyst [relations (14) and (15)]. How these two definitions of reactivity may differ from one another will be shown later by the example of competitive hydrogenation of alkylphenols (Section IV.E, p. 42). This may also be demonstrated by the classical example of hydrogenation of aromatic hydrocarbons on Raney nickel (48). In this case, the constants obtained by separate measurements of reaction rates for individual compounds lead to the reactivity order which is different from the order found on the basis of factor S, determined by the method of competitive reactions (Table II). Other examples of the change of reactivity, which may even result in the selective reaction of a strongly adsorbed reactant in competitive reactions (49, 50) have already been discussed (see p. 12). 

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