Conformational effects reactivity

Hassel shared the 1969 Nobel Prize in chemistry with Sir Derek Barton of Imperial College (London) Barton demonstrated how Hassel s structural results could be extended to an analysis of conformational effects on chemical reactivity... 

The effect of conformation on reactivity is intimately associated with the details of the mechanism of a reaction. The examples of Scheme 3.2 illustrate some of the w s in which substituent orientation can affect reactivity. It has been shown that oxidation of cis-A-t-butylcyclohexanol is faster than oxidation of the trans isomer, but the rates of acetylation are in the opposite order. Let us consider the acetylation first. The rate of the reaction will depend on the fiee energy of activation for the rate-determining step. For acetylation, this step involves nucleophilic attack by the hydroxyl group on the acetic anhydride carbonyl... 

The selectivity observed in most intramolecular functionalizations depends on the preference for a six-membered transition state in the hydrogen-atom abstraction step. Appropriate molecules can be constmcted in which steric or conformational effects dictate a preference for selective abstraction of a hydrogen that is more remote from the reactive radical. 

The competition between these two reactions is determined by the effect of substituents on the conformation and reactivity of the diradical intermediate. 

Such configurational as well as conformational effects have been also reported by MILLAN et al. in the case of nucleophilic substitution of poly(vinyl chloride) with sodium thiophenate (14) and with sodium isooctylthioglycolate or isooctylthiosalicylate (15). The authors have shown that these reactions proceed selectively on the isotactic TT diads which can only exist either in the GTTG isotactic or in the TTTG heterotactic triads, the former ones being much more reactive than the latter ones. 

A conformational effect was detected for the H-transfer reactions from cycloalkanes to a series of attacking radicals. The data of Table 6 show that cyclopentane is generally a better H-donor than cyclohexane. The rate ratio is generally largest for the least reactive radicals because the change in hybridization at transition state... 

Accelerations (or decelerations) imposed by the cycloamyloses on the rate of an intramolecular reaction may be derived from a conformational effect. The rate of an intramolecular reaction depends not only on the proximity of the reactive groups but also on their relative orientation. For example, Bruice and Bradbury (1965) have shown that the rates of formation of cyclic anhydrides from mono esters of 3-substituted glutaric acids depend on the size of the substituent at the 3-position. This observation was interpreted as a change in the ground state population of reactive and non-reactive conformers as the 3-substituents are varied (Scheme IX). Reason-... 

Recently, an example of cycloamylose-induced catalysis has been presented which may be attributed, in part, to a favorable conformational effect. The rates of decarboxylation of several unionized /3-keto acids are accelerated approximately six-fold by cycloheptaamylose (Table XV) (Straub and Bender, 1972). Unlike anionic decarboxylations, the rates of acidic decarboxylations are not highly solvent dependent. Relative to water, for example, the rate of decarboxylation of benzoylacetic acid is accelerated by a maximum of 2.5-fold in mixed 2-propanol-water solutions.6 Thus, if it is assumed that 2-propanol-water solutions accurately simulate the properties of the cycloamylose cavity, the observed rate accelerations cannot be attributed solely to a microsolvent effect. Since decarboxylations of unionized /3-keto acids proceed through a cyclic transition state (Scheme X), Straub and Bender suggested that an additional rate acceleration may be derived from preferential inclusion of the cyclic ground state conformer. This process effectively freezes the substrate in a reactive conformation and, in this case, complements the microsolvent effect. 

Conformational effects, on reactivity of cycloamyloses, 23 242, 245-249 Constant Ci, values for, 33 273, 274 Contact catalysis, mechanism of, 2 251 Contact catalysts, surface area measurements for studying, 1 65... 

M. M. Bhadbhade, and D. Srinivas, Effects on molecular association, chelate conformation and reactivity toward substitution in Cu(5-X-salen) complexes, salen = N,N -ethylenebis (salicyli-denaminato), X = H, CH3O and Cl synthesis, X-ray structures and ERR investigations, Inorg. Chem. 32, 5458-5466 (1993). 

C. McDonnell, O. Lopez, P. Murphy, J. G. Fernandez Bolanos, R. Hazell, and M. Bols, Conformational effects on glycoside reactivity Study of the high reactive conformer of glucose, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 126 (2004) 12374-12385. 

Counterion effects similar to those in ionic chain copolymerizations of alkenes (Secs. 6-4a-2, 6-4b-2) are present. Thus, copolymerizations of cyclopentene and norbomene with rhenium- and ruthenium-based initiators yield copolymers very rich in norbomene, while a more reactive (less discriminating) tungsten-based initiator yields a copolymer with comparable amounts of the two comonomers [Ivin, 1987]. Monomer reactivity ratios are also sensitive to solvent and temperature. Polymer conformational effects on reactivity have been observed in NCA copolymerizations where the particular polymer chain conformation, which is usually solvent-dependent, results in different interactions with each monomer [Imanishi, 1984]. 

Conformational effects on reactivity can be considered under the heading of steric effects,11 though in these cases we are considering not the effect of a group X and that of another group X upon reactivity at a site Y but the effect of the conformation of the molecule. Many reactions fail entirely unless the molecules are able to assume the proper conformation. An example is the rearrangement of N-benzoylnorephedrine. The two dia-... 

The series of para-substituted 2-ary 1-1,3-dithianyl carbanions shown in Table 6 and equation (41) are expected to differ in LUMO energy. The phenoxide-substituted anion (entry 1, Table 6 and equation 41) should have higher LUMO relative to, for example, the simple phenyl-substituted anion (entry 6) and gives a greater preponderance of meta substitution due to stronger orbital control. The smooth correlation of selectivity with reactivity for this series of closely related anions is consistent with a simple two-parameter analysis. Other regioselectivity results, such as those with o-alkylanilines (Table 2 and equation 30) and [(indole)Cr(CO)3] also have been analyzed in terms of orbital control and conformational effects.87,88,93... 

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