Correlations Hammett, nitrile hydrolysis

Coordination compounds with organonitrile ligands are of considerable interest due to the increased susceptibility of the coordinated nitrile to nucleophilic attack by reagents such as hydroxide ion. Rate accelerations of 10 in base hydrolysis (nitrile-> amide) have been observed. Two new aromatic organonitrile complexes of [Co(NH3)5] with 2- and 4-nitroben-zonitrile have been prepared, and their base hydrolysis to coordinated carboxamides studied. The second-order rate constants for base hydrolysis are 180 4 and 510 90 M s at 25°C and / = 1.0 M for the ortho and para isomers, respectively. Rate constants for the hydrolysis of 11 coordinated aromatic nitriles follow a Hammett-type correlation with log koH = l-93o- + 1.30 at 25 C and / = 1.0 M. Carbon-13 NMR studies of the free and coordinated nitriles indicate similar chemical shifts, so that the variation in the slope of the Hammett plots for free- and coordinated-nitrile hydrolysis is a transition-state effect rather than a ground-state phenomenon. 

Estimation methods for the hydrolysis rates of several types of carboxylic acid esters, carbamates, aromatic nitriles, and phosphoric acid esters have been reported. Hydrolysis rates are subject to substituent effects, and consequently LFERs, as represented by Hammett or Taft correlations, have been applied to their estimations. Reviews (e.g., Harris, 1990 Peijnenburg, 1991 Nendza, 1998) reveal that QSARs are available only for a few compound classes and are based mostly on... 

Rates of anaerobic dechlorination of aromatic hydrocarbons (Peijnenburg et al. 1992) and of the hydrolysis of aromatic nitriles under anaerobic conditions (Peijnenburg et al. 1993) have been correlated with a number of parameters including Hammett o-constants, inductive parameters, and evaluations of the soil/ water partitioning. 

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