Double electrostatic reaction field

A UV-visible spectroscopic study of 3 and related substances revealed a strong solvatochromic effect, which served as the basis of the establishment of a solvent polarity scale (Buncel and Rajagopal, 1989, 1990,1991). The theoretical study of Rauhut et al. (1993) was based on AMI methodology (Dewar and Storch, 1985,1989) but used a double electrostatic reaction field in a cavity, dependent on both the relative permittivity and the refractive index. Nuclear motions interact with the medium through the relative permittivity, but electronic motions are too fast only the extreme high-frequency part of the dielectric constant is relevant. These authors were able to evaluate solvent-specific dispersion contributions to the solvation energy. The calculations reproduced satisfactorily the experimental solvatochromic results for 3 in 29 different solvents. The method has also been successfully applied to other solvatochromic dyes, including Reichardt s .j,(30) betaine. 

A number of groups have criticized the ideas of Dauben and Noyce, especially the concept of PDC. Kamernitzsky and Akhrem, " in a thorough survey of the stereochemistry of addition reactions to carbonyl groups, accepted the existence of SAC but not of PDC. They point out that the reactions involve low energies of activation (10-13 kcal/mole) and suggest that differences in stereochemistry involve differences in entropies of activation. The effect favoring the equatorial alcohols is attributed to an electrostatic or polar factor (see also ref. 189) which may be determined by a difference in the electrostatic fields on the upper and lower sides of the carbonyl double bond, connected, for example, with the uncompensated dipole moments of the C—H bonds. The way this polar effect is supposed to influence the attack of the hydride is not made clear. 

Reaction 5.1 is meant to represent a nonspecific electrostatic interaction (presumably responsible for double-layer charge accumulation) Reaction 5.2 symbolizes specific adsorption (e.g., ion/dipole interaction) Reaction 5.3 represents electron transfer across the double layer. Together, these three reactions in fact symbolize the entire field of carbon electrochemistry electric double layer (EDL) formation (see Section 5.3.3), electrosorption (see Section 5.3.4), and oxidation/reduction processes (see Section 5.3.5). The authors did not discuss what exactly >C, represents, and they did not attempt to clarify how and why, for example, the quinone surface groups (represented by >CxO) sometimes engage in proton transfer only and other times in electron transfer as well. In this chapter, the available literature is scrutinized and the current state of knowledge on carbon surface (electrochemistry is assessed in search of answers to such questions. 

Think in terms of a capacitor. With a pure, nonconducting dielectric material there is a constant electric field between plates (see Fig. L3.20). But across a salt solution between nonreactive, nonconducting, ideally bad electrodes (no chemical reactions at interfaces), there is a spatially varying electrostatic double-layer field set up by the electrode walls (see Fig. L3.21). 

The possibility of trans opening of the double bond is larger in reactions of active centres with ion pair structures, where the four-center transition state is less probable. Counter-ion electrostatic fields strongly affect the space orientation of approaching polar monomers. Thus they contribute to controlled structure formation. 

The second method extends these ideas and is able to calculate reversible potentials for reactions that occur within the double layer. The model can be used to simulate both oxidation and reduction within the double layer. The influence of counterions from the electrolyte on the reactions can also be included. This is accomplished by using point charges and a Madelung sum in order to calculate the longer range electrostatic interactions and the field that arises from these ions and their influence on the reaction center. 

---