Electrophile, strength

Extensive efforts have been made to characterize nucleophile and electrophile strengths. Hammett first correlated411 the acidities of substituted benzoic acids (1)... 

Our book is about the emerging field of Superelectrophiles and Their Reactions. It deals first with the differentiation of usual electrophiles from superelectrophiles, which show substantially increased reactivity. Ways to increase electrophilic strength, the classification into gitionic, vicinal, and distonic superelectrophiles, as well as the differentiation of superelec-trophilic solvation from involvement of de facto dicationic doubly electron deficient intermediates are discussed. Methods of study including substituent and solvent effects as well as the role of electrophilic solvation in chemical reactions as studied by kinetic investigations, spectroscopic and gas-phase studies, and theoretical calculations are subsequently reviewed. Subsequently, studied superelectrophilic systems and their reactions are discussed with specific emphasis on involved gitionic, vicinal, and distonic superelectrophiles. A brief consideration of the significance of superelectrophilic chemistry and its future outlook concludes this book. 

This means that the effect of resonance at any one carbonyl group is diminished and it will remain strongly electrophilic. With an ester, there is only one carbonyl group and so it experiences the full impact of the resonance effect. Therefore, its electrophilic strength will be diminished relative to an acid anhydride. 

Lewis acid) A species that can accept an electron pair from a nucleophile, forming a bond. (p. 31) (electrophile strength) The kinetic reactivity of an electrophile. 

Unfortunately, this reaction is classically limited by its high reversibility in the presence of solvent as two favourable phenomena are involved to promote reversion nucleophilic strength of anions in dipolar aprotic media is Cl >Br (harder site), and the electrophilic strength of alkyl halides is RBr>RCl (least bonding energy). Equilibrium is therefore naturally shifted to the left (90%). 

The relative electrophilic strength (or electrophilicity) of a cation depends on the stability of the positive charge. Inductive (+1), mesomeric (+M) and/or steric effects (see Section 4.4) can all lower the reactivity of the cation. 

The relative electrophilic strength of an electrophilic site within a neutral molecule depends on the size of the partial positive charge ( +). Hydrogen or carbon atoms are electrophilic when attached to electronegative atoms (—1 groups). The more electronegative the atom(s), the more electrophilic the hydrogen or carbon atom. 

These a priori bond valences increase with the Lewis acid (or electrophilic) strength of the cation and are conveniently referred to as Lewis acid strengths. Not surprisingly, they correlate well with electronegativity as shown in Figure 10.7 [41]. 

In addition to the mechanisms of electrophile formation, another critical consideration relates to electrophile strength. There has been a vast amount of work done to characterize electrophile strengths [19]. Although much of the work relates to chemistry with n-type nucleophiles and nonaromatic tc-nucleophiles, some studies have sought to estimate electrophile strengths in SgAr reactions. Relative electrophile strengths became apparent as the synthetic S Ar reactions were developed. While the nitronium ion (NO ) salts react with benzene under mild conditions, carboxonium ions such as protonated formaldehyde (CH2=OH+) are weaker electrophiles and consequently do not react with benzene. 

Among the methods for evaluating electrophile strength, a useful approach involves comparing relative reaction rates with benzene and toluene [20]. More reactive electrophiles are expected to be less selective in competition reactions between the two arenes. As noted by Stock and Brown [21],... 

The boron atom in boron trifluoride is hybridized to the sp planar configuration and consequently is coordinatively unsaturated, ie, a Lewis acid. Its chemistry centers around satisfying this unsaturation by the formation with Lewis bases of adducts that are nearly tetrahedral sp [ The electrophilic properties (acid strengths) of the trihaloboranes have been found to increase in the order BF < BCl < BBr < BI (3,4). 

The reactivity of the individual O—P insecticides is determined by the magnitude of the electrophilic character of the phosphoms atom, the strength of the bond P—X, and the steric effects of the substituents. The electrophilic nature of the central P atom is determined by the relative positions of the shared electron pairs, between atoms bonded to phosphoms, and is a function of the relative electronegativities of the two atoms in each bond (P, 2.1 O, 3.5 S, 2.5 N, 3.0 and C, 2.5). Therefore, it is clear that in phosphate esters (P=0) the phosphoms is much more electrophilic and these are more reactive than phosphorothioate esters (P=S). The latter generally are so stable as to be relatively unreactive with AChE. They owe their biological activity to m vivo oxidation by a microsomal oxidase, a reaction that takes place in insect gut and fat body tissues and in the mammalian Hver. A typical example is the oxidation of parathion (61) to paraoxon [311-45-5] (110). 

The lack of dependence on ionic strength in the first reaction indicates that it occurs between neutral species. Mono- or dichloramine react much slower than ammonia because of their lower basicities. The reaction is faster with CI2 because it is a stronger electrophile than with HOCl The degree of chlorination increases with decreasing pH and increasing HOCINH mol ratio. Since chlorination rates exceed hydrolysis rates, initial product distribution is deterrnined by formation kinetics. The chloramines hydrolyze very slowly and only to a slight extent and are an example of CAC. 

In this section three main aspects will be considered. Firstly, the basic strengths of the principal heterocyclic systems under review and the effects of structural modification on this parameter will be discussed. For reference some pK values are collected in Table 3. Secondly, the position of protonation in these carbon-protonating systems will be considered. Thirdly, the reactivity aspects of protonation are mentioned. Protonation yields in most cases highly reactive electrophilic species. Under conditions in which both protonated and non-protonated base co-exist, polymerization frequently occurs. Further ipso protonation of substituted derivatives may induce rearrangement, and also the protonated heterocycles are found to be subject to ring-opening attack by nucleophilic reagents. 

The soft-nucleophile-soft-electrophile combination is also associated with a late transition state, in which the strength of the newly forming bond contributes significantly to the stability of the transition state. The hard-nucleophile-hffld-elechophile combination inqilies an early transition state with electrostatic attraction being more important than bond formation. The reaction pathway is chosen early on the reaction coordinate and primarily on the basis of charge distributiotL... 

Indolmycin, biosynthesis of, 864 Inductive effect. 37, 562 alcohol acidity and. 604 carboxylic acid strength and. 758 electronegativity and, 37 electrophilic aromatic substitution and, 562... 

Bifunctional catalysis in nucleophilic aromatic substitution was first observed by Bitter and Zollinger34, who studied the reaction of cyanuric chloride with aniline in benzene. This reaction was not accelerated by phenols or y-pyridone but was catalyzed by triethylamine and pyridine and by bifunctional catalysts such as a-pyridone and carboxylic acids. The carboxylic acids did not function as purely electrophilic reagents, since there was no relationship between catalytic efficiency and acid strength, acetic acid being more effective than chloracetic acid, which in turn was a more efficient catalyst than trichloroacetic acid. For catalysis by the carboxylic acids Bitter and Zollinger proposed the transition state depicted by H. 

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