Electrophiles electronic features

In the preceding chapters we have seen how new bonds may be formed between nucleophilic reagents and various substrates that have electrophilic centres, the latter typically arising as a result of uneven electron distribution in the molecule. The nucleophile was considered to be the reactive species. In this chapter we shall consider reactions in which electrophilic reagents become bonded to substrates that are electron rich, especially those that contain multiple bonds, i.e. alkenes, alkynes, and aromatics. The jt electrons in these systems provide regions of high electron density, and electrophilic reactions feature as... 

Most of the structural and electronic features induced by chemical substitution are often reflected as responses in the global reactivity indexes.47 We propose that the global electrophilicity index encompasses most of the relevant information that may roughly account for the global reactivity pattern observed in the DA reactions. For... 

In order for a substitution to occur, a ct complex must be formed. The term CT complex is used to describe a cationic intermediate in which the carbon at the site of substitution is bonded to both the electrophile and the hydrogen that is being displaced. As the term implies, a ct bond is formed at the site of substitution. The intermediate is a cyclohexadienylium cation. Its fundamental electronic characteristics can be described in simple MO terms, as shown in Figure 9.2. The intermediate is a 4tt electron delocalized system that is electronically equivalent to a pentadienyl cation. There is no longer cyclic conjugation. The LUMO has nodes at C(2) and C(4) of the pentadienyl structure and these correspond to the positions meta to the site of substitution on the aromatic ring. As a result, the positive charge of the cation is located at the positions ortho and para to the site of substitution. These electronic features of the a-complex intermediate are also shown by resonance structures. 

Thus with dihalocarbenes we have the interesting case of a species that resem bles both a carbanion (unshared pair of electrons on carbon) and a carbocation (empty p orbital) Which structural feature controls its reactivity s Does its empty p orbital cause It to react as an electrophile s Does its unshared pair make it nucleophilic s By compar mg the rate of reaction of CBi2 toward a series of alkenes with that of typical electrophiles toward the same alkenes (Table 14 4) we see that the reactivity of CBi2... 

The precise numerical values of the calculated electron densities are unimportant, as the most important feature is the relative electron density thus, the electron density at the pyrazine carbon atom is similar to that at an a-position in pyridine and this is manifest in the comparable reactivities of these positions in the two rings. In the case of quinoxaline, electron densities at N-1 and C-2 are proportionately lower, with the highest electron density appearing at position 5(8), which is in line with the observation that electrophilic substitution occurs at this position. 

Although pyrrole appears to be both an amine and a conjugated diene, its chemical properties are not consistent with either of these structural features. Unlike most other amines, pyrrole is not basic—the pKa of the pyrrolin-ium ion is 0.4 unlike most other conjugated dienes, pyrrole undergoes electrophilic substitution reactions rather than additions. The reason for both these properties, as noted previously in Section 15.5, is that pyrrole has six 77 electrons and is aromatic. Each of the four carbons contributes one... 

Effect of partial electron transfer parameter Figure 6.23 depicts the effect of the value of the partial charge transfer parameter A,d for fixed XA(= 0.15) on the rate enhancement ratio p(=r/r0) for the four main types of promotional behaviour, i.e., electrophobic, electrophilic, volcano and inverted volcano. The main feature of the Figure is that it confirms in general the global mle... 

Carbene reactivity is strongly affected by substituents.117 Various singlet carbenes have been characterized as nucleophilic, ambiphilic, and electrophilic as shown in Table 10.2 This classification is based on relative reactivity toward a series of both nucleophilic alkenes, such as tetramethylethylene, and electrophilic ones, such as acrylonitrile. The principal structural feature that determines the reactivity of the carbene is the ability of the substituent to act as an electron donor. For example, dimethoxycarbene is devoid of electrophilicity toward alkenes because of electron donation by the methoxy groups.118... 

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