Enolate ions frontier orbitals

However, if we look at the LUMO, we find that it has the form 4.65, namely that of ift4 of benzene, but polarised by the nitrogen atom. This polarisation has reduced the coefficient at C-3, and the coefficient at C-4 is larger than that at C-2, as can be seen from the simple Hiickel calculation for pyridine itself in Fig. 4.11, which gives LUMO coefficients of 0.454 and —0.383, respectively, and an energy of 0.56/3 (compare benzene with 1/3 for this orbital). Thus, soft nucleophiles should attack at C-4, where the frontier orbital term is largest. Again this is the case cyanide ion, bisulfite, enolate ions, and hydride delivered from the carbon atom of the Hantsch ester 4.67 react faster at this site. 

The proximity of the diffusion limit also inhibits a detailed discussion of the data in Table 7, but a significant difference to the substituent effects discussed in Section III.D.4 is obvious. Whereas the reactivities of terminal alkenes, dienes, and styrenes toward AnPhCH correlate with the stabilities of the new carbenium ions and not with the ionization potentials of the 7r-nucleophiles [69], the situation is different for the reactions of enol ethers with (p-ClC6H4)2CH+ [136]. In this reaction series, methyl groups at the position of electrophilic attack activate the enol ether double bonds more than methyl groups at the new carbocationic center, i.e., the relative activation free enthalpies are not controlled any longer by the stabilities of the intermediate carbocations but by the ionization potentials of the enol ethers (Fig. 20). An interpretation of the correlation in Fig. 20 has not yet been given, but one can alternatively discuss early transition states which are controlled by frontier orbital interactions or the involvement of outer sphere electron transfer processes [220]. 

As before, we must not forget how much solvent effects may be the dominant influence in the regioselec-tivity. There is ample evidence that both the alkylation and the acylation of enolate ions in the gas phase take place, more often than not, on oxygen,301 the site that solvents protect. However, frontier orbital effects have been used to explain those gas phase reactions, and there are several, in which the enolate ion is attacked on carbon.302... 

---