Equilibrium Protonation

As described in Chapter 4, acid-base reactions that go to completion can be exploited in chemical analysis using the method of titration. Titrations can be understood in greater detail from the perspective of acid-base equilibria. Protonation of a weak base by a strong acid is a reaction that goes virtually to completion because of its large... 

Only alkyl groups at indole a-positions show any special reactions. Many related observations confirm that in a series of equilibria, / -protonation can lead to 2-alkylidene-indolines, and hence reactivity towards electrophiles at an a-, but not a /3-alkyl group, for example in DCl at 100 °C 2,3-dimethylindole exchanges H for D only at the 2-methyl. 

Since ions are unstable in the gas phase because of positive-negative ion recombination or discharge on the wall, they must be created by ionizing radiation. The ion solvent molecule interactions or other ion molecule equilibria must be observed within the limited lifetime of the ions before their disappearance. Of interest here are two types of ion equilibria. Proton transfer equilibria involving bases B or acids AH as illustrated by reactions (1) and (2) and clustering equilibria as illustrated by reaction (3) written for the negative ion A and water molecules. 

Successive introduction of two methyl groups at ring carbon increases the hydrolysis rate by a factor of 10 in each step, indicating cation formation in the transition state as in acetal hydrolysis. Equilibrium protonation before hydrolysis becomes evident from an increasing rate of hydrolysis with a decreasing pH value (Table 3). Below pH 3 no further increase of rate is observed, so that protonation is assumed to be complete. 

The details of proton-transfer processes can also be probed by examination of solvent isotope effects, for example, by comparing the rates of a reaction in H2O versus D2O. The solvent isotope effect can be either normal or inverse, depending on the nature of the proton-transfer process in the reaction mechanism. D3O+ is a stronger acid than H3O+. As a result, reactants in D2O solution are somewhat more extensively protonated than in H2O at identical acid concentration. A reaction that involves a rapid equilibrium protonation will proceed faster in D2O than in H2O because of the higher concentration of the protonated reactant. On the other hand, if proton transfer is part of the rate-determining step, the reaction will be faster in H2O than in D2O because of the normal primary kinetic isotope effect of the type considered in Section 4.5. 

Challis and Long497 have used the fast flow technique described above (p. 217) to measure the equilibrium protonation of azulene in a range of aqueous perchloric acid media at 7.5 °C and hence the rates of the forward protonation and reverse deprotonation, the overall exchange rate being the sum of these. Some representat i ve values are given in Table 141. Coupled with data obtained at other temperatures... 

The influence of / ara-substituents on the benzamide and benzyloxyl side chains upon the pre-equilibrium protonation step is likely to be negligible considering their remoteness from the site of protonation and their electronic influence must rather impact upon the rate determining N-O bond heterolysis step. Para-substituents on the leaving group should impact upon both the protonation and bond heterolysis steps. 

A mechanistic study of acid and metal ion (Ni2+, Cu2+, Zn2+) promoted hydrolysis of [N-(2-carboxyphenyl)iminodiacetate](picolinato)chromate (III) indicated parallel H+- or M2+-dependent and -independent pathways. Solvent isotope effects indicate that the H+-dependent path involves rapid pre-equilibrium protonation followed by rate-limiting ring opening. Similarly, the M2+-dependent path involves rate-determining Cr-0 bond breaking in a rapidly formed binuclear intermediate. The relative catalytic efficiencies of the three metal ions reflect the Irving-Williams stability order (88). 

Hydride transfer from [(bipy)2(CO)RuH]+ occurs in the hydrogenation of acetone when the reaction is carried out in buffered aqueous solutions (Eq. (21)) [39]. The kinetics of the reaction showed that it was a first-order in [(bipy)2(CO)RuH]+ and also first-order in acetone. The reaction proceeds faster at lower pH. The proposed mechanism involved general acid catalysis, with a fast pre-equilibrium protonation of the ketone followed by hydride transfer from [(biPy)2(CO)RuH]+. 

The kinetics of the ionic hydrogenation of isobutyraldehyde were studied using [CpMo(CO)3H] as the hydride and CF3C02H as the acid [41]. The apparent rate decreases as the reaction proceeds, since the acid is consumed. However, when the acidity is held constant by a buffered solution in the presence of excess metal hydride, the reaction is first-order in acid. The reaction is also first-order in metal hydride concentration. A mechanism consistent with these kinetics results is shown in Scheme 7.8. Pre-equilibrium protonation of the aldehyde is followed by rate-determining hydride transfer. 

The reactions in a non-basic aprotic solvent CH2C12 provided solely 10, the product of carbon protonation, while those carried out in an acidic protic solvent HFIP give exclusively 8K, the product of oxygen protonation. The equilibrium protonation may be favored in a protic solvent having abundant protons available. In other basic solvents, the proton donor involved in the reaction should be the conjugate acid of the solvent, and many factors may delicately control the selectivity of the reaction. 

An asymmetric hydrogen bond is common even where a proton coordinates two equivalent anions. The rc-bond repulsive forces between two coordinated anions tend to prohibit a close X-H-X separation, so competition between the two equivalent anions for the shorter X-H bond may set up a double-well potential for the equilibrium proton position between the two coordinated anions. With oxide anions, an O-H-O separation greater than 2.4 A sets up a double-well potential and creates an asymmetric hydrogen bond, which we represent as O-H O. Although displacement toward one anion may be energetically equivalent to a displacement toward the other, one well is made deeper than the other by an amount AH, as a result of the motion of the proton from the centre of the bond. 

Enolization and ketonization kinetics and equilibrium constants have been reported for phenylacetylpyridines (85a), and their enol tautomers (85b), together with estimates of the stability of a third type of tautomer, the zwitterion (85c). The latter provides a nitrogen protonation route for the keto-enol tautomerization. The two alternative acid-catalysed routes for enolization, i.e. O- versus Af-protonation, are assessed in terms of pK differences, and of equilibrium proton-activating factors which measure the C-H acidifying effects of the binding of a proton catalyst at oxygen or at nitrogen. 

The kinetics and thermodynamics of the act-nitro equilibrium of picrylacetone (105) in 50 50 and 30 70 (v/v) H20-MC2S0 mixtures have been reported. Rate of general base-catalysed deprotonation of (105) and general acid-catalysed reprotonation of the resulting anion (106) have been monitored at low pH a fast equilibrium protonation of (106) to give a directly observable short-lived nitronic acid species (107) has been found to precede conversion to (105). The constants pAf and pATj,... 

Prior to 1967 acetal hydrolysis had been found to be a specific-acid catalysed reaction with the accepted mechanism [equation (46)] involving fast pre-equilibrium protonation of the acetal by hydronium ion, followed by unimolecular rate-determining decomposition of the protonated intermediate to an alcohol and a resonance stabilized carbonium ion (Cordes, 1967). An A-1 mechanism was supported by an extremely large body of evidence, but it appeared unlikely that such a mechanism could expledn the... 

Ru Ru step and a self-exchange rate of 2xlO" M s for the c -[Ru 0)2(L)] " /cw [Ru (0)2(L)]+ couple has been estimated a mechanism involving a pre-equilibrium protonation of ci5-[Ru (0)2(L)]+ followed by outer-sphere electron transfer is proposed for the Ru Ru step. For reduction by [Fe(H20)6] +, an outer-sphere mechanism is proposed for the first step and an inner-sphere mechanism is proposed for the second step. ... 

A series of A-benzoyloxy-A-benzyloxybenzamides (116) reacted with similarly positive AS (25-29 calK moH ) but with lower a values of between 11 and 21 kcal mol . Rate constants at 308 K gave a positive Hammett a correlation but with a much smaller /O-value of 0.32 in accordance with the opposing influences of para substituents, Z, on the pre-equilibrium protonation and heterolysis steps . ... 

The available studies imply that general catalysis will be operative in systems involving sulfate monoesters and potential six-membered ring transition states. Salicyl sulfate hydrolyzes at pH 4 via intramolecular carboxyl group participation involving pre-equilibrium proton transfer leading to sulfur trioxide expulsion (Fig. 9)2HH, viz. 

If it is assumed that ester hydrolysis by the AAc2 mechanism involves fast pre-equilibrium protonation of the substrate, followed by rate-determining attack of water on the conjugate acid of the ester, the mechanism can be written as... 

An alternative approach to the experimental estimation of REs utilizes equilibrium (protonation) data rather than thermochemical data, the idea being that comparisons of the basicities of pyrrole and its benzo fused analogues with those of non-aromatic systems which form cations of 7r-electron structure similar to the aromatic compounds should furnish a measure of the loss of RE accompanying protonation of the aromatic system (76T1767, 72CI(L)335). Thus, for the a-protonation of N-methylpyrrole, the model non-aromatic system was chosen as (20). Combination of pKa values for the protonation of the aromatic and non-aromatic molecules, taking into account the intrinsic resonance stabilization of the... 

We see here that the mechanism with a pre-equilibrium proton transfer leads to a specific acid catalysis rate law whereas that with a rate-determining proton transfer leads to general acid catalysis. It follows that, according to which catalytic rate law is observed, one of these two mechanisms maybe excluded from further consideration. Occasionally, however, different mechanisms lead to the same rate law and are described as kinetically equivalent (see Chapters 4 and 11) and cannot be distinguished quite so easily. 

In examples such as the above, the rate law establishes the composition of the activated complex (transition structure), but not its structure, i.e. not the atom connectivity, and provides no information about the sequence of events leading to its formation. Thus, the rate law of Equation 1.2 (if observed) for the reaction of Equation 1.1 tells us that the activated complex comprises the atoms of one molecule each of B and X, plus a proton and an indeterminate number of solvent (water) molecules, but it says nothing about how the atoms are bonded together. For example, if B and X both have basic and electrophilic sites, another mechanistic possibility includes a pre-equilibrium proton transfer from AH to B followed by the reaction between HB+ and X, and this also leads to the rate law of Equation 1.2. Observation of this rate law, therefore, allows transition structures in which the proton is bonded to a basic site in either B or X, and distinguishing between the kinetically equivalent mechanisms requires evidence additional to the rate law. 

The absence of scatter in a Bronsted plot for a general base-catalysed reaction can imply that the reaction mechanism involves a rate-limiting proton transfer step. This is because proton transfer to the base in the reaction is closely similar to the equilibrium proton transfer to the base in the reaction which defines the p Ka of the conjugate acid of that base. The observation of scatter, especially for sterically hindered bases (such as 2,6-dimethylpyridine), is evidence that nucleophilic catalysis is operating as opposed to general base catalysis. 

The acid/base equilibrium (protonation of the ether) is constantly maintained. This implies... 

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