Ethyl bromide, solvolysis

The real world of Sn reactions is not quite as simple as the discussion has so far suggested. The preceding treatment in terms of two clearly distinct mechanisms, SnI and Sn2, implies that all substitution reactions will follow one or the other of these mechanisms. This is an oversimplification. The strength of the dual mechanism hypothesis and its limitations are revealed by these relative rates of solvolysis of alkyl bromides in 80% ethanol methyl bromide, 2.51 ethyl bromide, 1.00 isopropyl bromide, 1.70 /er/-butyl bromide, 8600. Addition of lyate ions increases the rate for the methyl, ethyl, and isopropyl bromides, whereas the tert-butyl bromide solvolysis rate is unchanged. The reaction with lyate ions is overall second-order for methyl and ethyl, first-order for tert-butyl, and first- or second-order for the isopropyl member, depending upon the concentrations. Similar results are found in other solvents. These data show that the methyl and ethyl bromides solvolyze by the Sn2 mechanism, and tert-butyl bromide by the SnI mech-... 

The value of m (0.34) for the solvo lysis of ethyl bromide in 80% ethanol-water compared with the value of m = 0.94 for the solvolysis of Z-butyl bromide is consistent with a smaller charge separation in the transition state for the former reaction. 

The reactivity of halides is increased by coordination with Lewis acids. For example, silver ion accelerates solvolysis of methyl and ethyl bromide in 80 20 ethanol water by more than 10 In Section 4.4.1, we will see that the powerful Lewis acids SbFj and SbCl5 also assist in the ionization of halides. 

The solvolysis of nine l-aryl-l-(trifluoromethyl)ethyl tosylates and 1-aryl-l-(trifluoromethyl)ethyl bromides obtained in the reaction in equation 104 has also been studied by K. T. Liu and coworkers208. 

LEARN the skill Ethyl bromide was dissolved in water and heated, and the following solvolysis reaction was observed to occur slowly, over a long period of time. Propose a mechanism forthis reaction. 

As a result of the inductive and hyperconjugative effects it is to be expected that tertiary carbonium ions will be more stable than secondary carbonium ions, which in turn will be more stable than primary ions. The stabilization of the corresponding transition states for ionization should be in the same order, since the transition state will somewhat resemble the ion. Thus the first order rate constant for the solvolysis of tert-buty bromide in alkaline 80% aqueous ethanol at 55° is about 4000 times that of isopropyl bromide, while for ethyl and methyl bromides the first order contribution to the hydrolysis rate is imperceptible against the contribution from the bimolecular hydrolysis.217 Formic acid is such a good ionizing solvent that even primary alkyl bromides hydrolyze at a rate nearly independent of water concentration. The relative rates at 100° are tertiary butyl, 108 isopropyl, 44.7 ethyl, 1.71 and methyl, 1.00.218>212 One a-phenyl substituent is about as effective in accelerating the ionization as two a-alkyl groups.212 Thus the reactions of benzyl compounds, like those of secondary alkyl compounds, are of borderline mechanism, while benzhydryl compounds react by the unimolecular ionization mechanism. 

In the first step illustrated in Scheme 69, the carboxylic acid ethyl ester 241 undergoes quantitative solvolysis, using NaOEt 237 (30mol%), the resulting naphthol derivative 242 was subsequently protected as its benzyl ether 244 using aq. NaOH 26 and benzyl bromide 46 to afford ethyl-4-(benzyloxy)-2-naphthoate 243 in 72% yield. Quantitative hydrolysis of the ethyl ester 243 followed, using aq. NaOH 26 at 68 °C for 48 min. The carboxylic acid 244 was used directly with the Shioiri-Yamada reagent... 

The Yukawa-Tsuno equation continues to find considerable application. 1-Arylethyl bromides react with pyridine in acetonitrile by unimolecular and bimolecular processes.These processes are distinct there is no intermediate mechanism. The SnI rate constants, k, for meta or j ara-substituted 1-arylethyl bromides conform well to the Yukawa-Tsuno equation, with p = — 5.0 and r = 1.15, but the correlation analysis of the 5 n2 rate constants k2 is more complicated. This is attributed to a change in the balance between bond formation and cleavage in the 5 n2 transition state as the substituent is varied. The rate constants of solvolysis in 1 1 (v/v) aqueous ethanol of a-t-butyl-a-neopentylbenzyl and a-t-butyl-a-isopropylbenzyl p-nitrobenzoates at 75 °C follow the Yukawa-Tsuno equation well, with p = —3.37, r = 0.78 and p = —3.09, r — 0.68, respectively. The considerable reduction in r from the value of 1.00 in the defining system for the scale is ascribed to steric inhibition of coplanarity in the transition state. Rates of solvolysis (80% aqueous ethanol, 25 °C) have been measured for 1-(substituted phenyl)-l-phenyl-2,2,2-trifluoroethyl and l,l-bis(substi-tuted phenyl)-2,2,2-trifluoroethyl tosylates. The former substrate shows a bilinear Yukawa-Tsuno plot the latter shows excellent conformity to the Yukawa-Tsuno equation over the whole range of substituents, with p =—8.3/2 and r— 1.19. Substituent effects on solvolysis of 2-aryl-2-(trifluoromethyl)ethyl m-nitrobenzene-sulfonates in acetic acid or in 80% aqueous TFE have been analyzed by the Yukawa-Tsuno equation to give p =—3.12, r = 0.77 (130 °C) and p = —4.22, r — 0.63 (100 °C), respectively. The r values are considered to indicate an enhanced resonance effect, compared with the standard aryl-assisted solvolysis, and this is attributed to the destabilization of the transition state by the electron-withdrawing CF3 group. 

When tert butyl bromide undergoes solvolysis in a mixture of methanol and water, the rate of solvolysis (measured by the rate at which bromide ions form in the mixture) increases when the percentage of water in the mixture is increased, (a) Explain this occurrence. (b) Provide an explanation for the observation that the rate of the S]si2 reaction of ethyl chloride with potassium iodide in methanol and water decreases when the percentage of water in the mixture is increased. 

These effects, determined with tertiary chlorides, unquestionably refer to 8n1 reactions so also do Lewis and Boozer s effects on acetolysis and formolysis—-if we can rely on the constancy of the effect of a-deuteration (Table VIII). The /3-effects then suggest that formolysis of the secondary bromide and solvolysis in aqueous ethanol of the tosylate are also SnI—or nearly so, unless bimolecular displacement reactions are also subject to similar isotope effects. Shiner (117) had however already shown that this was not so, since deuteration in the two methyl groups of isopropyl bromide did not lead to an experimentally significant effect on the displacement reaction with ethoxide ion in ethanol. It is thus also reasonable to interpret the very small effect (AAF" = 6 cal.) cited by Lewis (74f) for acetolysis of ethyl-2d8 brosylate as evidence that acetolysis of primary sulfonate esters is borderline if not Sn2. This conclusion, already suggested by the abnormally low a-effect for unassisted acetolysis of phenylethyl tosylate [Table VIII and text of Sec. VA, 2(b) 1 is supported by a similarly... 

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