Hardness, nucleophile

It was mentioned earlier that 6-halopenlclllanlc acids are resistant to nucleophilic displacement. Displacement at the 6-positlon with soft nucleophiles (e.g. halide, RS ) but not hard nucleophiles e.g. MeO , amines) can be carried out, however, on 6-trifloxy- and 6-nonafloxy-penlclllanate esters (80TL2991). Some examples are shown in Scheme 38. 

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... 

In fee absence of fee solvation typical of protic solvents, fee relative nucleophilicity of anions changes. Hard nucleophiles increase in reactivity more than do soft nucleophiles. As a result, fee relative reactivity order changes. In methanol, for example, fee relative reactivity order is N3 > 1 > CN > Br > CP, whereas in DMSO fee order becomes CN > N3 > CP > Br > P. In mefeanol, fee reactivity order is dominated by solvent effects, and fee more weakly solvated N3 and P ions are fee most reactive nucleophiles. The iodide ion is large and very polarizable. The anionic charge on fee azide ion is dispersed by delocalization. When fee effect of solvation is diminished in DMSO, other factors become more important. These include fee strength of fee bond being formed, which would account for fee reversed order of fee halides in fee two series. There is also evidence fiiat S( 2 transition states are better solvated in protic dipolar solvents than in protic solvents. 

Addition of carbon nucleophiles to vinylepoxides is of particular importance, since a new carbon-carbon bond is formed. It is of considerable tactical value that conditions allowing for regiocontrolled opening of vinyloxiranes with this type of nucleophiles have been developed. Reactions that proceed through fonnation of a rr-allyl metal intermediate with subsequent external delivery of the nucleophile, or that make use of a soft carbon nucleophile, generally deliver the SN2 product. In contrast, the Sn2 variant is often the major reaction pathway when hard nucleophiles are employed. In some methods a nucleophile can be delivered selectively at either the Sn2 or SN2 positions by changing the reaction conditions. 

As shown in this table, the metal catalysts used in the literature are mostly complexes of Ni or Cu and less often Co or Pd. For soft nucleophiles, on the left of the table, the efficiency of the nickel catalysts was already reported. Here, are presented the investigations concerning the arylation of hard nucleophiles such as amines, alcohols or hydroxide anion, using Ni, Pd and Cu catalysts. 

In connexion with the arylation of hard nucleophiles, it was interesting to reinvestigate the hydrolysis of arylhalides in presence of copper catalysts, which is in fact the arylation of hydroxide anion and represents an important industrial challenge (eqn. 2). 

Quinone methides are electron-deficient at C7, as readily understood via the resonance forms of QM1 shown in Fig. 12.7. They are therefore susceptible to nucleophilic attack at that position. Although reactions during high-temperature pulping demonstrate that 8-<9-4-aryl ether quinone methides QM1 are rearomatized by attack with hard nucleophiles such as HO- and HS, 81 these reactions do not readily occur at ambient temperatures.41,85 Thus, HO will not add to quinone methide QM1 under any conditions that we have tried (including with cosolvents, and using phase-transfer conditions). Of course water will add to quinone methides under acidic conditions... 

Bowman has surveyed the reactions of cx-substituted aliphatic nitro compounds with nucleophiles, which undergo either S l substitution or polar reaction (Scheme 5.16).118 The reactions between a wide variety of nucleophiles and BrCH2N02 are shown in Scheme 5.17.119a b All the thiolates, PhS02 and I attack Br to liberate the anion of nitromethane. The hard nucleophiles, MeO , OH, and BH4 attack the hard H+ electrophilic center. Phosphorous nucleophiles attackthe oxygen electrophilic center, and only Me2S attacks the carbon electrophilic center. 

Quite in contrast to, e.g., [CoCp2]+, borabenzene metal cations show a pronounced affinity toward hard nucleophiles such as amines, OH-, and to some extent even F- and H20. Qualitatively this affinity increases in the order CoCp2]+ 36 < 1 < 61 (69). [CoCp(C5H5BPh)]+ (1) adds tertiary amines at boron. With pyridine, the pyridinioboratacyclohexadienyl complex 70 is formed (K = 174 5 liters mol-1, in MeCN, 20°C), which can be isolated from CH2C12 as PF6- salt (69). The similar rhodium and iridium cations 36 and 37 form the stable cyanide adducts 71 and 72 (69). 

In general, 3-hydroxy-l,2,4-thiadiazoles react with hard nucleophiles (acid chlorides, sulfonyl chlorides) at the oxygen atom, whereas soft nucleophiles (isocyanates, acid anhydrides) react at the N-2 position yielding 1,2,4-thiadiazolin-3-ones. Nucleophiles react at the N-4 position of 5-hydroxy-l,2,4-thiadiazoles <1996CHEC-II(4)307>. There have been no new publications on O-linked substituents since the publication of CHEC-II(1996). 

In general, Pd-catalyzed allylic substitutions with soft nucleophiles involve nudeophilic attack directly on the allyl unit, on the opposite face to that occupied by the metal. This is contrasted with the situation for hard nucleophiles where the initial attack occurs at the metal, with subsequent migration of the nudeo-phile to the allyl moiety - the addition to the allyl unit therefore occurring from the same face as the metal. Obviously, this has profound implications on the stereochemical outcome. 

The coupling of cyanides ions with aryl radicals is an interesting example where quantitative kinetic data are available.30 The forming bond is strong, but this favorable factor is counteracted, in terms of driving force, by the fact that °./x- [second term in equation (3.24)] is very positive (in other words, CN is a hard nucleophile). In addition, the large value of Drx r +x is unfavorable in terms of the intrinsic barrier. Overall, the presence of electron-withdrawing substituents is necessary to allow the... 

Alkyl halides normally undergo elimination with hard nucleophiles. Elimination usually occurs from the conformer in which the leaving group and H are anti to one another. The product is Z-PhC(Me)=C(Me)Ph by the E2 mechanism. 

Sn2 substitution reactions of alkyl halides with hard nucleophiles such as alkyl anions can be achieved most readily with the aid of organocopper chemistry [95]. Sn2 reactions with epoxides and aziridines are also synthetically useful [96]. The... 

Cp carbon atom of the ynamine at the electrophilic terminal pentatetraenylidene atom, followed by cycloreversion. These observations seem to indicate a marked preference of soft nucleophiles for the Ce carbon atom and hard nucleophiles for the central carbon of the unsaturated chain. 

Hard Nucleophiles in the Rhodium-Catalyzed Allylic Alkylation Reaction... 

The transition metal-catalyzed allylic substitution using hard or unstabilized nucleophiles has not been extensively studied, particularly with unsymmetrical allylic alcohol derivatives. This may be attributed to the highly reactive and basic nature of these nucleophiles and the inability to circumvent regiochemical infidehty in unsymmetrical systems. Hard nucleophiles may be characterized as those that undergo substitution with net inversion of stereochemistry [29], due to their propensity to add directly to the... 

Evans and Uraguchi also examined the rhodium-catalyzed allylic alkylation with hard nucleophiles [31]. Aryl organozinc halides proved optimal nucleophiles for the regio- and stereospecific allylic alkylation of enantiomerically enriched unsymmetrical allylic alcohol derivatives (Tab. 10.4). The reaction occurs with net inversion of absolute... 

Nitrogen-15 NMR has been used to study the course of acylation and carbamidization reactions of 3-amino-5-methylthio-1,2,4-thiadiazole (3). Using a N label in the 2-position of (3), its reaction with hard nucleophiles was found to proceed via initial reactioa on the 2-position followed by a Dimroth rearrangement to give the acylated product (4) with the N label in the exocyclic position. The reaction of (3) with soft nucleophiles, such as methyl isocyanate occurs directly on the exocyclic nitrogen to give the urea (5) (Scheme 1) <84CHEC-l(6)463 >. 

A review <94Ml 422-01) on 1,3-heterophospholes (Chapter 3.16) compares their reactivity to that of di- and triazaphospholes which are covered in this chapter. In contrast to 1,3-azaphospholes the latter contains two-coordinate nitrogen atoms in the ring. The RC/N exchange lowers the charge density at the phosphorus atom and facilitates the attack by hard nucleophiles. 

Since biological systems are rich in nucleophiles (DNA, proteins, etc.) the possibility that electrophilic metabolites may become irreversibly bound to cellular macromolecules exists. Electrophiles and nucleophiles are classified as hard or soft depending on the electron density, with hard electrophiles generally having more intense charge localization than soft electrophiles in which the charge is more diffuse. Hard electrophiles tend to react preferentially with hard nucleophiles and soft electrophiles with soft nucleophiles. 

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