Hydration reactions acid-catalyzed

In the realm of homogeneous catalysis we often encounter examples of acid- and base-catalyzed hydration-dehydration and hydrolysis, metal-catalyzed hydrolysis and autoxidation, photocatalytic oxidation and reduction, metal-catalyzed electron transfer, acid-catalyzed decarboxylation, photocatalytic decarboxylation, metal-catalyzed free-radical chain reactions, acid-catalyzed nucleophilic substitutions, and enzymatic catalysis. 

Problem 13.13. We have described acid-catalyzed dehydration (loss of water) of an alcohol to yield an alkene. However, Sec. 12.6.1 described the opposite reaction—acid-catalyzed hydration (addition of water) of an alkene to yield an alcohol. Which is correct ... 

We can extend the general principles of electrophilic addition to acid catalyzed hydration In the first step of the mechanism shown m Figure 6 9 proton transfer to 2 methylpropene forms tert butyl cation This is followed m step 2 by reaction of the car bocation with a molecule of water acting as a nucleophile The aUcyloxomum ion formed m this step is simply the conjugate acid of tert butyl alcohol Deprotonation of the alkyl oxonium ion m step 3 yields the alcohol and regenerates the acid catalyst... 

IS reversible with respect to reactants and products so each tiny increment of progress along the reaction coordinate is reversible Once we know the mechanism for the for ward phase of a particular reaction we also know what the intermediates and transition states must be for the reverse In particular the three step mechanism for the acid catalyzed hydration of 2 methylpropene m Figure 6 9 is the reverse of that for the acid catalyzed dehydration of tert butyl alcohol m Figure 5 6... 

Although 2 methylpropene undergoes acid catalyzed hydration m dilute sulfuric acid to form tert butyl alcohol (Section 6 10) a different reaction occurs m more concentrated solutions of sulfuric acid Rather than form the expected alkyl hydrogen sulfate (see Sec tion 6 9) 2 methylpropene is converted to a mixture of two isomeric C Hig alkenes... 

On the basis of the mechanism of acid catalyzed hydration can you suggest a reason why the reaction... 

Optically inactive starting materials can give optically active products only if they are treated with an optically active reagent or if the reaction is catalyzed by an optically active substance The best examples are found m biochemical processes Most bio chemical reactions are catalyzed by enzymes Enzymes are chiral and enantiomerically homogeneous they provide an asymmetric environment m which chemical reaction can take place Ordinarily enzyme catalyzed reactions occur with such a high level of stereo selectivity that one enantiomer of a substance is formed exclusively even when the sub strate is achiral The enzyme fumarase for example catalyzes hydration of the double bond of fumaric acid to malic acid m apples and other fruits Only the S enantiomer of malic acid is formed m this reaction... 

In general ketones are more stable than their enol precursors and are the products actually isolated when alkynes undergo acid catalyzed hydration The standard method for alkyne hydration employs aqueous sulfuric acid as the reaction medium and mer cury(II) sulfate or mercury(II) oxide as a catalyst... 

Another synthesis of Lyral (51) consists of the reaction of myrcene with acrolein to give the myrac aldehyde [37677-14-8] (52). The aldehyde group, which is sensitive to acid hydration conditions with strong acids, has to be protected by formation of the morpholine enamine. The enamine is then hydrolyzed on workup after the acid-catalyzed hydration to produce Lyral (93—95). 

Acid-Catalyzed Hydration and Related Addition Reactions... 

Alkynes react when heated with trifluoroacetic acid to give addition products. Mixtures of syn and anti addition products are obtained. Similar addition reactions occur with trifluoromethanesulfonic acid. These reactions are analogous to acid-catalyzed hydration and proceed through a vinyl cation intermediate. 

This elimination reaction is the reverse of acid-catalyzed hydration, which was discussed in Section 6.2. Because a carbocation or closely related species is the intermediate, the elimination step would be expected to favor the more substituted alkene as discussed on p. 384. The El mechanism also explains the general trends in relative reactivity. Tertiary alcohols are the most reactive, and reactivity decreases going to secondary and primary alcohols. Also in accord with the El mechanism is the fact that rearranged products are found in cases where a carbocation intermediate would be expected to rearrange ... 

The hydration reaction has been extensively studied because it is the mechanistic prototype for many reactions at carbonyl centers that involve more complex molecules. For acetaldehyde, the half-life of the exchange reaction is on the order of one minute under neutral conditions but is considerably faster in acidic or basic media. The second-order rate constant for acid-catalyzed hydration of acetaldehyde is on the order of 500 M s . Acid catalysis involves either protonation or hydrogen bonding at the carbonyl oxygen. 

The mechanistic pattern established by study of hydration and alcohol addition reactions of ketones and aldehydes is followed in a number of other reactions of carbonyl compounds. Reactions at carbonyl centers usually involve a series of addition and elimination steps proceeding through tetrahedral intermediates. These steps can be either acid-catalyzed or base-catalyzed. The rate and products of the reaction are determined by the reactivity of these tetrahedral intermediates. 

The following data give the dissociation constants for several acids that catalyze hydration of acetaldehyde. Also given are the rate constants for the hydration reaction catalyzed by each acid. Treat the data according to the Bronsted equation, and comment on the mechanistic significance of the result. 

The initial reaction is probably the acid-catalyzed hydration of the triple bond, followed by dehydration of the 17-hydroxyl group... 

The acid catalyzed hydration of olefins is frequently attended by decomposition or rearrangement of the acid-sensitive substrate. A simple and mild procedure for the Markovnikov hydration of double bonds has recently been devised by Brown and co-workers 13). This reaction, which appears to be remarkably free of rearrangements, initially involves the addition of mercuric acetate to the double bond to give the 1,2-... 

The acid-catalyzed hydration of isobutylene produces ter-butyl alcohol. The reaction occurs in the liquid phase in the presence of 50-65% H2SO4 at mild temperatures (10-30°C). The yield is approximately 95% ... 

Acid-catalyzed alkene hydration is particularly suited to large-scale industrial procedures, and approximately 300,000 tons of ethanol are manufactured each year in the United States by hydration of ethylene. The reaction is of little value in the typical laboratory, however, because it requires high temperatures— 250 °C in the case of ethylene—and strongly acidic conditions. 

Acid-catalyzed hydration of isolated double bonds is also uncommon in biological pathways. More frequently, biological hydrations require that the double bond be adjacent to a carbonyl group for reaction to proceed. Fumarate, for instance, is hydrated to give malate as one step in the citric acid cycle of food metabolism. Note that the requirement for an adjacent carbonyl group in the addition of water is the same as that we saw in Section 7.1 for the elimination of water. We ll see the reason for the requirement in Section 19.13, but might note for now that the reaction is not an electrophilic addition but instead occurs... 

Reaction of 2-methylpropene with CH3OH in the presence of H2SO4 catalyst yields methyl tert-butyl ether, CP OQCHT, by a mechanism analogous to that of acid-catalyzed alkene hydration. Write the mechanism, using curved arrows for each step. 

The hydroboration/oxidation sequence is complementary to the direct, mercury(ll)-catalyzed hydration reaction of a terminal alkyne because different products result. Direct hydration with aqueous acid and mercury(IJ) sulfate leads to a methyl ketone, whereas hydroboration/oxidation of the same terminal alkyne leads to an aldehyde. 

Ethanol for nonbeverage use is obtained by acid-catalyzed hydration of ethylene. Approximately 110 million gallons of ethanol a year is produced in the United States for use as a solvent or as a chemical intermediate in other industrial reactions. 

The nucleophilic addition of water to an aldehyde or ketone is slow under neutral conditions but is catalyzed by both base and acid. The base-catalyzed hydration reaction takes place as shown in Figure 19.4. The nucleophile is the... 

In practice, one proceeds as follows. The value of bh >s determined for the reaction with a series of acids of similar structure, that is, for carboxylic acids or ammonium ions, etc. Limiting the data to a single catalyst type improves the fit. since the inclusion of data for a second ype of acid catalyst might define a close but not identical line. This means that Ga may be somewhat different for each catalyst type. A plot of log(kBH/p) versus log(A BH(7//i) is then constructed. This procedure most often results in a straight line, within the usual —10-15 percent precision found for LFERs. One straightforward example is provided by the acid-catalyzed dehydration of acetaldehyde hydrate,... 

Figure 1. Energy-reaction coordinate diagram for the acid-catalyzed hydration of phenylacetylene. The ordinate is not to scale (20).

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