HYDROLYSIS AND ALCOHOLYSIS OF CARBOXYLIC ACID HALIDES

Investigations into the mechanism of hydrolysis and alcoholysis of acyl halides have been largely concerned with acyl chlorides and in particular with benzoyl chloride and the related aromatic acid chlorides. This was a result of the relatively slow rate of hydrolysis of benzoyl chloride compared with acetyl chloride (although their alcoholysis rates are easily measurable) and it is only comparatively recently90 that stop-flow techniques have been used to measure the faster rate of hydrolysis. However, in spite of this limitation, considerable progress has been made towards elucidation of the mechanism or mechanisms of hydrolysis and alcoholysis of these halides. 

The detailed mechanism, or mechanisms, of the solvolysis of acid chlorides is still a matter of dispute. There are at least four possible mechanisms, (a)-(d) below, all of which have been proposed either to act separately or in various combinations, and there is a unified mechanism, that of Minato93 which will be discussed later. The bimolecular mechanisms (a) and (b) differ in that (a) includes a tetrahedral intermediate whereas (b) does not. The former is commonly accepted as the most likely for the bimolecular mechanism and the arguments against (b) have been stated in the introduction. There is, however, good evidence for (A), at least in the case of the hydrolysis of chloracetyl chloride94. The acylium ion mechanism (c) and the hydrated carbonium ion mechanism (d) are both unimolecular mechanisms. Whereas the acylium ion XXVII has never been directly observed in hydrolysis or alcoholysis reactions, it is favoured as an intermediate by many workers, although it is kinetically indistinguishable from XXVIII. 

The kinetic evidence which has been acquired in attempts to distinguish between these alternatives falls into the following classes. 

For example, making certain assumptions, lsO exchange studies should distinguish (a) and (d) from (b) and (c), since the latter should not give any l80 

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