Hydrolysis of amides in base

Hydrolysis of amides in base requires similarly vigorous conditions. Hot solutions of hydroxide are sufficiently powerful nucleophiles to attack an amide carbonyl group, though even when the tetrahedral intermediate has formed, NH2 tp aH 35) has only a slight chance of leaving when OH (p aH 15) is an alternative. Nonetheless, at high temperatures, amides are slowly hydrolysed by concentrated base. 

In base the tetrahedral intermediate is formed m a manner analogous to that pro posed for ester saponification Steps 1 and 2 m Figure 20 8 show the formation of the tetrahedral intermediate m the basic hydrolysis of amides In step 3 the basic ammo group of the tetrahedral intermediate abstracts a proton from water and m step 4 the derived ammonium ion dissociates Conversion of the carboxylic acid to its corresponding carboxylate anion m step 5 completes the process and renders the overall reaction irreversible... 

The mechanism for the hydrolysis of amides in aqueous base is more complex than that for the hydrolysis of esters in aqueous base because the amide anion is such a poor leaving group. 

Nitriles are classified as carboxylic acid derivatives because they are converted to carboxylic acids on hydrolysis. The conditions required are similar- to those for the hydrolysis of amides, namely, heating in aqueous acid or base for several hours. Like the hydrolysis of amides, nitrile hydrolysis is ineversible in the presence of acids or bases. Acid hydrolysis yields fflnmonium ion and a carboxylic acid. 

Hydrolysis of amide groups to carboxylate is a major cause of instability in acrylamide-based polymers, especially at alkaline pH and high temperatures. The performance of oil-recovery polymers may be adversely affected by excessive hydrolysis, which can promote precipitation from sea water solution. This work has studied the effects of the sodium salts of acrylic acid and AMPS, 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid, as comonomers, on the rate of hydrolysis of polyacrylamides in alkaline solution at high temperatures. Copolymers were prepared containing from 0-53 mole % of the anionic comonomers, and hydrolyzed in aqueous solution at pH 8.5 at 90°C, 108°C and 120°C. The extent of hydrolysis was measured by a conductometric method, analyzing for the total carboxylate content. 

Amides. Although similar to esters in terms of being a functional derivative of a carboxylic acid, amides, unlike esters, are relatively metabolically stable. In general, amides are stable to acid- and base-catalyzed hydrolysis. This stability is related to the overlapping electron clouds within the amide functionality and the corresponding multiple resonance forms. Amidases are enzymes that can catalyze the hydrolysis of amides. Nevertheless, amides are much more stable than esters. 

Dr. Halpern This could be used in stabilizing, say an activated complex. The point about the hydrolysis observation is that this refers to the octahedral complex, whereas the explanations that have been offered for the effect of amide in the conjugate base mechanism are concerned, not with weakening of the binding, but with stabilizing a five-coordinated intermediate. I wondered if the role of the hydroxide in promoting water substitution might be of the same nature. 

Base-catalysed hydrolysis. The hydroxide ion attacks the nitrile carhon, followed hy protonation on the unstable nitrogen anion to generate an imidic acid. The imidic acid tautomerizes to the more stable amide via deprotonation on oxygen and protonation on nitrogen. The base-catalysed amide is converted to carboxylic acid in several steps as discussed earlier for the hydrolysis of amides. 

Simpler evidence for the presence of a tetrahedral intermediate is adduced from a study of the kinetics of alkaline hydrolysis of amides such an anilides26-28, chloroacetamide30, N,N-diacylamines31, and urea32. The rate equations for these reactions contain both first- and second-order terms in hydroxide ion. A reasonable explanation is that the hydrolysis mechanism involves a tetrahedral intermediate, rather than that the second-order term is due to base catalysis of the addition of the hydroxide ion to the carbonyl group. Such a mechanism is... 

The currently accepted mechanism for the hydrolysis of amides and esters catalyzed by the archetypal serine protease chymotrypsin involves the initial formation of a Michaelis complex followed by the acylation of Ser-195 to give an acylenzyme (Chapter 1) (equation 7.1). Much of the kinetic work with the enzyme has been directed toward detecting the acylenzyme. This work can be used to illustrate the available methods that are based on pre-steady state and steady state kinetics. The acylenzyme accumulates in the hydrolysis of activated or specific ester substrates (k2 > k3), so that the detection is relatively straightforward. Accumulation does not occur with the physiologically relevant peptides (k2 < k3), and detection is difficult. 

Amides undergo an acid- or base-catalyzed hydrolysis reaction with water in the same way that esters do. Just as an ester yields a carboxylic acid and an alcohol, an amide yields a carboxylic acid and an amine (or ammonia). The net effect is a substitution of -N by -OH. This hydrolysis of amides is the key process that occurs in the stomach during digestion of proteins. 

In general, amides are much less hydrolytically reactive than esters. Typical hydrolysis half-lives under conditions common to aquatic environments range from hundreds to thousands of years. Hydrolysis of amides generally requires acid or base for the reactions to achieve measurable rates. 

Acid-base-catalyzed hydrolyses are very common one example is the hydrolysis of amides or esters. Their hydrolysis occurs when the nucleophile (a nucleus-seeking agent, e.g., water or hydroxyl ion) attacks the carbon of the carbonyl group of the ester or amide. In an aqueous base, hydroxyl ions are better nucleophiles than dipoles such as water. In acid, the carbonyl group becomes protonated, and this leads to a much easier nucleophilic attack. The products for both hydrolyses are compounds with carboxylic acid groups. 

Hydrolysis of amides can take place in either acid or base. Primary amides hydrolyze in acid to ammonium salts and carboxylic acids. Neutralization of the acid and ammonium salts releases ammonia which can be detected by odor or by litmus. 

You might indeed have guessed from our previous example, the hydrolysis of esters, where the transition states for formation and breakdown of the tetrahedral intermediate had about the same energies, that in the hydrolysis of amide the second step becomes rate-determining. This offers the opportunity for further base catalysis. If a second hydroxide ion removes the proton from the tetrahedral intermediate, the loss of NH j is made easier and the product is the more stable carboxylate ion. 

An acid—base reaction forms a nucleophilic anion that can react with an unhindered alkyl halide— that is, CH3X or RCH2X—in an 5 2 reaction to form a substitution product. This alkylated imide is then hydrolyzed with aqueous base to give a 1° amine and a dicarboxylate. This reaction is similar to the hydrolysis of amides to afford carboxylate anions and amines, as discussed in Section 22.13. The overall result of this two-step sequence is nucleophilic substitution of X by NH2, so the Gabriel synthesis can be used to prepare 1° amines only. 

Example 2.14. A rationale for the involvement of different leaving groups in the acid- and base-promoted hydrolysis of amides. 

The rate equation for the alkaline hydrolysis of amides such as urea (Lynn, 1965), anilides (Biechler and Taft, 1957 Bender and Thomas, 1961a Mader, 1965 Schowen and Zuorick, 1966), chloroacetamide (Bruylants and K zdy, 1960) andN,N-diacylamines (Behme and Cordes, 1964), is known to contain both first- and second-order terms in hydroxide. It is highly improbable that the term which is second-order in hydroxide is due to base-catalysis of the addition of hydroxide ion to the carbonyl carbon, because of the low acidity of hydroxide. 

The reaction of acylimidazoles with imidazole is subject to both imidazole and imidazolium ion catalysis (Fife, 1965). The latter reaction is no doubt due to the imidazole-catalyzed hydration of acetylimidazolium ion, as in 18, and fully analogous to the N-methylimidazole-catalyzed hydrolysis of N-acetyl,N -methylimidazolium ion. The mechanism of the former reaction is undefined at the present time, since no 0 exchange studies have been performed with acylimidazoles in more alkaline solution where imidazole catalysis occurs. The leaving group, the imidazole anion, is quite basic (piC = 14-5) therefore it is possible that general base-catalyzed decomposition of the neutral tetrahedral intermediate (24) or general acid-assisted decomposition of the anionic tetrahedral intermediate (25) may occur. The general base-catalyzed alkaline hydrolysis of amides most probably occurs by the... 

The chemistry behind amino acid analysis is nothing more than acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of amide (peptide) bonds. The peptide is hydrolyzed by heating in 6 M hydrochloric acid for about 24 h to give a solution that contains all the amino acids. This mixture is then separated by ion-exchange chromatography, which separates the amino acids mainly according to their acid-base properties. As the amino acids leave the chromatography column, they are mixed with ninhydrin and the intensity of the ninhydrin... 

Hydrolysis of carboxylic and phosphoric esters is also a slow process at neutral pH, and is catalyzed by acids and bases by mechanisms similar to those involved in amide and peptide hydrolysis. Metal ions are also good catalysts of both carboxylic and phosphoric ester hydrolysis, typically with rate increases much higher than those observed for hydrolysis of amides or peptides (Table... 

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