In nucleophilic substitutions

Pd(II) compounds coordinate to alkenes to form rr-complexes. Roughly, a decrease in the electron density of alkenes by coordination to electrophilic Pd(II) permits attack by various nucleophiles on the coordinated alkenes. In contrast, electrophilic attack is commonly observed with uncomplexed alkenes. The attack of nucleophiles with concomitant formation of a carbon-palladium r-bond 1 is called the palladation of alkenes. This reaction is similar to the mercuration reaction. However, unlike the mercuration products, which are stable and isolable, the product 1 of the palladation is usually unstable and undergoes rapid decomposition. The palladation reaction is followed by two reactions. The elimination of H—Pd—Cl from 1 to form vinyl compounds 2 is one reaction path, resulting in nucleophilic substitution of the olefinic proton. When the displacement of the Pd in 1 with another nucleophile takes place, the nucleophilic addition of alkenes occurs to give 3. Depending on the reactants and conditions, either nucleophilic substitution of alkenes or nucleophilic addition to alkenes takes place. 

The order of alkyl halide reactivity in nucleophilic substitutions is the same as their order m eliminations Iodine has the weakest bond to carbon and iodide is the best leaving group Alkyl iodides are several times more reactive than alkyl bromides and from 50 to 100 times more reactive than alkyl chlorides Fluorine has the strongest bond to car bon and fluonde is the poorest leaving group Alkyl fluorides are rarely used as sub states m nucleophilic substitution because they are several thousand times less reactive than alkyl chlorides... 

Two modified sigma constants have been formulated for situations in which the substituent enters into resonance with the reaction center in an electron-demanding transition state (cr+) or for an electron-rich transition state (cr ). cr constants give better correlations in reactions involving phenols, anilines, and pyridines and in nucleophilic substitutions. Values of some modified sigma constants are given in Table 9.4. 

Methyl bromide slowly hydrolyzes in water, forming methanol and hydrobromic acid. The bromine atom of methyl bromide is an excellent leaving group in nucleophilic substitution reactions and is displaced by a variety of nucleophiles. Thus methyl bromide is useful in a variety of methylation reactions, such as the syntheses of ethers, sulfides, esters, and amines. Tertiary amines are methylated by methyl bromide to form quaternary ammonium bromides, some of which are active as microbicides. 

SuIfona.tlon, The sulfonic acid group is used extensively in the dyes industry for its water-solubilizing properties, and for its ability to act as a good leaving group in nucleophilic substitutions. It is used almost exclusively for these purposes since it has only a minor effect on the color of a dye. 

In the case of substituted phenazine fV-oxides some activation of substituents towards nucleophilic substitution is observed. 1-Chlorophenazine is usually very resistant to nucleophilic displacements, but the 2-isomer is more reactive and the halogen may be displaced with a number of nucleophiles. 1-Chlorophenazine 5-oxide (56), however, is comparable in its reactivity with 2-chlorophenazine and the chlorine atom is readily displaced in nucleophilic substitution reactions. 2-Chlorophenazine 5,10-dioxide (57) and 2-chlorophenazine 5-oxide both show enhanced reactivity relative to 2-chlorophenazine itself. On the basis of these observations, similar activation of 5- or 6-haloquinoxaline fV-oxides should be observed but little information is available at the present time. 

Thione or alkylthio groups have also been involved in nucleophilic substitutions with hydrazine, or amines, and by desulfurization using Raney nickel or aluminum amalgam. 

An alternative approach is in terms of frontier electron densities. In electrophilic substitution, the frontier electron density is taken as the electron density in the highest filled MO. In nucleophilic substitution the frontier orbital is taken as the lowest vacant MO the frontier electron density at a carbon atom is then the electron density that would be present in this MO if it were occupied by two electrons. Both electrophilic and nucleophilic substitution thus occur at the carbon atom with the greatest appropriate frontier electron density. 

Alkylthio groups are replaced in nucleophilic substitutions. Such reactions are easy in cationic derivatives for example, in the 1,2-dithiolylium series (539), substituted cydopen-tadienyl ion gives fulvene derivatives (540) (66AHC(7)39). 2-Methylthio groups in... 

If the fV-aryl group is strongly activated, then it can be removed in nucleophilic substitution reactions in which the azole anion acts as leaving group. Thus l-t2,4-dinitrophenyl)pyrazole reacts with N2H4 or NaOMe. 

Secondary isotope effects at the position have been especially thoroughly studied in nucleophilic substitution reactions. When carbocations are involved as intermediates, substantial /9-isotope effects are observed. This is because the hyperconjugative stabliliza-... 

The concept of ion pairs in nucleophilic substitution is now generally accepted. Presumably, the barriers separating the intimate, solvent-separated, and dissociated ion pairs are quite small. The potential energy diagram in Fig. 5.4 depicts the three ion-pair species as being roughly equivalent in energy and separated by small barriers. 

Sulfonate esters are especially useful substrates in nucleophilic substitution reactions used in synthesis. They have a high level of reactivity, and, unlike alkyl halides, they can be prepared from alcohols by reactions that do not directly involve bonds to the carbon atom imdeigoing substitution. The latter aspect is particularly important in cases in which the stereochemical and structural integrity of the reactant must be maintained. Sulfonate esters are usually prepared by reaction of an alcohol with a sulfonyl halide in the presence of pyridine ... 

Examples of effects of reactant stmcture on the rate of nucleophilic substitution reactions have appeared in the preceding sections of this chapter. The general trends of reactivity of primaiy, secondary, and tertiaiy systems and the special reactivity of allylic and benzylic systems have been discussed in other contexts. This section will emphasize the role that steric effects can pl in nucleophilic substitution reactions. 

The relative solvolysis rates in 50% ethanol—water of four isomeric p-bromobenze-nesulfonates are given below. R and T give an identical product mixture comprised of V and W, whereas S gives X and Y. Analyze these data in terms of possible participation of the oxygen atom in nucleophilic substitution. 

Piimaiy caibocations aie so high in energy that then intennediacy in nucleophilic substitution reactions is unlikely. When ethyl bromide undergoes hydrolysis in aqueous fonnic acid, substitution probably takes place by an SN2-like process, in which water is the nucleophile. 

Two kinds of starting materials have been examined in nucleophilic substitution reactions to this point. In Chapter 4 we saw that alcohols can be converted to alkyl halides by reaction with hydrogen halides and pointed out that this process is a nucleophilic substitution taking place on the protonated fonm of the alcohol, with water serving as the... 

This reaction is of synthetic value in that a-halo acids are reactive substrates in nucleophilic substitution reactions. 

Nucleophilic substitution by ammonia on a-halo acids (Section 19.16) The a-halo acids obtained by halogenation of carboxylic acids under conditions of the Hell-Volhard-Zelinsky reaction are reactive substrates in nucleophilic substitution processes. A standard method for the preparation of a-amino acids is displacement of halide from a-halo acids by nucleophilic substitution using excess aqueous ammonia. 

The strength of their- car bon-halogen bonds causes aryl halides to react very slowly in reactions in which carbon-halogen bond cleavage is rate-detenrrining, as in nucleophilic substitution, for example. Later in this chapter we will see exanples of such reactions that do take place at reasonable rates but proceed by mechanisms distinctly different from the classical SnI and Sn2 pathways. 

Section 23.4 Aiyl halides aie less reactive than alkyl halides in reactions in which C—X bond breaking is rate-detennining, especially in nucleophilic substitution reactions. 

Isopentenyl pyrophosphate and dimethylallyl pyrophosphate are structurally similar—both contain a double bond and a pyrophosphate ester unit—but the chemical reactivity expressed by each is different. The principal site of reaction in dimethylallyl pyrophosphate is the carbon that bears the pyrophosphate group. Pyrophosphate is a reasonably good leaving group in nucleophilic substitution reactions, especially when, as in dimethylallyl pyrophosphate, it is located at an allylic carbon. Isopentenyl pyrophosphate, on the other hand, does not have its leaving group attached to an allylic carbon and is far- less reactive than dimethylallyl pyrophosphate toward nucleophilic reagents. The principal site of reaction in isopentenyl pyrophosphate is the carbon-carbon double bond, which, like the double bonds of simple alkenes, is reactive toward electrophiles. 

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