Isotope effects isotopic substitutions

In the preceding sections, the bond to the isotopic atom is broken or formed in the rate-determining step of the reaction. In these cases, the change in rate is referred to as a primary kinetic isotope effect. Isotopic substitution at other sites in the molecule has much smaller effects on the rate. These small isotope effects are collectively referred to as secondary kinetic isotope effects. 

Isotope effects isotopic substitution changes the reduced mass (with little effect on spring constant), shifting the vibrational frequencies... 

A special type of substituent effect which has proved veiy valuable in the study of reaction mechanisms is the replacement of an atom by one of its isotopes. Isotopic substitution most often involves replacing protium by deuterium (or tritium) but is applicable to nuclei other than hydrogen. The quantitative differences are largest, however, for hydrogen, because its isotopes have the largest relative mass differences. Isotopic substitution usually has no effect on the qualitative chemical reactivity of the substrate, but often has an easily measured effect on the rate at which reaction occurs. Let us consider how this modification of the rate arises. Initially, the discussion will concern primary kinetic isotope effects, those in which a bond to the isotopically substituted atom is broken in the rate-determining step. We will use C—H bonds as the specific topic of discussion, but the same concepts apply for other elements. 

Predict whether normal or inverse isotope effects will be observed for each reaction below. Explain. Indicate any reactions in which you would expect > 2. The isotopically substituted hydrogens are marked with asterisks. 

For the reactions given below, predict the effect on the rate of the isotope substitution which is described. Explain the basis of your prediction. 

Bromination has been shown not to exhibit a primary kinetic isotope effect in the case of benzene, bromobenzene, toluene, or methoxybenzene. There are several examples of substrates which do show significant isotope effects, including substituted anisoles, JV,iV-dimethylanilines, and 1,3,5-trialkylbenzenes. The observation of isotope effects in highly substituted systems seems to be the result of steric factors that can operate in two ways. There may be resistance to the bromine taking up a position coplanar with adjacent substituents in the aromatization step. This would favor return of the ff-complex to reactants. In addition, the steric bulk of several substituents may hinder solvent or other base from assisting in the proton removal. Either factor would allow deprotonation to become rate-controlling. 

Indicate mechanisms that would account for the formation of each product. Show how the isotopic substitution could cause a change in product composition. Does your mechanism predict that the isotopic substitution would give rise to a primary or secondary deuterium kinetic isotope effect Calculate the magnitude of the kinetic isotope effect from the data given. 

Consider a reactant molecule in which one atom is replaced by its isotope, for example, protium (H) by deuterium (D) or tritium (T), C by C, etc. The only change that has been made is in the mass of the nucleus, so that to a very good approximation the electronic structures of the two molecules are the same. This means that reaction will take place on the same potential energy surface for both molecules. Nevertheless, isotopic substitution can result in a rate change as a consequence of quantum effects. A rate change resulting from an isotopic substitution is called a kinetic isotope effect. Such effects can provide valuable insights into reaction mechanism. 

If the proton is not equidistant between A and B, it will undergo some movement in the symmetric stretching vibration. Isotopic substitution will, therefore, result in a change in transition state vibrational frequency, with the result that there will be a zero-point energy difference in the transition state. This will reduce the kinetic isotope effect below its maximal possible value. For this type of reaction, therefore, should be a maximum when the proton is midway between A and B in the transition state and should decrease as H lies closer to A or to B. 

Kinetic Isotope Effect. The change in reaction rate caused by isotopic substitution. 

The route from kinetic data to reaction mechanism entails several steps. The first step is to convert the concentration-time measurements to a differential rate equation that gives the rate as a function of one or more concentrations. Chapters 2 through 4 have dealt with this aspect of the problem. Once the concentration dependences are defined, one interprets the rate law to reveal the family of reactions that constitute the reaction scheme. This is the subject of this chapter. Finally, one seeks a chemical interpretation of the steps in the scheme, to understand each contributing step in as much detail as possible. The effects of the solvent and other constituents (Chapter 9) the effects of substituents, isotopic substitution, and others (Chapter 10) and the effects of pressure and temperature (Chapter 7) all aid in the resolution. 

Studies of the kinetic effects of isotopic substitutions can provide support for a certain type of mechanism. The kie can be most helpful to settle whether a particular bond to hydrogen or another light element is broken in the activation process. 

When equation (9) is applied to the transition state of the biphenyl system, it gives directly the isotopic difference in the activation enthalpy per interacting pair of atoms, provided we make the reasonable assumption that initial-state steric effects are independent of isotopic substitution in the 6- and 6 -positions. Since there are two pairs of interacting atoms in the coplanar transition state, the final expression is... 

The molecules most profitably studied in connection with purely steric isotope effects have been isotopically substituted biphenyl derivatives. Mislow et al. (1964) reported the first more or less clearcut example of this kind in the isotope effect in the configurational inversion of optically active 9,10-dihydro-4,5-dimethylphenanthrene (7), for which an isotopic rate ratio ( d/ h) of 1-17 at 295-2°K in benzene solution was determined. The detailed conformation of the transition state is not certain in this case, as it involves the mutual passage of two methyl groups, and thus it is difficult to compare the experimental results with... 

Two reasons may be offered for the enhanced /3-deuterium isotope effect in vinyl cations as compared with carbonium ions (193). As pointed out by Noyce and Schiavelli (21), in the transition state of a vinyl cation, the isotopically substituted C—H bond is ideally suited for overlap with the developing vacant p orbital, as the dihedral angle between the empty p orbital and C—H bonds is zero in the intermediate, as shown in structure 239. Shiner and co-workers (195)... 

A disadvantage of this technique is that isotopic labeling can cause unwanted perturbations to the competition between pathways through kinetic isotope effects. Whereas the Born-Oppenheimer potential energy surfaces are not affected by isotopic substitution, rotational and vibrational levels become more closely spaced with substitution of heavier isotopes. Consequently, the rate of reaction in competing pathways will be modified somewhat compared to the unlabeled reaction. This effect scales approximately as the square root of the ratio of the isotopic masses, and will be most pronounced for deuterium or... 

Rosenblatt etal have examined the effect of structure and isotopic substitution upon the permanganate oxidation of some alky famines (Table 4). The isotope effect of 1.84 is considered to be sufficiently low to be compatible with aminium radical-cation formation, and it is felt that, while C-H cleavage is significant for oxidation of primary amines, the dominant mode of oxidation of tertiary amines is electron-transfer, e.g. 

In order to identify the new adsorbed species of the band at 895 cm, the effect of the isotope substitution of O, with 0, was examined. The spectra shown in Fig. 4 were recorded for the catalyst in the presence of H, and 0, in the wavenumber region of 700-950 cm with 100 scans. The results show that the absorption band at 849 cm ... 

Both the 12C/13C primary KIE and the 14N/15N secondary KIE have been determined (Table 4-2) [19, 20], with the immediate adjacent atoms about the isotopic substitution site quantized as well. To our knowledge, we are not aware of any such simulations prior to our work for a condensed phase reaction with converged secondary heavy isotope effects. This demonstrates the applicability and accuracy of the PI-FEP/UM method. 

In microwave spectroscopy, the situation is characterized by the fact that the number of independent pieces of observable data is often restricted to three rotational constants, while the number of degrees of freedom—3N-6 or 3N-5, where N is the number of atoms—can be significantly larger. The number of independent experimental rotational constants can be effectively increased by recording the spectra of isotopically substituted species, but that is not always possible. Thus, structural studies by microwave spectroscopy are often seriously underdetermined and extraneous information is useful in aiding the spectroscopic assignment. 

The deuterium isotope effects on chemical shift consists of intrinsic isotope effect (direct perturbation of the shielding of X atom) and equilibrium isotope effect (perturbation of the equilibrium caused by the isotopic substitution). The values of deuterium isotope effects are to some extent independent of chemical shifts and allow determination of the mole fraction of the forms in equilibrium. 

Effect of Isotope Substitution on Organic Reaction Rates. Nucleonics,... 

The effect of deuterium isotope substitution on Tc has been studied for three members of the KL-(BEDT-TTF)2Ag(CF3)4(l,l,2-trihaloethane) family [12, 34-36]. In all cases, the Tc increased upon deuteration with the effect ranging from 0.21 to 0.36 K. These results are similar to the deuterium isotope effect observed in the p"-(BEDT-TTF)2SF5CH2CF2S03 [34, 37] and k-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu(NCS)2 [38] superconductors. 

A complicating factor associated with experimental application of the Skell Hypothesis is that triplet carbenes abstract hydrogen atoms from many olefins more rapidly than they add to them. Also, in general, the two cyclopropanes that can be formed are diastereomers, and thus there is no reason to expect that they will be formed from an intermediate with equal efficiency. To allay these problems, stereospecifically deuteriated a-methyl-styrene has been employed as a probe for the multiplicity of the reacting carbene. In this case, one bond formation from the triplet carbene is expected to be rapid since it generates a particularly well-stabilized 1,3-biradical. Also, the two cyclopropane isomers differ only in isotopic substitution and this is anticipated to have only a small effect on the efficiencies of their formation. The expected non-stereospecific reaction of the triplet carbene is shown in (15) and its stereospecific counterpart in (16). 

Garret, B. C. and Truhlar, D. G. Generalized transition state theory. Quantum effects for collinear reactions of hydrogen molecules and isotopically substituted hydrogen molecules, JPhys.Chem., 83 (1979), 1079-1112... 

The effect of isotopic substitution on the position of a peak can also be estimated using this relationship. 

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