Isotope effects with carbon

Isotope effects on both the carbon and hydrogen of the breaking C-H bond have been measured. However, for this reaction both forward and reverse commitments are sizable so the three equations corresponding to Equation 11.48 have four unknowns the forward and reverse commitments and two intrinsic isotope effects. Measurements of the secondary deuterium kinetic isotope effect (at position 4 of nicotinamide ring of NADP+) and the carbon kinetic isotope effect with the secondary position deuterated introduce two additional equations, but only one more unknown ... 

SECONDARY ISOTOPE EFFECTS. Changes in reaction may also result from isotopic substitutions at positions that are immediately adjacent to the reaction center (/.e., the bond broken/made in the chemical reaction under investigation). We deal here only with so-called secondary ce-isotope effects, and we will limit the scope further by considering only a deuterium and a tritium isotope effects on carbon. Isotopic substitution by heavier nuclides will also give rise to a isotope effects, but they are quite small. The magnitudes of the a isotope effects for C—compared to C— as well as for C—compared to C—are also relatively small, frequently necessitating the use of special techniques. 

The last step in Equation 8.131 is a reasonable approximation that associates isotope effects with the breaking/making of the carbon-hydrogen bonds and not with alkane dissociation, that is, k /k° 1. The observed isotope effect is then seen as arising from the equilibrium relating the alkyl hydride and O-alkane complexes in Scheme 8.14. 

When the hydrogen transferred as hydride to the cofactor is retransferred to the same carbon atom in the product, the movement is far more difficult to detect. The conversion of D-glucose 6-phosphate (58) into lL-mt/o-inositol 1-phosphate (61) occurs by cyclization of the carbon skeleton, with formation of a new bond between C-l and C-6. When each carbon atom in turn was specifically labeled with tritium, there was complete retention of tritium, even in the presence of added NADH, although there was an apparent, small isotope-effect with D-glucose-5-t 6-phosphate.19 The mechanism proposed for the cyclization19 was an initial oxidation at C-5 to give NADH and xylo-hexos-5-ulose 6-phosphate (59), followed by an aldol reaction causing cyclization to lL-myo-inosose-2 1-phosphate (60), which is then... 

Reuben J (1986) Intramolecular hydrogen bonding as reflected in the deuterium isotope effects on carbon-13 chemical shifts. Correlation with hydrogen bond energies. J Am Chem Soc 108 1735-1738... 

Next to the isotope effects of hydrogen the most studied element has been carbon where the effects range as high as 15% with " C measurements of radioactivity are inherently of lower precision than mass spectrometric measurements making C the preferable isotope. Results from isotope effects on carbon can be most informative as the majority of organic reactions involve carbon bond fission. 

The occurrence of a hydrogen isotope effect in an electrophilic substitution will certainly render nugatory any attempt to relate the reactivity of the electrophile with the effects of substituents. Such a situation occurs in mercuration in which the large isotope effect = 6) has been attributed to the weakness of the carbon-mercury bond relative to the carbon-hydrogen bond. The following scheme has been formulated for the reaction, and the occurrence of the isotope effect indicates that the magnitudes of A j and are comparable ... 

The dependence of the j3-deuterium effect on the spatial orientation of the isotopic bond with respect to the developing -orbital, on the a-carbon atom was elegantly demonstrated by Shiner and Humphrey (1963). This work will not be discussed in detail here suffice it to say the suggestion is made that j8-deuterium effects are better correlated by the postulate of hyperconjugation and its angular dependence than by the simple steric model (Shiner and Humphrey, 1963). 

However, a number of examples have been found where addition of bromine is not stereospecifically anti. For example, the addition of Bf2 to cis- and trans-l-phenylpropenes in CCI4 was nonstereospecific." Furthermore, the stereospecificity of bromine addition to stilbene depends on the dielectric constant of the solvent. In solvents of low dielectric constant, the addition was 90-100% anti, but with an increase in dielectric constant, the reaction became less stereospecific, until, at a dielectric constant of 35, the addition was completely nonstereospecific.Likewise in the case of triple bonds, stereoselective anti addition was found in bromination of 3-hexyne, but both cis and trans products were obtained in bromination of phenylacetylene. These results indicate that a bromonium ion is not formed where the open cation can be stabilized in other ways (e.g., addition of Br+ to 1 -phenylpropene gives the ion PhC HCHBrCH3, which is a relatively stable benzylic cation) and that there is probably a spectrum of mechanisms between complete bromonium ion (2, no rotation) formation and completely open-cation (1, free rotation) formation, with partially bridged bromonium ions (3, restricted rotation) in between. We have previously seen cases (e.g., p. 415) where cations require more stabilization from outside sources as they become intrinsically less stable themselves. Further evidence for the open cation mechanism where aryl stabilization is present was reported in an isotope effect study of addition of Br2 to ArCH=CHCHAr (Ar = p-nitrophenyl, Ar = p-tolyl). The C isotope effect for one of the double bond carbons (the one closer to the NO2 group) was considerably larger than for the other one. ... 

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