Kinetic isotope effect examples

The details of proton-transfer processes can also be probed by examination of solvent isotope effects, for example, by comparing the rates of a reaction in H2O versus D2O. The solvent isotope effect can be either normal or inverse, depending on the nature of the proton-transfer process in the reaction mechanism. D3O+ is a stronger acid than H3O+. As a result, reactants in D2O solution are somewhat more extensively protonated than in H2O at identical acid concentration. A reaction that involves a rapid equilibrium protonation will proceed faster in D2O than in H2O because of the higher concentration of the protonated reactant. On the other hand, if proton transfer is part of the rate-determining step, the reaction will be faster in H2O than in D2O because of the normal primary kinetic isotope effect of the type considered in Section 4.5. 

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. 

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. 

A kinetic isotope effect that results when the bond to the isotopic atom is not broken is called a secondary isotope effect. Here are two examples ... 

It is apparent from equation (16) that if k x becomes much larger than k 2, the rate will depend upon k 2 and so a kinetic isotope effect will be observed. Now kL j will become large if there is steric hindrance to formation of the intermediate, and a number of examples are now known where an electrophile which normally gives no isotope effect, does so if formation of the intermediate is hindered. 

Brown and McDonald (1966) provided another type of kinetic evidence for these size relationships by determining secondary kinetic isotope effects in reactions of pyridine-4-pyridines with alkyl iodides. For example, the isotopic rate ratio in the reaction between 4-(methyl-d3)-pyridine and methyl iodide at 25-0 C in nitrobenzene solution was determined to be kjyfk = l-OOl, while that in the corresponding reaction with 2,6-(dimethyl-d6)-pyridine was 1-095. (Brown and McDonald (1966) estimate an uncertainty of 1% in the k jk values.) Furthermore, the isotopic rate ratio in the case of the 2-(methyl-d3)-compound increased from 1 030 to 1-073 as the alkyl group in the alkyl iodide was changed from methyl to isopropyl, i.e. the isotope effect increased with increasing steric requirements of the alkyl iodide. 

In addition to the magnetic differences between the deuteron and proton, however, their mass difference may also cause observable effects. A well known example is found in the theory of chemical reactions, where the so called kinetic isotope effects (KIE s) are an important source of information about reaction mechanisms. Also in the field of ESR, such effects may arise, although these have been much less studied than the KIE s. 

Transition state theory has been useful in providing a rationale for the so-called kinetic isotope effect. The kinetic isotope effect is used by enzy-mologists to probe various aspects of mechanism. Importantly, measured kinetic isotope effects have also been used to monitor if non-classical behaviour is a feature of enzyme-catalysed hydrogen transfer reactions. The kinetic isotope effect arises because of the differential reactivity of, for example, a C-H (protium), a C-D (deuterium) and a C-T (tritium) bond. 

Compounds with C—D bonds react with dioxygen more slowly than those with C—H bonds. For example, the kinetic isotope effect kn/k0 = 5.2 (diethyl sebacinate, 413 K)... 

Other primary hydrogen-deuterium kinetic isotope effects have been measured for radical reactions with tributyltin hydride. For example, Carlsson and Ingold167 found primary hydrogen-deuterium kinetic isotope effects of 2.7 and 2.8, respectively, for the... 

The reactions depicted in Fig. 32 are most often carried out at low temperatures. The incursion of a thermal process at elevated temperatures has occasionally been observed. In some cases the thermal oxygenation products are identical to the photochemical products and in other cases are different. For example, when 2,3-dimethyl-2-butene/02 NaY is warmed above — 20 °C a reaction was observed which led to pinacolone (3,3-dimethyl-2-butanone) as the major product.98,110 Pin-acolone is not formed in the photochemical reaction at the same temperature. On the other hand, identical products were observed in the thermal and photochemical intrazeolite oxygenations of cyclohexane.114,133 135 These intrazeolite thermal processes occur at temperatures well below that necessary to induce a classical autooxidation process in solution. Consequently, the strong electrostatic stabilization of oxygen CT complexes may also play a role in the thermal oxygenations. Indeed, the increase in reactivity of the thermal oxygenation of cyclohexane with increasing intrazeolite electrostatic field led to the conclusion that initiation of both the thermal and photochemically activated processes occur by the same CT mechanism.134 Identical kinetic isotope effects (kH/kD — 5.5+0.2) for the thermal and photochemical processes appears to support this conclusion.133... 

Choosing a method to determine isotope effects on rate constants, and selecting a particular set of techniques and instrumentation, will very much depend on the rate and kind of reaction to be studied, (i.e. does the reaction occur in the gas, liquid, or solid phase , is it 1st or 2nd order , fast or slow , very fast or very slow , etc.), as well as on the kind and position of the isotopic label, the level of enrichment (which may vary from trace amounts, through natural abundance, to full isotopic substitution). Also, does the isotopic substitution employ stable isotopes or radioactive ones, etc. With such a variety of possibilities it is useless to attempt to generate methods that apply to all reactions. Instead we will resort to discussing a few examples of commonly encountered strategies used to study kinetic isotope effects. 

Abstract This chapter describes a number of examples of kinetic isotope effects on chemical reactions of different types (simple gas phase reactions, Sn2 and E reactions in solution and in the gas phase, a and 3 secondary isotope effects, etc.). These examples are used to illustrate many aspects of the measurement, interpretation, and theoretical calculation of KIE s. The chapter concludes with an example of an harmonic semiclassical calculation of a kinetic isotope effect. 

In the remaining sections of this chapter we will discuss further examples of kinetic isotope effects. The first considers a system in which there is a competition between two mechanisms, Sn2 and E2 and returns to reaction 10.15. (By E2 we refer to a second order elimination reaction, see Fig. 10.6). In Equation 10.15 the hypochlorite... 

Interpretation of KIEs on enzymatic processes (see Chapter 11) has been frequently based on the assumption that the intrinsic value of the kinetic isotope effect is known. Chemical reactions have long been used as models for catalytic events occurring in enzyme active sites and in some cases this analogy has worked quite well. One example is the decarboxylation of 4-pyridylacetic acid presented in Fig. 10.9. Depending on the solvent, either the zwitterionic or the neutral form dominates in the solution. Since the reaction rates in D20/H20 solvent mixtures are the same (see Section 11.4 for a discussion of aqueous D/H solvent isotope effects), as are the carbon KIEs for the carboxylic carbon, it is safe to assume that this is a single step reaction. The isotope effects on pKa are expected to be close to the value of 1.0014 determined for benzoic acid. This in mind, changes in the isotope effects have been attributed to changes in solvation. 

The principal goal of most studies of kinetic isotope effects on enzymatic reactions is to deduce intrinsic rate constants, which, in turn, can be correlated with the geometric features, that is the structure, of the corresponding transition states. Formal kinetics provides several options for reaching this goal. For example, as we have seen above, changes in concentration can diminish the commitment to the point where the KIE experimental value corresponds directly to the intrinsic kinetic... 

As a first example we discuss a mechanism in which the formation of the enzyme-intermediate complex, El, is sensitive to hydrogen isotopic substitution, while the next step characterized by rate constants ks and k6 exhibits a carbon kinetic isotope effect. Expressions for the three kinetic isotope effects that can be determined experimentally are ... 

An S Ar (nucleophilic substitution at aromatic carbon atom) mechanism has been proposed for these reactions. Both nonenzymatic and enzymatic reactions that proceed via this mechanism typically exhibit inverse solvent kinetic isotope effects. This observation is in agreement with the example above since the thiolate form of glutathione plays the role of the nucleophile role in dehalogenation reactions. Thus values of solvent kinetic isotope effects obtained for the C13S mutant, which catalyzes only the initial steps of these reactions, do not agree with this mechanism. Rather, the observed normal solvent isotope effect supports a mechanism in which step(s) that have either no solvent kinetic isotope effect at all, or an inverse effect, and which occur after the elimination step, are kinetically significant and diminish the observed solvent kinetic isotope effect. 

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