Kinetic Isotope Effects on Chemical Reactions

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. 

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The understanding of isotope effects on chemical equilibria, condensed phase equilibria, isotope separation, rates of reaction, and geochemical and meteorological phenomena, share a common foundation, which is the statistical thermodynamic treatment of isotopic differences on the properties of equilibrating species. For that reason the theory of isotope effects on equilibrium constants will be explored in considerable detail in this chapter. The results will carry over to later chapters which treat kinetic isotope effects, condensed phase phenomena, isotope separation, geochemical and biological fractionation, etc. 

It should be noted that there is a kinetic isotope effect on the normal reaction (9.11) when the a-deuterated compound is used as the substrate. A similar effect is found when the deuterated suicide inhibitor is used. Thus, both reactions involve a proton transfer in the rate-determining step of the reaction. It has also been shown that a sample of the allenic intermediate that is prepared chemically does in fact irreversibly inhibit the enzyme.18... 

The enzyme-product complexes of the yeast enzyme dissociate rapidly so that the chemical steps are rate-determining.31 This permits the measurement of kinetic isotope effects on the chemical steps of this reaction from the steady state kinetics. It is found that the oxidation of deuterated alcohols RCD2OH and the reduction of benzaldehydes by deuterated NADH (i.e., NADD) are significantly slower than the reactions with the normal isotope (kn/kD = 3 to 5).21,31 This shows that hydride (or deuteride) transfer occurs in the rate-determining step of the reaction. The rate constants of the hydride transfer steps for the horse liver enzyme have been measured from pre-steady state kinetics and found to give the same isotope effects.32,33 Kinetic and kinetic isotope effect data are reviewed in reference 34 and the effects of quantum mechanical tunneling in reference 35. 

A special type of substituent effect that has proved very valuable in the study of reaction mechanisms is the replacement of an atom by one of its isotopes. This replacement has most often involved substitution of protium by deuterium (or, less often, tritium), but the principle is applicable to nuclei other than hydrogen. The quantitative differences are largest, however, for hydrogen. Isotopic substitution has no effect on the qualitative chemical reactivity of the substrate, but it 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, i.e., reactions in which a bond to the isotopically substituted atom is broken in the rate-determining step. 

Most of the chemical reactions presented in this book have been studied in homogeneous solutions. This chapter presents a conceptual and theoretical framework for these processes. Some of the matters involve principles, such as diffusion-controlled rates and applications of TST to questions of solvent effects on reactivity. Others have practical components as well, especially those dealing with salt effects and kinetic isotope effects. 

Isotope effects on rates (so-called kinetic isotope effects, KIE s) of specific reactions will be discussed in detail in a later chapter. The most frequently employed formalism used to discuss KIE s is based on the activated complex (transition state) theory of chemical kinetics and is analogous to the theory of isotope effects on thermodynamic equilibria discussed in this chapter. It is thus appropriate to discuss this theory here. 

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. 

Using the various simplifications above, we have arrived at a model for reaction 11.9 in which only one step, the chemical conversion occurring at the active site of the enzyme characterized by the rate constant k3, exhibits the kinetic isotope effect Hk3. From Equations 11.29 and 11.30, however, it is apparent that the observed isotope effects, HV and H(V/K), are not directly equal to this kinetic isotope effect, Hk3, which is called the intrinsic kinetic isotope effect. The complexity of the reaction may cause part or all of Hk3 to be masked by an amount depending on the ratios k3/ks and k3/k2. The first ratio, k3/k3, compares the intrinsic rate to the rate of product dissociation, and is called the ratio of catalysis, r(=k3/ks). The second, k3/k2, compares the intrinsic rate to the rate of the substrate dissociation and is called forward commitment to catalysis, Cf(=k3/k2), or in short, commitment. The term partitioning factor is sometimes used in the literature for this ratio of rate constants. 

If the overall reaction rate is controlled by step three (k3) (i.e. if that is the rate limiting step), then the observed isotope effect is close to the intrinsic value. On the other hand, if the rate of chemical conversion (step three) is about the same or faster than processes described by ks and k2, partitioning factors will be large, and the observed isotope effects will be smaller or much smaller than the intrinsic isotope effect. The usual goal of isotope studies on enzymatic reactions is to unravel the kinetic scheme and deduce the intrinsic kinetic isotope effect in order to elucidate the nature of the transition state corresponding to the chemical conversion at the active site of an enzyme. Methods of achieving this goal will be discussed later in this chapter. 

When isotopes are fractionated kinetically during chemical reactions, the isotope ratio shift of the reaction products relative to the reactants often depends on reaction mechanisms and rates. This contrasts with isotopic fractionations between phases in isotopic equilibrium, where the isotopic differences are thermodynamic quantities and thus do not depend on reaction mechanisms or rates. In this section, we briefly review the well-developed theory for kinetic isotope effects that appears in the S isotope literature. This background serves as a guide for interpreting and predicting Se and Cr isotope systematics. 

Quantum chemical calculations need not be limited to the description of the structures and properties of stable molecules, that is, molecules which can actually be observed and characterized experimentally. They may as easily be applied to molecules which are highly reactive ( reactive intermediates ) and, even more interesting, to molecules which are not minima on the overall potential energy surface, but rather correspond to species which connect energy minima ( transition states or transition structures ). In the latter case, there are (and there can be) no experimental structure data. Transition states do not exist in the sense that they can be observed let alone characterized. However, the energies of transition states, relative to energies of reactants, may be inferred from experimental reaction rates, and qualitative information about transition-state geometries may be inferred from such quantities as activation entropies and activation volumes as well as kinetic isotope effects. 

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