Kinetics nucleophilic substitution mechanism

Kinetic experiments have been performed on a copper-catalyzed substitution reaction of an alkyl halide, and the reaction rate was found to be first order in the copper salt, the halide, and the Grignard reagent [121]. This was not the case for a silver-catalyzed substitution reaction with a primary bromide, in which the reaction was found to be zero order in Grignard reagents [122]. A radical mechanism might be operative in the case of the silver-catalyzed reaction, whereas a nucleophilic substitution mechanism is suggested in the copper-catalyzed reaction [122]. The same behavior was also observed in the stoichiometric conjugate addition (Sect. 10.2.1) [30]. 

For a monograph on aromatic nucleophilic substitution mechanisms, sec Miller Aromatic Nucleophilic Substitution. Elsevier New York, 1968. For reviews, see Bernasconi Chimia 1980, 34, 1-11, Acc. Chem. Res. 1978, II. 147-152 Bunnctt J. Chem. Educ. 1974, 51, 312-315 Ross, in Bamford Tipper Comprehensive Chemical Kinetics, vol. 13 Elsevier New York, 1972. pp. 407-431 Buck Angew. Chem. 1m. Ed. Engl. 1969,8. 120-131 Angetv. Chem. 81. 136-148) Bunccl Norris Russell Q. Rev., Chem. Soc. 1968, 22. 123-146 Ref. I. 

Cobalt(i).—The main interest here is in cobaloximes and similar cobalt(i) chelate complexes as models for reduced forms of vitamin Big. Kinetic studies of alkylation at cobalt(i), as in the recent study of reaction of alkyl halides with, for example, cobaloximes and vitamin Bias, indicate an 5 n2 mechanism, with cobalt(i) acting as a very strong nucleophile. The 5 n2 mechanism has now been confirmed stereochemically by establishing that these reactions proceed with inversion of configuration at carbon. Reaction of vinyl halides with these cobalt(i) complexes also proceeds by an associative nucleophilic substitution mechanism, rather than via acetylenic intermediates. ... 

CHEMICAL KINETICS EVIDENCE FOR NUCLEOPHILIC SUBSTITUTION MECHANISMS... 

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE NUCLEOPHILIC SUBSTITUTION MECHANISM KINETICS... 

Zhang, X., Yang, D., Liu, Y, Chen, W., and Cheng, J., Kinetics and mechanism of the reactions of 0- and p-nitrohalobenzenes with the sodium salt of ethyl cyanoacetate carbanion a non-chain radical nucleophilic substitution mechanism. Res. Chem. Intermed., 11,281, 1989. 

These reactions follow first-order kinetics and proceed with racemisalion if the reaction site is an optically active centre. For alkyl halides nucleophilic substitution proceeds easily primary halides favour Sn2 mechanisms and tertiary halides favour S 1 mechanisms. Aryl halides undergo nucleophilic substitution with difficulty and sometimes involve aryne intermediates. 

Charge diagrams suggest that the 2-amino-5-halothiazoles are less sensitive to nucleophilic attack on 5-position than their thiazole counterpart. Recent kinetic data on this reactivity however, show, that this expectation is not fulfilled (67) the ratio fc.. bron.c.-2-am.noih.azoie/ -biomoth.azoie O"" (reaction with sodium methoxide) emphasizes the very unusual amino activation to nucleophilic substitution. The reason of this activation could lie in the protomeric equilibrium, the reactive species being either under protomeric form 2 or 3 (General Introduction to Protomeric Thiazoles). The reactivity of halothiazoles should, however, be reinvestigated under the point of view of the mechanism (1690). 

The mechanisms by which nucleophilic substitution takes place have been the subject of much study Extensive research by Sir Christopher Ingold and Edward D Hughes and their associates at University College London during the 1930s emphasized kinetic and stereochemical measurements to probe the mechanisms of these reactions... 

The first mechanistic studies of silanol polycondensation on the monomer level were performed in the 1950s (73—75). The condensation of dimethyl sil oxanediol in dioxane exhibits second-order kinetics with respect to diol and first-order kinetics with respect to acid. The proposed mechanism involves the protonation of the silanol group and subsequent nucleophilic substitution at the siHcone (eqs. 10 and 11). 

The points that we have emphasized in this brief overview of the S l and 8 2 mechanisms are kinetics and stereochemistry. These features of a reaction provide important evidence for ascertaining whether a particular nucleophilic substitution follows an ionization or a direct displacement pathway. There are limitations to the generalization that reactions exhibiting first-order kinetics react by the Sj l mechanism and those exhibiting second-order kinetics react by the 8 2 mechanism. Many nucleophilic substitutions are carried out under conditions in which the nucleophile is present in large excess. When this is the case, the concentration of the nucleophile is essentially constant during die reaction and the observed kinetics become pseudo-first-order. This is true, for example, when the solvent is the nucleophile (solvolysis). In this case, the kinetics of the reaction provide no evidence as to whether the 8 1 or 8 2 mechanism operates. 

Kinetic studies have shown that the enolate and phosphorus nucleophiles all react at about the same rate. This suggests that the only step directly involving the nucleophile (step 2 of the propagation sequence) occurs at essentially the diffusion-controlled rate so that there is little selectivity among the individual nucleophiles. The synthetic potential of the reaction lies in the fact that other substituents which activate the halide to substitution are not required in this reaction, in contrast to aromatic nucleophilic substitution which proceeds by an addition-elimination mechanism (see Seetion 10.5). 

In general, the reaction between a phenol and an aldehyde is classified as an electrophilic aromatic substitution, though some researchers have classed it as a nucleophilic substitution (Sn2) on aldehyde [84]. These mechanisms are probably indistinguishable on the basis of kinetics, though the charge-dispersed sp carbon structure of phenate does not fit our normal concept of a good nucleophile. In phenol-formaldehyde resins, the observed hydroxymethylation kinetics are second-order, first-order in phenol and first-order in formaldehyde. 

It is quite reasonable to expect the bimolecular two-stage mechanism Sj Ar ) to predominate in most aromatic nucleophilic substitutions of activated substrates. However, only in rare instances is there adequate evidence to rule out the simultaneous occurrence or predominance of other mechanisms. The true significance of the alternative mechanisms in azines needs to be determined by trapping the intermediates or by applying modem separation and characterization methods to the identification of at least the major portion of the products, especially in kinetic studies. 

A mechanism that accounts for both the inversion of configuration and the second-order kinetics that are observed with nucleophilic substitution reactions was suggested in 1937 by E. D. Hughes and Christopher Ingold, who formulated what they called the SN2 reaction—short for substitution, nucleophilic, birnolecu-lar. (Birnolecular means that two molecules, nucleophile and alkyl halide, take part in the step whose kinetics are measured.)... 

Now we get to the meaning of 2 in Sn2. Remember from the last chapter that nucleophilicity is a measure of kinetics (how fast something happens). Since this is a nucleophilic substitution reaction, then we care about how fast the reaction is happening. In other words, what is the rate of the reaction This mechanism has only one step, and in that step, two things need to find each other the nucleophile and the electrophile. So it makes sense that the rate of the reaction will be dependent on how much electrophile is around and how much nucleophile is around. In other words, the rate of the reaction is dependent on the concentrations of two entities. The reaction is said to be second order, and we signify this by placing a 2 in the name of the reaction. 

Today it is widely accepted that fivefold coordinated silicon plays a key role in the reaction mechanisms of the nucleophilic substitution having a trigonal bipyramidal transition state species which ressemble these transition states can be isolated in some special cases. The structural features fit well to kinetic data and possibly explain the significantly higher reactivity (proved by experimental data) of Si-pentacoordinated compounds compared to their tetracoordinated analoga. 

In fact, the analogy between the mechanisms of heterolytic nucleophilic substitutions and electrophilic bromine additions, shown by the similarity of kinetic substituent and solvent effects (Ruasse and Motallebi, 1991), tends to support Brown s conclusion. If cationic intermediates are formed reversibly in solvolysis, analogous bromocations obtained from bromine and an ethylenic compound could also be formed reversibly. Nevertheless, return is a priori less favourable in bromination than in solvolysis because of the charge distribution in the bromocations. Return in bromination implies that the counter-ion, a bromide ion in protic solvents, attacks the bromine atom of the bromonium ion rather than a carbon atom (see [27]). Now, it is known (Galland et al, 1990) that the charge on this bromine atom is very small in bridged intermediates and obviously nil in /f-bromocarbocations [28]. 

Molecular transport junctions differ from traditional chemical kinetics in that they are fundamentally electronic rather than nuclear - in chemical kinetics one talks about nucleophilic substitution reactions, isomerization processes, catalytic insertions, crystal forming, lattice changes - nearly always these are describing nuclear motion (although the electronic behavior underlies it). In general the areas of both electron transfer and electron transport focus directly on the charge motion arising from electrons, and are therefore intrinsically quantum mechanical. 

Partitioning of carbocations between addition of nucleophiles and deprotonation, 35, 67 Perchloro-organic chemistry structure, spectroscopy and reaction pathways, 25, 267 Permutations isomerization of pentavalent phosphorus compounds, 9, 25 Phase-transfer catalysis by quaternary ammonium salts, 15, 267 Phenylnitrenes, Kinetics and spectroscopy of substituted, 36, 255 Phosphate esters, mechanism and catalysis of nucleophilic substitution in, 25, 99 Phosphorus compounds, pentavalent, turnstile rearrangement and pseudoration in permutational isomerization, 9, 25 Photochemistry, of aryl halides and related compounds, 20, 191 Photochemistry, of carbonium ions, 9, 129... 

The first evidence that an elimination-addition mechanism could be important in nucleophilic substitution reactions of alkanesulfonyl derivatives was provided by the observation (Truce et al., 1964 Truce and Campbell, 1966 King and Durst, 1964, 1965) that when alkanesulfonyl chlorides RCH2S02C1 were treated in the presence of an alcohol R OD with a tertiary amine (usually Et3N) the product was a sulfonate ester RCHDS020R with exactly one atom of deuterium on the carbon alpha to the sulfonyl group. Had the ester been formed by a base-catalysed direct substitution reaction of R OD with the sulfonyl chloride there would have been no deuterium at the er-position. Had the deuterium been incorporated by a separate exchange reaction, either of the sulfonyl chloride before its reaction to form the ester, or of the ester subsequent to its formation, then the amount of deuterium incorporated would not have been uniformly one atom of D per molecule. The observed results are only consistent with the elimination-addition mechanism involving a sulfene intermediate shown in (201). Subsequent kinetic studies... 

Oxidation of unfunctionalized alkanes is notoriously difficult to perform selectively, because breaking of a C-H bond is required. Although oxidation is thermodynamically favourable, there are limited kinetic pathways for reaction to occur. For most alkanes, the hydrogens are not labile, and, as the carbon atom cannot expand its valence electron shell beyond eight electrons, there is no mechanism for electrophilic or nucleophilic substitution short of using extreme (superacid or superbase) conditions. Alkane oxidations are therefore normally radical processes, and thus difficult to control in terms of selectivity. Nonetheless, some oxidations of alkanes have been performed under supercritical conditions, although it is probable that these actually proceed via radical mechanisms. 

The kinetics and mechanisms of substitution reactions of metal complexes are discussed with emphasis on factors affecting the reactions of chelates and multidentate ligands. Evidence for associative mechanisms is reviewed. The substitution behavior of copper(III) and nickel(III) complexes is presented. Factors affecting the formation and dissociation rates of chelates are considered along with proton-transfer and nucleophilic substitution reactions of metal peptide complexes. The rate constants for the replacement of tripeptides from copper(II) by triethylene-... 

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. 

Reaction mechanisms divide the transformations between organic molecules into classes that can be understood by well-defined concepts. Thus, for example, the SnI or Sn2 nucleophilic substitutions are examples of organic reaction mechanisms. Each mechanism is characterized by transition states and intermediates that are passed over while the reaction proceeds. It defines the kinetic, stereochemical, and product features of the reaction. Reaction mechanisms are thus extremely important to optimize the respective conversion for conditions, selectivity, or yields of desired products. 

Kinetic and mechanistic studies of nucleophilic substitution at metal(IV) centers are fairly rare (263). Platinum(IV) has the substitution-inert low-spin d configuration, and presumably undergoes nucleophilic substitution by an associative mechanism thanks to its high charge and large size. However there are actually very few data, probably thanks to the tendency for platinum(IV) to oxidize ligands. Substitution kinetics at metal(IV) centers may be more conveniently studied for complexes of the type ML2X2, where M — e.g., Sn, Ti, V, or... 

Reactions of a wide range of substituted phenyl acetates with six a-effect nucleophiles have revealed little or no difference, compared with phenolate nucleophiles, in the values of the Leffler parameters. As a result, the case for a special electronic explanation of the a-effect is considered unproven. Studies of the kinetics and mechanism of the aminolysis and alkaline hydrolysis of a series of 4-substituted (21) and 6-substituted naphthyl acetates (22) have revealed that, for electron-withdrawing substituents, aminolysis for both series proceeds through an unassisted nucleophilic substitution pathway. 

A kinetic smdy of the acylation of ethylenediamine with benzoyl chloride (110) in water-dioxane mixtures at pH 5-7 showed that the reaction involves mainly benzoylation of the monoprotonated form of ethylenediamine. Stopped-flow FT-IR spectroscopy has been used to study the amine-catalysed reactions of benzoyl chloride (110) with either butanol or phenol in dichloromethane at 0 °C. A large isotope effect was observed for butanol versus butanol-O-d, which is consistent with a general-base-catalysed mechanism. An overall reaction order of three and a negligible isotope effect for phenol versus phenol- /6 were observed and are consistent with either a base- or nucleophilic-catalysed mechanism. Mechanistic studies of the aminolysis of substituted phenylacetyl chlorides (111) in acetonitrile at —15 °C have revealed that reactions with anilines point to an associative iSN2 pathway. ... 

The Ad -E mechanism proposed to account for the kinetics of substitution of 9-(a-bromo-a -arylmethylene)fluorenes by thiolate ions in aqueous acetonitrile also features elimination of the leaving group in a fast step following rate-determining carbanion formation (by nucleophilic addition). ... 

The revealed mechanism of ter Meer reaction is well-founded. It helps us to understand the peculiarities of nucleophilic substitution reactions having the chain ion-radical mechanism and involving the interaction of radicals with anions at the chain propagation steps. It also demonstrates how the knowledge of kinetics and mechanism can be used to find new ways of initiating and optimizing the reactions important for technical practice. The ter Meer reaction turns out to be a reaction having one name and mechanism. This differs from, say, aromatic nitration, which has one name bnt different mechanisms. 

The polarity of carbon-halogen bond of alkyl halides is responsible for their nucleophilic substitution, elimination and their reaction with metal atoms to form organometallic compounds. Nucleophilic substitution reactions are categorised into and on the basis of their kinetic properties. Chirality has a profound role in understanding the reaction mechanisms of Sj l and Sj 2 reactions. Sj 2 reactions of chiral all l halides are characterised by the inversion of configuration while Sj l reactions are characterised by racemisation. 

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