Linear free energy relationship acylation

So-called aryl values have been introduced by Imoto et ai. - for the piu pose of systematizing the reactivities of different aromatic systems by means of the linear free-energy relationship, which however, could not be applied to the decomposition rates of heterocyclic acyl azides in toluene. ... 

A quite different and complimentary approach is to assume that addition of a nucleophile to an acyl derivative (RCOX) would follow the linear free energy relationship for addition of the nucleophile to the corresponding ketone (RCOR, or aldehyde if R=H) if conjugation between X and the carbonyl could be turned off, while leaving its polar effects unchanged. This can be done if one knows or can estimate the barrier to rotation about the CO-X bond, because the transition state for this rotation is expected to be in a conformation with X rotated by 90° relative to RCO. In this conformation X is no longer conjugated, so one can treat it as a pure polar substituent. Various values determined by this approach are included in the tables in this chapter. 

Experimental studies of the reactivity of other aniline derivatives in substitution reactions are far more limited, de la Mare and Hassan (1958) and Bradfield and Jones (1928) examined the influence of acyl substituents on the amino function on the rate of halogenation at the para position. These interesting data are too limited to be useful for the evaluation of a linear free-energy relationship and are not included in Table 4. 

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