Heterolytic mechanisms

The characteristic reactivities of hexa-, penta- and tetracoordinated complexes exemplified by these reactions follow readily from the general principles developed above. The first mechanism (heterolytic splitting), which is of widespread occurrence, involves essentially a substitutional... 

The alkyl halide m this case 2 bromo 2 methylbutane ionizes to a carbocation and a halide anion by a heterolytic cleavage of the carbon-halogen bond Like the dissoci ation of an aUcyloxonmm ion to a carbocation this step is rate determining Because the rate determining step is ummolecular—it involves only the alkyl halide and not the base—It is a type of El mechanism... 

Section 5 15 Dehydrohalogenation of alkyl halides by alkoxide bases is not compli cated by rearrangements because carbocations are not intermediates The mechanism is E2 It is a concerted process m which the base abstracts a proton from the p carbon while the bond between the halogen and the a carbon undergoes heterolytic cleavage... 

JOC1537). The mechanisms of these transformations may involve homolytic or heterolytic C —S bond fission. A sulfur-walk mechanism has been proposed to account for isomerization or automerization of Dewar thiophenes and their 5-oxides e.g. 31 in Scheme 17) (76JA4325). Calculations show that a symmetrical pyramidal intermediate with the sulfur atom centered over the plane of the four carbon atoms is unlikely <79JOU140l). Reactions which may be mechanistically similar to that shown in Scheme 18 are the thermal isomerization of thiirane (32 Scheme 19) (70CB949) and the rearrangement of (6) to a benzothio-phene (80JOC4366). 

The ionization mechanism for nucleophilic substitution proceeds by rate-determining heterolytic dissociation of the reactant to a tricoordinate carbocation (also sometimes referred to as a carbonium ion or carbenium ion f and the leaving group. This dissociation is followed by rapid combination of the highly electrophilic carbocation with a Lewis base (nucleophile) present in the medium. A two-dimensional potential energy diagram representing this process for a neutral reactant and anionic nucleophile is shown in Fig. 

It has recently been suggested that a free radical mechanism i.e., homo-lytic cleavage of the oxygen-oxygen bond rather than the heterolytic cleavage pictured) may be involved in the reaction of some substituted benzophenones and peroxyacetic acid. 

As for compounds 37, the rearrangements of 39 are considered to occur by a mechanism involving heterolytic N-C bond cleavage followed by in-termolecular recombination of the carbenium cation and benzotriazolyl anion so formed. 

In certain cases, e.g. with Z = tert-butyl, the experimental findings may better be rationalized by an ion-pair mechanism rather than a radical-pair mechanism. A heterolytic cleavage of the N-R bond will lead to the ion-pair 4b, held together in a solvent cage ... 

A number of mechanisms for thermal decomposition of persulfate in neutral aqueous solution have been proposed.232 They include unimolccular decomposition (Scheme 3.40) and various bimolecular pathways for the disappearance of persulfate involving a water molecule and concomitant formation of hydroxy radicals (Scheme 3.41). The formation of polymers with negligible hydroxy end groups is evidence that the unimolecular process dominates in neutral solution. Heterolytic pathways for persulfate decomposition can he important in acidic media. 

In the absence of solvation mechanisms, the process of homolytic bond scission in organic compounds requires much less energy than heterolytic bond scission... 

Dediazoniation refers to all those reactions of diazo and diazonium compounds in which an N2 molecule is one of the products. The designation of the entering group precedes the term dediazoniation, e. g., azido-de-diazoniation for the substitution of the diazonio group by an azido group, or aryl-de-diazoniation for a Gomberg-Bachmann reaction. The IUPAC system says nothing about the mechanism of a reaction (see Sec. 1.2). For example, the first of the two dediazoniations mentioned is a heterolytic substitution, whereas the second is a homolytic substitution. 

Dediazoniations that follow a homolytic mechanism are, however, always (as far as they are known today) faster than heterolytic dediazoniations. A good example is afforded by the rates in methanol. In a careful study, Bunnett and Yijima (1977) have shown that the homolytic rate is 4-32 times greater than the heterolytic rate, the latter being essentially independent of additives and the atmosphere (N2, 02, or argon). In water the rate of heterolytic dediazoniation, measured at pH <3, is lower than that of the homolytic reactions that take place in the range pH 8-11 (Matrka et al., 1967 Schwarz and Zollinger, 1981 Besse and Zollinger, 1981). 

Szele and Zollinger (1978 b) have found that homolytic dediazoniation is favored by an increase in the nucleophilicity of the solvent and by an increase in the elec-trophilicity of the P-nitrogen atom of the arenediazonium ion. In Table 8-2 are listed the products of dediazoniation in various solvents that have been investigated in detail. Products obtained from heterolytic and homolytic intermediates are denoted by C (cationic) and R (radical) respectively for three typical substituted benzenediazonium salts and the unsubstituted salt. A borderline case is dediazoniation in DMSO, where the 4-nitrobenzenediazonium ion follows a homolytic mechanism, but the benzenediazonium ion decomposes heterolytically, as shown by product analyses by Kuokkanen (1989) the homolytic process has an activation volume AF = + (6.4 0.4) xlO-3 m-1, whereas for the heterolytic reaction AF = +(10.4 0.4) x 10 3 m-1. Both values are similar to the corresponding activation volumes found earlier in methanol (Kuokkanen, 1984) and in water (Ishida et al., 1970). 

In conclusion, it is very likely that the influence of solvents on the change from the heterolytic mechanism of dissociation of the C —N bond in aromatic diazonium ions to homolytic dissociation can be accounted for by a mechanism in which a solvent molecule acts as a nucleophile or an electron donor to the P-nitrogen atom. This process is followed by a one- or a two-step homolytic dissociation to an aryl radical, a solvent radical, and a nitrogen molecule. In this way the unfavorable formation of a dinitrogen radical cation 8.3 as mentioned in Section 8.2, is eliminated. 

These reactions in weakly alkaline solutions are faster than the heterolytic (Dn + AN)-like hydroxy-de-diazoniation, which, for most diazonium ions, (depending on their electrophilicity), is dominant below pH 2-4. As shown by Ishino et al. (1976), an increase in rate, corresponding to the occurence of other mechanisms in addition to the heterolytic hydroxy-de-diazoniation, is observable at pH 3.7-7.0. The increase is dependent on the substituent in the specifically substituted benzenediazo-nium ion. The slope d(log )/d(pH) was found to be in the range 0.22-1.09 (see summary of the work of Ishino et al. by Zollinger, 1983, p. 624). 

In Section 8.3 the mechanism of heterolytic dediazoniation of arenediazonium ions was discussed, and it was shown that the hypothesis of Crossley et al. (1940) that the aryl cation is the characteristic metastable intermediate in those reactions was not consistent with some experimental facts found in 1952 by Lewis and Hinds. Nevertheless, these facts did not have significant influence on the scientific community, which continued to accept the original and apparently convincing hypothesis of the rate-limiting formation of an aryl cation as an intermediate as correct . The incom-patabilities of various mechanistic hypotheses with experimental facts were, however, discussed in some detail only two decades later (Zollinger, 1973 a). Another year passed before I performed a crucial experiment that refuted a number of hypotheses (Bergstrom et al., 1974, 1976). ... 

With regard to the mechanism of these Pd°-catalyzed reactions, little is known in addition to what is shown in Scheme 10-62. In our opinion, the much higher yields with diazonium tetrafluoroborates compared with the chlorides and bromides, and the low yields and diazo tar formation in the one-pot method using arylamines and tert-butyl nitrites (Kikukawa et al., 1981 a) indicate a heterolytic mechanism for reactions under optimal conditions. The arylpalladium compound is probably a tetra-fluoroborate salt of the cation Ar-Pd+, which dissociates into Ar+ +Pd° before or after addition to the alkene. An aryldiazenido complex of Pd(PPh3)3 (10.25) was obtained together with its dediazoniation product, the corresponding arylpalladium complex 10.26, in the reaction of Scheme 10-64 by Yamashita et al. (1980). Aryldiazenido complexes with compounds of transition metals other than Pd are discussed in the context of metal complexes with diazo compounds (Zollinger, 1995, Sec. 10.1). 

The results of dediazoniations in aqueous acid without copper evidently show very little selectivity between sites with quite different electron densities. This is seen, for example, in the products from the reactions of the triarylmethanol derivatives 10.50 with R = C1 and R = CH3 (R" = R" = H). The yield ratios for ring closure to rings B and C (products 10.53 and 10.52 respectively) are 35/39 for R =C1 and 43/45 for R = CH3. The significantly higher yield of phenols (10.54) in the case of R = C1 (39%) relative to that of R = CH3 (10%) indicates that, as expected for a significant contribution by a heterolytic mechanism, the compound 10.50 (R = CH3) has a lower heterolytic, but not a lower homolytic, reactivity. For the same two reagents, but in the presence of copper powder, the ratios of 10.53 to 10.52 are 26/41 for R = C1 and 40/57 for R = CH3, with very little formation of phenols (3%). 

In a recent continuation of the work on dediazoniation of 2-(2 -propenyloxy)ben-zenediazonium salts (10.55, Z = 0, n= 1, R=H) in the presence of ferrocene, Beckwith et al. (1992) found that 3-ferrocenylmethyl-2,3-dihydrobenzofuran (10.65) is formed. The results are consistent with a mechanism involving electron transfer and dediazoniation followed by homolytic attack on the ferrocenium ion. This investigation resolved a long-lasting dispute regarding the heterolytic or homolytic character of the formation of arylferrocenes from arenediazonium ions (for literature since 1955 see Beckwith et al., 1992, references 1-7). 

Potassium peroxodisulphate (K2S2Og) also oxidizes sulphoxides to sulphones in high yield, either by catalysis with silver(I) or copper(II) salts at room temperature85 or in pH 8 buffer at 60-80 °c86-88. The latter conditions have been the subject of a kinetic study, and of the five mechanisms suggested, one has been shown to fit the experimental data best. Thus, the reaction involves the heterolytic cleavage of the peroxodisulphate to sulphur... 

Heterolytic cleavage of the tin-carbon bond is reviewed in references (94-96). Cleavage by electrophiles (e.g, HgXj or halogen) is dominated by electrophilic attack at carbon, and cleavage by nucleophiles principally involves nucleophilic attack at tin. Much of the interest in these processes centers on the intermediate mechanisms that may exist between these extremes, in which electrophilic attack is accompanied by some nucleophilic assistance, and vice versa. Allylic, al-lenic, and propargylic compoimds show a special reactivity by a special (Se2 or SE2y) mechanism. 

The allylic, allenic, propargylic, 2,4-dienylic, cyclopentadienylic, and related tin compounds present special, structural features and show special reactivity by both heterolytic and homolytic mechanisms. 

Variable valence transition metal ions, such as Co VCo and Mn /Mn are able to catalyze hydrocarbon autoxidations by increasing the rate of chain initiation. Thus, redox reactions of the metal ions with alkyl hydroperoxides produce chain initiating alkoxy and alkylperoxy radicals (Fig. 6). Interestingly, aromatic percarboxylic acids, which are key intermediates in the oxidation of methylaromatics, were shown by Jones (ref. 10) to oxidize Mn and Co, to the corresponding p-oxodimer of Mn or Co , via a heterolytic mechanism (Fig. 6). 

These reactions can take place by either heterolytic or pericyclic mechanisms. Examples of the latter are shown on page 1322. Free-radical P eliminations are extremely rare. In heterolytic ehminations, W and X may or may not leave simultaneously and may or may not combine. 

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