Methyl benzoate, hydrolysis

The reaction of the dilithio salt (597) with methyl benzoate and subsequent acid hydrolysis yielded 3-phenyl-4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-2,1-benzisoxazole (598) (76JPS1408). The oxime (599) was converted into (600) by treatment with ethanolic HCl (75JCS(P1)1959>. 

Example 4.3. The p value for alkaline saponification of methyl esters of substituted benzoic acids is 2.38, and the rate constant for saponification of methyl benzoate under the conditions of interest is 2 x 10 s . Calculate the rate constant for the hydrolysis... 

The following reactivity order has been found for the basic hydrolysis of p-substituted methyl benzoates ... 

Plots of the left-hand side of these equations against X are curved, allowing easy distinction of an A2 mechanism. Excess acidity plots using equation (59) are shown for some ester hydrolyses in sulfuric acid at 25°C in Fig. 10, for 1-butyl acetate,29 and for methyl 2,6-dimethylbenzoate and methyl benzoate.41 The first ester (leftmost line in Fig. 10) clearly undergoes an A1 hydrolysis, specifically AAil 29 the parameters of the line are slope 1.552 + 0.027 intercept... 

Now a very useful feature of the excess acidity method comes into play likely nucleophiles or bases can be tested by subtracting their log activities or concentrations from the left-hand side of equations (59) and (60), and the species reacting with SH+ is uniquely identified when linearity of the result against X is achieved.145,161 For instance, subtraction of twice the water activity is required to attain linearity in ester hydrolysis processes such as equation (42), as shown in Fig. 11 for methyl benzoate41 and ethyl benzoate.210 The water activities given in Table 3 were used. The parameters of the lines in Fig. 11, obtained by curve-fitting, are methyl benzoate, slope 0.921 + 0.010, intercept... 

As would be expected, the slopes are almost identical the intercept difference shows that methyl benzoate reacts about 1.5 times as fast as does ethyl benzoate in the standard state, a result easily attributable to the slight increase in steric crowding to the equation (42) hydrolysis in the latter case. The order of the A2 ester hydrolysis reaction in water is thus two, a result quite difficult to obtain in other ways, even in dilute solution, perhaps requiring a proton inventory study of a reaction that is very slow in water. 

Triphenylcarbinol has been obtained by the reaction between phenylmagnesium bromide and benzophenone,1 methyl benzoate, or phosgene 8 by action of phenylsodium upon benzophenone, benzoyl chloride, ethyl chlorocarbonate, or ethyl benzoate 4 by hydrolysis of triphenylchloromethane 5 and by oxidation of tri-phenylmethane.6... 

Nevertheless the results quoted above for the breakdown of dimethyl hemiorthobenzoate indicate that (kinetic) general acid catalysis should be detectable in the methanolysis of methyl benzoate (Bransted a = 0.49) and probably in the analogous hydrolysis of methyl benzoate. Therefore any mechanism proposed for these reactions must be able to account for this. 

Esters show similar behaviour. Hantzsch found the /-factor for ethyl acetate to be close to 2, and accurate determinations by Leisten also gave values close to 2 for ethyl and methyl benzoate and p-nitrobenzoate. In a solvent containing sufficient water, hydrolysis of the ester occurs. The reaction of methyl benzoate has a time of half-change of a few hours at 25°C in sulphuric acid containing about 0.07 M water, and Leisten actually used the increase in the / -factor, from 2 to 3, to follow the hydrolysis reaction, viz. 

Direct evidence that hydrolysis reactions going by the Aac1 mechanism are kinetically first-order can be obtained, at least in principle, for reactions in strongly acidic solution, because the activity of water varies significantly with the acid concentration. Graham and Hughes 7 showed that the hydrolysis of methyl benzoate in sulphuric acid at 20°C is first-order with respect to ester concentration, but zeroth-order with respect to water in concentrations up to 1 M. Leisten6 showed further that the first-order rate coefficient for this reaction is almost independent of the initial concentration of the ester, and thus ruled out the possibility that a bimolecular attack by bisulphate ion is involved, since the ester is completely protonated in 100% sulphuric acid and tfe concentration of bisulphate ion depends on the concentration of the ester, viz. 

The effects of polar substituents on the alkaline hydrolysis of esters are well-established. Since the rate of the reaction is determined largely by the rate of addition of hydroxide ion to the carbonyl group of the ester, any substituent which withdraws electrons from the carbonyl group will increase the reactivity of the ester. The most accessible quantitative measure of the effect is the Hammett or Taft reaction constant, and a large number of measurements are available. Taft et al.2i0 found p = 2.53 for the base-catalyzed methanolysis of meta- and para-substituted (/)-menthyl benzoates, closely similar to the known value of p = 2.37 for the alkaline hydrolysis of substituted ethyl benzoates. Jones and Sloane s value239, obtained with five esters, of p = 2.41 for the methoxyl exchange reaction of substituted methyl benzoates in methanol, is almost identical. 

Aminolysis of phenyl dithioacetates,8 pyridinolysis of O-ethyl dithiocarbonates,9 reaction of pyrrolidine with O-ethyl 5-aryl dithiocarbonates,10 aminolysis of chlorothionformates,11 pyridinolysis of alkyl aryl thioncarbonates,12 reaction of anionic nucleophiles with nitrophenyl benzoate and its sulfur analogues,36 hydrolysis of methyl benzoate and phenyl acetate containing SMe, SOMe and S02Me substituents,42 solvolysis of phenyl chlorothioformate,79 synthesis of new thiadiazoles,124 examination of a neighbouring sulfonium group in ester hydrolysis,136 hydrolysis of V-type nerve agents,250 and the reactions of peroxymonosulfate ion with phosphorus(V) esters have all been looked at previously in this review. 

The enantioselective hydrolysis of the key industrial starting compound methyl benzoate 41 was recently reported using a Candida rugosa isoenzyme LIP1 expressed in the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris affording /-menthol 28 with > 99% ee. 69... 

It is not possible to prepare biaryls containing a free carboxyl group directly by the diazo reaction. No biaryl is formed when (a) diazotized aniline and sodium benzoate, (b) diazotized anthranilic acid and aqueous sodium benzoate, or (c) diazotized anthranilic acid and benzene are used as components in the reaction.13 On the other hand, the reaction proceeds normally if methyl benzoate is used in reaction (a) or when methyl anthranilate replaces the anthranilic acid in (b) and in (c). The success of the diazohydroxide reaction appears to lie in the ability of the non-aqueous liquid to extract the reactive diazo compound from the aqueous layer.4 However, esters and nitriles can be prepared from esters of aromatic amino acids and cyanoanilines and also by coupling with esters of aromatic acids, and from the products the acids can be obtained by hydrolysis. By coupling N-nitrosoacetanilide with ethyl phthalate, ethyl 4-phenylphthalate (VIII) is formed in 37% yield. 

The reactions of the isomeric dimethylpyrazines and trimethyl-pyrazine with methyllithium have been studied in order to gain insight into the factors involved in the competition between ring methylation and side-chain metalation.189 The major product from the reaction of 2,5-dimethylpyrazine and ethereal methyllithium was shown to be trimethylpyrazine, thus confirming Klein and Spoerri s earlier observation.190,191 Tetramethylpyrazine was also formed as a by-product. Proof of side-chain metalation was obtained by treatment of the reaction mixture with methyl benzoate and isolation of 2-methyl-5-phenacylpyrazine. Evidence for the presence of dihydro-and tetrahydropyrazine intermediates is derived from the infrared spectrum of the crude product obtained on hydrolysis of the reaction mixture which shows C=N and N-H absorptions (see Scheme 17). 

Anionic micellar systems were found to increase the rate of the acid catalyzed hydrolysis of acetylsalicylic acid (Nogami et al., 1962), methantheline bromide (Nogami and Awazu, 1962), n-butyl acetate, t-butyl acetate, ethyl p-aminobenzoate, and ethyl o-aminobenzoate (Sakurada et al., 1967), but decreased that of methyl benzoate slightly (Sakurada et al., 1967). The acid catalyzed hydrolysis of anionic amphi-philes also generally tend to be accelerated by micellization (Table 5). The rates of the acid catalyzed hydrolyses of sodium sulfoethyl do-decanoate, sodium undecanoate, and sodium sulfobutyl caprylate are significantly greater in micellar than in non-micellar solutions while that of sodium dodecyl sulfoacetate is unaffected by micelle formation (Meguro and Hikota, 1968). 

If the hydrolysis of methyl orthobenzoate in weakly acidic solution is carried out in the presence of various amounts of added nucleophiles, such as hydroxylamine or semicarbazide, a considerable fraction of the orthoester is transformed to the product of the reaction with the amine rather than to methyl benzoate, while the rate coefficient remains unchanged [183]. Similarly, the rate of hydrolysis of ethyl orthocarbonate in aqueous cacodylic acid buffer is the same in the presence of 0.04 M NaC104 and of 0.04 M Nal [192]. Thus, nucleophilic catalysis is absent even under conditions when general acid catalysis is effective. 

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