Methyl groups free energy

Another important mode of rotation in polyatomic molecules is internal modes of rotation. As an example, consider the rotation of a methyl group about the C-C bond axis in ethane. The rotation of the methyl group can be approximated as a free rotor about the < i angle as in the Particle-on-a-Ring model problem (see Section 3.1). From the moment of inertia of the methyl group, the energy of the internal rotational states can be obtained from Equation 3-6. 

The more stable diastereomer in each case is the one having both methyl groups equatorial. The free-energy difference favoring the diequatorial isomer is about the same for each case (about 1.9 kcal/mol) and is close to the — A(j value of the methyl group (1.8 kcal/mol). This implies that there are no important interactions present that are not also present in methylcyclohexane. This is reasonable since in each case the axial methyl group interacts only with the 3,5-diaxial hydrogens, just as in methylcyclohexane. 

Another example of enhanced sensitivity to substituent effects in the gas phase can be seen in a comparison of the gas-phase basicity for a series of substituted acetophenones and methyl benzoates. It was foimd that scnsitivtiy of the free energy to substituent changes was about four times that in solution, as measured by the comparison of A( for each substituent. The gas-phase data for both series were correlated by the Yukawa-Tsuno equation. For both series, the p value was about 12. However, the parameter r" ", which reflects the contribution of extra resonance effects, was greater in the acetophenone series than in the methyl benzoate series. This can be attributed to the substantial resonance stabilization provided by the methoxy group in the esters, which diminishes the extent of conjugation with the substituents. 

AG (Methylene Group) is standard free energy of the methylene group, AG (Methyl group) is standard free energy of the methyl group,... 

It is seen that despite the contribution of a methyl group to the free energy being much less than that of the methylene group, the energies of interaction of the two... 

The acid cleavage of the aryl— silicon bond (desilylation), which provides a measure of the reactivity of the aromatic carbon of the bond, has been applied to 2- and 3-thienyl trimethylsilane, It was found that the 2-isomer reacted only 43.5 times faster than the 3-isomer and 5000 times faster than the phenyl compound at 50,2°C in acetic acid containing aqueous sulfuric acid. The results so far are consistent with the relative reactivities of thiophene upon detritia-tion if a linear free-energy relationship between the substituent effect in detritiation and desilylation is assumed, as the p-methyl group activates about 240 (200-300) times in detritiation with aqueous sulfuric acid and about 18 times in desilylation. A direct experimental comparison of the difference between benzene and thiophene in detritiation has not been carried out, but it may be mentioned that even in 80.7% sulfuric acid, benzene is detritiated about 600 times slower than 2-tritiothiophene. The aforementioned consideration makes it probable that under similar conditions the ratio of the rates of detritiation of thiophene and benzene is larger than in the desilylation. A still larger difference in reactivity between the 2-position of thiophene and benzene has been found for acetoxymercuration which... 

The steric parameters for the estimation of reactant state effects were chosen to be the conformational free energy differences for cyclohexane axial-equatorial equilibria (A-values) (8). In order to establish the methyl group as the standard size group, modified A-values (A ) for the various groups were used, by simply subtracting the A value for the methyl group (1.70) from the A values of the various substituents ... 

Fig. 6 Hypothetical free energy reaction coordinate profiles for the interconversion of X-[8]-OH and X-[9] (R = H) and X-[10]-OH and X-[ll] (R = CH3) through the corresponding carbocations. The arrows indicate the proposed eifects of the addition of a pair of ortAo-methyl groups to X-[8]-OH, X-[8+] and X-[9] to give X-[10]-OH, X-[10+] and X-[ll]. A Effect of a pair of or/Ao-methyl groups on the stability of cumyl alcohols. B Effect of a pair of or/Ao-methyl groups on the stability of cumyl carbocations. C Effect of a pair of ortho-methyl groups on the stability of the transition state for nucleophilic addition of water to cumyl carbocations. D Effect of a pair of orf/io-methyl groups on the stability of the transition state for deprotonation of cumyl carbocations.

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