Nucleophile orbital

The ready formation of the episulphonium compound is reasonably explained in terms of the directionality and polarizability of the non-bonded electron-pairs of sulphur, a soft nucleophile which naturally forms bonds at angles close to 90°. We may presume that the directional requirements of the nucleophilic orbitals of first-row elements (N, O) are stricter, and that this factor shows up most clearly in a situation (the formation of a three-membered ring) which makes extreme demands on orbital flexibility. 

These four neutral molecules, ammonia, water, trimethylphosphine, and dimcthylsulfide, all have lone pairs of electrons in sp3 orbitals and in each case this is the donor or nucleophilic orbital. The group VI atoms (O and S) have two lone pairs of equal energy. These are all nonbonding electrons and therefore higher in energy than any of the bonding electrons. 

Figure 4.11 illustrates the three possible stereochemical outcomes of a substitution reaction. The Sn2 substitution gives inversion because the nucleophile must attack the carbon from the back side because the full nucleophile orbital must overlap well with the empty electrophile orbital (Section 4.2.7). The SnI substitution often gives racemization because the intermediate carbocation is trigonal planar, and the nucleophile can attack equally from top or bottom faces (Section 4.2.8). 

In the brief guidelines given above for what makes a good nucleophile and electrophile, we touched on the energy and accessibility of the electrophilic and nucleophilic orbitals. This brings us to another related concept, that of "hard" and "soft" acids and bases. In this definition, the acids and bases are best viewed as being of the Lewis type. Here we examine the "hardness" and "softness" of the acid and base to predict reactivity. In this analysis, the character of a nucleophile or electrophile is most often correlated with the polarizability of the species hard reactants are non-polarizable, whereas soft reactants are polarizable. The... 

Another use of the d electron count is the determination of whether a metal has a nucleophilic orbital. Square planar complexes with d orbital counts above four have electrons in a dj2 orbital. This orbital is completely accessible because there are no ligands along the z axis. The orbital can act as a nucleophilic lone pair, much like a lone pair on a nitrogen atom. For example, in Rh(Cl)(CO)(PPh3)2, the metal is d and the complex is square planar. Hence, the structure is nucleophilic at Rh. However, the complex only has 16 electrons, and thus it is also electrophilic. This is not uncommon some inorganic and organometallic complexes can often accept and donate electrons, and the reactivity patterns reflect this. 

In their reactions with suitable nucleophiles, such as tt-aromatics or heteroatom donor nucleophiles, the readily polarizable linear acylium ions shift a Tt-electron pair to oxygen, bending the ions and developing an empty p-orbital at the carbocationic center. This enables the reaction with aromatics. The acetylation of benzene can be depicted as... 

There exist a number of d -synthons, which are stabilized by the delocalization of the electron pair into orbitals of hetero atoms, although the nucleophilic centre remains at the carbon atom. From nitroalkanes anions may be formed in aqueous solutions (e.g. CHjNOj pK, = 10.2). Nitromethane and -ethane anions are particularly useful in synthesis. The cyanide anion is also a classical d -synthon (HCN pK = 9.1). 

Nevertheless, the puzzling fact to be explained is that the harder ring nitrogen prefers the softer electrophilic center and that this preference is more pronounced than the one observed for the amino nitrogen. Much remains to be done to explain ambident heterocyclic reactivity it was shown recently by comparison between Photoelectrons Spectroscopy and kinetic data that not only the frontier densities but also the relative symmetries of nucleophilic occupied orbitals and electrophilic unoccupied orbitals must be taken into consideration (308). 

The electrophilic character of boron is again evident when we consider the oxida tion of organoboranes In the oxidation phase of the hydroboration-oxidation sequence as presented m Figure 6 11 the conjugate base of hydrogen peroxide attacks boron Hydroperoxide ion is formed m an acid-base reaction m step 1 and attacks boron m step 2 The empty 2p orbital of boron makes it electrophilic and permits nucleophilic reagents such as HOO to add to it... 

FIGURE 8 2 Hybrid orbital description of the bonding changes that take place at carbon during nucleophilic substitution by the Sn2 mechanism... 

Thus with dihalocarbenes we have the interesting case of a species that resem bles both a carbanion (unshared pair of electrons on carbon) and a carbocation (empty p orbital) Which structural feature controls its reactivity s Does its empty p orbital cause It to react as an electrophile s Does its unshared pair make it nucleophilic s By compar mg the rate of reaction of CBi2 toward a series of alkenes with that of typical electrophiles toward the same alkenes (Table 14 4) we see that the reactivity of CBi2... 

An orbital hybridization description of bonding m methylamme is shown m Figure 22 2 Nitrogen and carbon are both sp hybridized and are joined by a ct bond The unshared electron pair on nitrogen occupies an sp hybridized orbital This lone parr IS involved m reactions m which amines act as bases or nucleophiles The graphic that opened this chapter is an electrostatic potential map that clearly shows the concentration of electron density at nitrogen m methylamme... 

You can interpret the stereochemistry and rates of many reactions involving soft electrophiles and nucleophiles—in particular pericyclic reactions—in terms of the properties of Frontier orbitals. This applies in particular to pericyclic reactions. Overlap between the HOMO and the LUMO is a governing factor in many reactions. HyperChem can show the forms of orbitals such as HOMO and LUMO in two ways a plot at a slice through the molecule and as values in a log file of the orbital coefficients for each atom. 

Thermodynamic properties such as heats of reaction and heats of formation can be computed mote rehably by ab initio theory than by semiempirical MO methods (55). However, the Hterature of the method appropriate to the study should be carefully checked before a technique is selected. Finally, the role of computer graphics in evaluating quantum mechanical properties should not be overlooked. As seen in Figures 2—6, significant information can be conveyed with stick models or various surfaces with charge properties mapped onto them. Additionally, information about orbitals, such as the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO), which ate important sites of reactivity in electrophilic and nucleophilic reactions, can be plotted readily. Figure 7 shows representations of the HOMO and LUMO, respectively, for the antiulcer dmg Zantac. 

Chemical Properties. The chemistry of ketenes is dominated by the strongly electrophilic j/)-hybridi2ed carbon atom and alow energy lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO). Therefore, ketenes are especially prone to nucleophilic attack at Cl and to [2 + 2] cycloadditions. Less frequent reactions are the so-called ketene iasertion, a special case of addition to substances with strongly polarized or polarizable single bonds (37), and the addition of electrophiles at C2. For a review of addition reactions of ketenes see Reference 8. 

The participation of phosphoms d orbitals in the five- and six-coordinate compounds provides increased polarizabiUty, nucleophilicity, and ionic character. In fact, compounds such as phosphoms pentachloride [10026-13-8] 5) thought to have considerable ionic character. The CJ-bond orders between the phosphoms atom and its constituents in the higher coordinate compounds maybe less than one. 

Information on nucleophilic addition chemistry of quinones and various mechanistic rationali2ations have been discussed, and molecular orbital calculations have been proposed as more definitive approaches for explanation and prediction (63). 

The TT-electron density refers to the electron density at a given carbon atom obtained by summing the contributions from all the filled molecular orbitals. Electrophilic attack occurs where this density is highest, and nucleophilic attack where it is lowest tt-electron densities are not dominant in determining the orientation of homolytic substitution. 

An alternative approach is in terms of frontier electron densities. In electrophilic substitution, the frontier electron density is taken as the electron density in the highest filled MO. In nucleophilic substitution the frontier orbital is taken as the lowest vacant MO the frontier electron density at a carbon atom is then the electron density that would be present in this MO if it were occupied by two electrons. Both electrophilic and nucleophilic substitution thus occur at the carbon atom with the greatest appropriate frontier electron density. 

Interaction of f. irmeilileliyde frontier orbitals with E and Nu Fig. 1.25. PMO description of interaction of ethylene and formaldehyde with an electrophile (E ) and a nucleophile (Nu ). 

The LUMO, which is the frontier orbital in reactions with nucleophiles, has a larger coefficient on the /3-carbon atom, whereas the two occupied orbitals are distorted in such a way as to have larger coefficients on oxygen. The overall effect is that the LUMO is relatively low-lying and has a high coefficient on the /3-carbon atom. The frontier orbital theory therefore predicts that nucleophiles will react preferentially at the /3-carbon atom. 

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