Nucleophiles basicity effects

The initiating nucleophile in the vast majority of these studies is the hydroxide anion. However, in principle, any nucleophile can add to the keto or formyl group to give rise to an anionic intermediate, which then could act as an intramolecular nucleophile and effect hydrolysis of the ester. Their relative effectiveness will depend on two factors the relative extent of formation and the nucleophilicity of the adduct. The nucleophiles that have been investigated are hydroxide, cyanide, morpholine and piperazine. The only quantitative comparison available is that of hydroxide, morpholine and piperazine, which are effective in the order of ca. 102 10-3 1 (Bender et al., 1965 Dahlgren and Schell, 1967). For morpholine and piperazine this is as expected on the basis of their relative basicities. However, the expected order of increasing formation of the adducts would be cyanide > nitrogen bases > hydroxide (Hine, 1971). At this time, these results cannot be analysed further, but more work on the systems could enable the structural dependence and reactivity to be elucidated. 

The high acidity of superacids makes them extremely effective pro-tonating agents and catalysts. They also can activate a wide variety of extremely weakly basic compounds (nucleophiles) that previously could not be considered reactive in any practical way. Superacids such as fluoroantimonic or magic acid are capable of protonating not only TT-donor systems (aromatics, olefins, and acetylenes) but also what are called (T-donors, such as saturated hydrocarbons, including methane (CH4), the simplest parent saturated hydrocarbon. 

Although isothiazole (pK = 1.90) is less basic than thiazole, its rale of quaternization by dinitrophenyl acetate in water at 52°C is approximately 2.5 times higher (447). This deviation from the Bronsted relationship (A log k - 0.ApK, with positive) is interpreted as a consequence of the or effect of the adjacent sulfur lone pair in isothiazole that is responsible for its higher nucleophilicity (448, 449). 

The same situation is observed in the series of alkyl-substituted derivatives. Electron-donating alkyl substituents induce an activating effect on the basicity and the nucleophilicity of the nitrogen lone pair that can be counterbalanced by a deactivating and decelerating effect resulting from the steric interaction of ortho substituents. This aspect of the reactivity of thiazole derivatives has been well investigated (198, 215, 446, 452-456) and is discussed in Chapter HI. 

Equation 4 can be classified as S, , ie, substitution nucleophilic bimolecular (221). The rate of the reaction is influenced by several parameters basicity of the amine, steric effects, reactivity of the alkylating agent, and solvent polarity. The reaction is often carried out in a polar solvent, eg, isopropanol, which may increase the rate of reaction and make handling of the product easier. 

In this section three main aspects will be considered. Firstly, the basic strengths of the principal heterocyclic systems under review and the effects of structural modification on this parameter will be discussed. For reference some pK values are collected in Table 3. Secondly, the position of protonation in these carbon-protonating systems will be considered. Thirdly, the reactivity aspects of protonation are mentioned. Protonation yields in most cases highly reactive electrophilic species. Under conditions in which both protonated and non-protonated base co-exist, polymerization frequently occurs. Further ipso protonation of substituted derivatives may induce rearrangement, and also the protonated heterocycles are found to be subject to ring-opening attack by nucleophilic reagents. 

The term nucleophilicity refers to the effect of a Lewis base on the rate of a nucleophilic substitution reaction and may be contrasted with basicity, which is defined in terms of the position of an equilibrium reaction with a proton or some other acid. Nucleophilicity is used to describe trends in the kinetic aspects of substitution reactions. The relative nucleophilicity of a given species may be different toward various reactants, and it has not been possible to devise an absolute scale of nucleophilicity. We need to gain some impression of the structural features that govern nucleophilicity and to understand the relationship between nucleophilicity and basicity. ... 

In basic sohition, the alkoxide ions formed by deprotonation are even more effective nucleqrhiles. In ethanol containing sodium ethoxide, 2-chloroethanol reacts about 5000 times faster than ediyl chloridelThe product is ethylene oxide, confirming the involvement of the oxygoi atom as a nucleophile. 

This approach to carbonyl protection uses the relative differences in basicity and the differences in steric effects to protect selectively either the more basic carbonyl group or the less hindered carbonyl group from reactions with nucleophiles such as DIB AH and MeLi. ... 

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