Nucleophilic acyl substitution reactivity

IS general for nucleophilic acyl substitution and well worth remembering The range of reactivities is quite large a factor of about 10 m relative rate separates acyl chlorides from amides... 

Nucleophilic acyl substitutions at the ester carbonyl group are summarized m Table 20 5 on page 849 Esters are less reactive than acyl chlorides and acid anhydrides Nude ophilic acyl substitution m esters especially ester hydrolysis has been extensively mves tigated from a mechanistic perspective Indeed much of what we know concerning the general topic of nucleophilic acyl substitution comes from studies carried out on esters The following sections describe those mechanistic studies... 

Amides are the least reactive caiboxyhc acid deiivative and the only nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction they undeigo is hydrolysis Amides are fanly stable m water but the amide bond is cleaved on heating m the presence of strong acids 01 bases Nomi nally this cleavage produces an amine and a caiboxyhc acid... 

Electron pair donation stabilizes the carbonyl group and makes it less reactive toward nucleophilic acyl substitution... 

Section 20 6 Acid anhydrides are less reactive toward nucleophilic acyl substitution than acyl chlorides but are useful reagents for preparing esters and amides... 

As we saw m Chapter 20 thioesters are more reactive than ordinary esters toward nucleophilic acyl substitution They also contain a greater proportion of enol at equilib rmm Both properties are apparent m the properties of acetyl coenzyme A In some reactions it is the carbonyl group of acetyl coenzyme A that reacts m others it is the a carbon atom... 

Biochemical examples of these two modes of reactivity are Nucleophilic acyl substitution... 

The order of reactivity of carboxylic acid derivatives toward nucleophilic acyl substitution can be explained on the basis of the electron-donating properties of substituent X. The greater the electron donating powers of X, the slower the rate. 

In the second major method of peptide synthesis the carboxyl group is activated by converting it to an active ester, usually a p-nitrophenyl ester. Recall from Section 20.12 that esters react with ammonia and amines to give fflnides. p-Nitrophenyl esters are much more reactive than methyl and ethyl esters in these reactions because p-nitrophenoxide is a better (less basic) leaving group than methoxide and ethoxide. Simply allowing the active ester and a C-protected amino acid to stand in a suitable solvent is sufficient to bring about peptide bond formation by nucleophilic acyl substitution. 

Both the initial addition step and the subsequent elimination step can affect the overall rate of a nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction, but the addition step is generally the rate-limiting one. Thus, any factor that makes the carbonyl group more reactive toward nucleophiles favors the substitution process. 

We said in Section 17.4 that carboxylic acids are reduced by L1AIH4 to give primary alcohols, but we deferred a discussion of the reaction mechanism at that time. In fact, the reduction is a nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction in which —H replaces -OH to give an aldehyde, which is further reduced to a primary alcohol by nucleophilic addition. The aldehyde intermediate is much more reactive than the starting acid, so it reacts immediately and is not isolated. 

Acid halides are among the most reactive of carboxylic acid derivatives and can be converted into many other kinds of compounds by nucleophilic acyl substitution mechanisms. The halogen can be replaced by -OH to yield an acid, by —OCOR to yield an anhydride, by -OR to yield an ester, or by -NH2 to yield an amide. In addition, the reduction of an acid halide yields a primary alcohol, and reaction with a Grignard reagent yields a tertiary alcohol. Although the reactions we ll be discussing in this section are illustrated only for acid chlorides, similar processes take place with other acid halides. 

Amides, like esters, are abundant in all living organisms—proteins, nucleic acids, and many pharmaceuticals have amide functional groups. The reason for this abundance of amides, of course, is that they are stable to the conditions found in living organisms. Amides are the least reactive of the common acid derivatives and undergo relatively few nucleophilic acyl substitution reactions. 

Electrostatic potential maps of a typical amide (acetamide) and an acyl azide (acetyl azide) are shown. Which of the two do you think is more reactive in nucleophilic acyl substitution reactions Explain. 

We ve already studied the two most general reactions of amines—alkylation and acylation. As we saw earlier in this chapter, primary, secondary, and tertiary amines can be alkylated by reaction with a primary alkyl halide. Alkylations of primary and secondary amines are difficult to control and often give mixtures of products, but tertiary amines are cleanly alkylated to give quaternary ammonium salts. Primary and secondary (but not tertiary) amines can also be acylated by nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction with an acid chloride or an acid anhydride to yield an amide (Sections 21.4 and 21.5). Note that overacylation of the nitrogen does not occur because the amide product is much less nucleophilic and less reactive than the starting amine. 

Steps 1-2 of Figure 29.5 Acyl Transfers The starting material for fatty-acid synthesis is the thioesteT acetyl CoA, the ultimate product of carbohydrate breakdown, as we ll see in Section 29.6. The synthetic pathway begins with several priming reactions, which transport acetyl CoA and convert it into more reactive species. The first priming reaction is a nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction that converts acetyl CoA into acetyl ACP (acyl carrier protein). The reaction is catalyzed by ACP transacyla.se. 

Following the formation of malonyl CoA, another nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction occurs in step 4 to form the more reactive malonyl ACP, thereby binding the malonyl group to an ACP arm of the multienzyme synthase. At this point, both acetyl and malonyl groups are bound to the enzyme, and the stage is set for their condensation. 

Intermolecular nucleophilic acyl substitution is a fundamental carbon—carbon bondforming reaction. In spite of its high synthetic potential, however, its intramolecular version, that is, intramolecular nucleophilic acyl substitution (INAS) is rather rare because of the intrinsic difficulties involved in carrying it out. One difficulty associated with the INAS reaction is that a reactive nucleophilic species must be generated in the presence of carbonyl functionality, and at the same time this nucleophile is expected to react only with... 

As noted in Section 4.2.1, the gas phase has proven to be a useful medium for probing the physical properties of carbanions, specifically, their basicity. In addition, the gas phase allows chemists to study organic reaction mechanisms in the absence of solvation and ion-pairing effects. This environment provides valuable data on the intrinsic, or baseline, reactivity of these systems and gives useful clues as to the roles that solvent and counterions play in the mechanisms. Although a variety of carbanion reactions have been explored in the gas phase, two will be considered here (1) Sn2 substitutions and (2) nucleophilic acyl substitutions. Both of these reactions highlight some of the characteristic features of gas-phase carbanion chemistry. 

The reactivity of carboxyhc acid derivatives depends on the basicity of the substituent attached to the acyl group. Therefore, the less basic the substituent, the more reactive is the derivative. In other words, strong bases make poor leaving groups. Carboxylic acid derivatives undergo a variety of reactions under both acidic and basic conditions, and almost aU involve the nucleophilic acyl substitution mechanism (see Section 5.5.5). 

Acid chlorides are the most reactive carboxylic acid derivatives, and easily converted to acid anhydrides, esters and amides via nucleophilic acyl substitutions (see Section 5.5.5). Acid chlorides are sufficiently reactive with H2O, and quite readily hydrolysed to carboxylic acid (see Section 5.6.1). 

Preparation of esters Acid chlorides react with alcohols to give esters through a nucleophilic acyl substitution. Because acid chloride is reactive towards weak nucleophile, e.g. alcohol, no catalyst is required for this substitution reaction. The reaction is carried out in base, most commonly in pyridine or triethylamine (EtaN). 

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