Nucleophilic displacement reactions, acid catalysis

Lysozyme makes use of covalent catalysis and general acid catalysis as it promotes two successive nucleophilic displacement reactions. 

In addition to participating in acid-base catalysis, some amino acid side chains may enter into covalent bond formation with substrate molecules, a phenomenon that is often referred to as covalent catalysis.174 When basic groups participate this may be called nucleophilic catalysis. Covalent catalysis occurs frequently with enzymes catalyzing nucleophilic displacement reactions and examples will be considered in Chapter 12. They include the formation of an acyl-enzyme intermediate by chymotrypsin (Fig. 12-11). Several of the coenzymes discussed in Chapters 14 and 15 also participate in covalent catalysis. These coenzymes combine with substrates to form reactive intermediate compounds whose structures allow them to be converted rapidly to the final products. 

The catalytic effect of protons has been noted on many occasions (cf. Section II,D,2,c) and autocatalysis frequently occurs when the nucleophile is not a strong base. Acid catalysis of reactions with water, alcohols, mercaptans, amines, or halide ions has been observed for halogeno derivatives of pyridine, pyrimidine (92), s-triazine (93), quinoline, and phthalazine as well as for many other ring systems and leaving groups. An interesting displacement is that of a 4-oxo group in the reaction of quinolines with thiophenols, which is made possible by the acid catalysis. 

Because of the ability of some leaving groups to stabilize an a-carbanion, the pH at which the substitution is performed can be critical. Electrophiles with such leaving groups (e.g. R-N02 [36, 37], R-S(=0)2R [38, 39], R-S(=O)R[40]) will usually undergo substitution only under neutral or acidic conditions, what limits the choice of suitable nucleophiles. Some nucleophilic displacements of nitro and sulfonyl groups, both under acidic and basic reaction conditions, are shown in Schemes 4.6 and 4.7. Allylic nitro groups can also be readily displaced by catalysis with palla-... 

The catalysis of hydrolysis of carboxylic acid derivatives by weak bases has not been carefully studied until relatively recently. Koshland reported in 1952 the catalysis of acetyl phosphate hydrolysis by pyridine Bafna and Gold (1953) reported the pyridine-catalyzed hydrolysis of acetic anhydride. A short time later the catalysis of aromatic ester hydrolysis by imidazole was demonstrated (Bender and Turnquest, 1957 a, b Bruice and Schmir, 1957). Since that time a large amount of work has been devoted to the understanding of catalyzed ester reactions. Much of the work in this area has been carried out with the purpose of inquiry into the mode of action of hydrolytic enzymes. These enzymes contain on their backbone weak potential catalytic bases or acids, such as imidazole in the form of histidine, carboxylate in the form of aspartate and glutamate, etc. As a result of the enormous effort put into the study of nucleophilic displacements at the carbonyl carbon, a fair understanding of these reactions has resulted. An excellent review is available for work up to 1960 (Bender, 1960). In addition, this subject has been... 

It is clear that dioxaphosphoranes exhibit significant potential as valuable synthetic intermediates for a host of novel synthetic transformations. While they do not serve as traditional protecting auxiliaries for 1,2-diols, they do respond to metal ion catalysis, and under the appropriate reaction conditions, acid-promoted nucleophilic displacements control die regiochemical and configurational integrity of the more hindered stererogenic carbon of the intermediate 1,3,2X5-dioxaphospholanes. 

The phase transfer catalysis process has also been extended to synthesize the alkyl and aryl esters (170) of N-aryl sulphamic acids212 (equation 23). If the ratio of aliphatic alcohol (169) to sulphamoyl chloride (168) is increased from 1 1 to 2 1, then N-alkyl-iV-arylsulphamate esters (171) with similar alkyl groups are obtained together with considerable amounts of iV-arylsulphamic acid esters (170). The exclusive formation of the iV-alkyl-iV-arylsulphamate esters (171) can be achieved by employing longer reaction times. A second approach to the synthesis of 171 would be to react the iV-methyl-iV-phenyl sulphamoyl chloride (172) with the alcohol. This was attempted, but the ester failed to form even under forcing conditions. The corresponding AT-alkyl iV-arylsulphamate ion (173) was isolated (equation 24) hydrolysis to the acid was considered to occur as opposed to nucleophilic displacement of the chloride by the methanol. 

Recent work has shown that simple nonlabile mono-aqua metal complexes function as general base catalysts in the hydrolysis of neutral phosphate and phosphonate esters in aqueous solution. If general base catalysis operates the reaction of [Co(NH3)50H] with 4-nitrophenyldiethyl phosphate, then (1 = PNPDEP) will give free diethylphosphonic acid in solution, while direct nucleophilic displacement will give the (diethylphosphate)cobalt(III) cation (2). 

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