Nucleophilic substitution reactivity

As is broadly true for aromatic compounds, the a- or benzylic position of alkyl substituents exhibits special reactivity. This includes susceptibility to radical reactions, because of the. stabilization provided the radical intermediates. In indole derivatives, the reactivity of a-substituents towards nucleophilic substitution is greatly enhanced by participation of the indole nitrogen. This effect is strongest at C3, but is also present at C2 and to some extent in the carbocyclic ring. The effect is enhanced by N-deprotonation. 

An important method for construction of functionalized 3-alkyl substituents involves introduction of a nucleophilic carbon synthon by displacement of an a-substituent. This corresponds to formation of a benzylic bond but the ability of the indole ring to act as an electron donor strongly influences the reaction pattern. Under many conditions displacement takes place by an elimination-addition sequence[l]. Substituents that are normally poor leaving groups, e.g. alkoxy or dialkylamino, exhibit a convenient level of reactivity. Conversely, the 3-(halomethyl)indoles are too reactive to be synthetically useful unless stabilized by a ring EW substituent. 3-(Dimethylaminomethyl)indoles (gramine derivatives) prepared by Mannich reactions or the derived quaternary salts are often the preferred starting material for the nucleophilic substitution reactions. 

Charge diagrams suggest that the 2-amino-5-halothiazoles are less sensitive to nucleophilic attack on 5-position than their thiazole counterpart. Recent kinetic data on this reactivity however, show, that this expectation is not fulfilled (67) the ratio fc.. bron.c.-2-am.noih.azoie/ -biomoth.azoie O"" (reaction with sodium methoxide) emphasizes the very unusual amino activation to nucleophilic substitution. The reason of this activation could lie in the protomeric equilibrium, the reactive species being either under protomeric form 2 or 3 (General Introduction to Protomeric Thiazoles). The reactivity of halothiazoles should, however, be reinvestigated under the point of view of the mechanism (1690). 

Table 1-4 gives some calculated reactivity indices free valence or Wheland atomic localization energies for radical, electrophilic, or nucleophilic substitution. For each set of data the order of decreasing reactivity is indicated. In practice this order is more reliable than the absolute values of the reactivity indices themselves. 

A more unusual fact observed in thiazole chemistiy is that also the other positions (4 and 5) are activated toward the nucleophilic substitution, as found independently by Metzger and coworkers (46) and by Todesco and coworkers (30, 47). Some kinetic data are reported in Table V-2. As the data in Table V-2 indicate, no simple relationship between nucleophilic reactivity and charge density, or other parameters available from more or less sophisticated calculation methods, can be applied. As a... 

The role of the quaternization of the azasubstituent in the nucleophilic substitution at 2-halogenothiazoles is in fact emphasized by the reactivity of 2-halogenothiazoles with undissociated thiophenol (35), which proceeds faster than the corresponding reaction of 2-halogenothiazoles with thiophenolate anion, through the pathways shown in Scheme 6. Moreover, the 4-halogenothiazoles do not react with undissociated thiophenols, while the 5-halogenothiazoles react well (48). 

The order of alkyl halide reactivity in nucleophilic substitutions is the same as their order m eliminations Iodine has the weakest bond to carbon and iodide is the best leaving group Alkyl iodides are several times more reactive than alkyl bromides and from 50 to 100 times more reactive than alkyl chlorides Fluorine has the strongest bond to car bon and fluonde is the poorest leaving group Alkyl fluorides are rarely used as sub states m nucleophilic substitution because they are several thousand times less reactive than alkyl chlorides... 

We saw m Section 8 2 that the rate of nucleophilic substitution depends strongly on the leaving group—alkyl iodides are the most reactive alkyl fluorides the least In the next section we 11 see that the structure of the alkyl group can have an even greater effect... 

Allyl chlonde is quite reactive toward nucleophilic substitutions especially those that proceed by the 8 2 mechanism and is used as a starting material m the synthesis of a variety of drugs and agricultural and industrial chemicals... 

Conversion to p toluenesulfonate es ters (Section 8 14) Alcohols react with p toluenesulfonyl chloride to give p toluenesulfonate esters Sulfo nate esters are reactive substrates for nucleophilic substitution and elimma tion reactions The p toluenesulfo nate group is often abbreviated —OTs... 

This reaction is of synthetic value in that a halo acids are reactive sub strates m nucleophilic substitution reactions... 

The critical carbon-carbon bond forming step requires nucleophilic substitution on an alkyl halide by an ester enolate Methyl halides are more reactive than... 

Because of its high reactivity toward nucleophilic substitution methyl iodide is the alkyl halide most often used to prepare quaternary ammonium salts... 

Isopentenyl pyrophosphate and dimethylallyl pyrophosphate are structurally sim liar—both contain a double bond and a pyrophosphate ester unit—but the chemical reactivity expressed by each is different The principal site of reaction m dimethylallyl pyrophosphate is the carbon that bears the pyrophosphate group Pyrophosphate is a reasonably good leaving group m nucleophilic substitution reactions especially when as in dimethylallyl pyrophosphate it is located at an allylic carbon Isopentenyl pyrophosphate on the other hand does not have its leaving group attached to an allylic carbon and is far less reactive than dimethylallyl pyrophosphate toward nucleophilic reagents The principal site of reaction m isopentenyl pyrophosphate is the carbon-carbon double bond which like the double bonds of simple alkenes is reactive toward electrophiles... 

Nucleophilicity (Section 8 7) A measure of the reactivity of a Lewis base in a nucleophilic substitution reaction... 

Monomer Reactivity. The poly(amic acid) groups are formed by nucleophilic substitution by an amino group at a carbonyl carbon of an anhydride group. Therefore, the electrophilicity of the dianhydride is expected to be one of the most important parameters used to determine the reaction rate. There is a close relationship between the reaction rates and the electron affinities, of dianhydrides (12). These were independendy deterrnined by polarography. Stmctures and electron affinities of various dianhydrides are shown in Table 1. 

The apphcation of bimolecular, nucleophilic substitution (S ) reactions to sucrose sulfonates has led to a number of deoxhalogeno derivatives. Selective displacement reactions of tosyl (79,85), mesyl (86), and tripsyl (84,87) derivatives of sucrose with different nucleophiles have been reported. The order of reactivity of the sulfonate groups in sucrose toward reaction has been found to be 6 > 6 > 4 > 1. ... 

Other modifications of acid wool dyes have groups which react by nucleophilic substitution of basic groups ia proteia fibers (NH2 groups, etc). The iatroduction of Procion dyes by ICI ia 1956 was the most important development ia the field of technological azo dye chemistry. Chemically, many of the reactive dyes are prepared from the group of the anionic monoazo dyes (see Dyes, reactive). 

Carbonates undergo nucleophilic substitution reactions analogous to chloroformates except in this case, an OR group (rather than chloride) is replaced by a more basic group. Normally these reactions are cataly2ed by bases. Carbonates are sometimes preferred over chloroformates because formation of hydrogen chloride as a by-product is avoided, which simplifies handling. However, the reactivity of carbonates toward nucleophiles is considerably less than chloroformates. 

Fiber-Reactive Dyes. These dyes can enter iato chemical reaction with the fiber and form a covalent bond to become an iategral part of the fiber polymer. They therefore have exceptional wetfastness. Thein main use is on ceUulosic fibers where they are appHed neutral and then chemical reaction is initiated by the addition of alkaH. Reaction with the ceUulose can be by either nucleophilic substitution, using, for example, dyes containing activated halogen substituents, or by addition to the double bond in, for example, vinyl sulfone, —S02CH=CH2, groups. 

The reactivity of halogens in pyridazine N- oxides towards nucleophilic substitution is in the order 5 > 3 > 6 > 4. This is supported by kinetic studies of the reaction between the corresponding chloropyridazine 1-oxides and piperidine. In general, the chlorine atoms in pyridazine A-oxides undergo replacement with alkoxy, aryloxy, piperidino, hydrazino, azido, hydroxylamino, mercapto, alkylmercapto, methylsulfonyl and other groups. 

Ring substituents show enhanced reactivity towards nucleophilic substitution, relative to the unoxidized systems, with substituents a to the fV-oxide showing greater reactivity than those in the /3-position. In the case of quinoxalines and phenazines the degree of labilization of a given substituent is dependent on whether the intermediate addition complex is stabilized by mesomeric interactions and this is easily predicted from valence bond considerations. 2-Chloropyrazine 1-oxide is readily converted into 2-hydroxypyrazine 1-oxide (l-hydroxy-2(l//)-pyrazinone) (55) on treatment with dilute aqueous sodium hydroxide (63G339), whereas both 2,3-dichloropyrazine and 3-chloropyrazine 1-oxide are stable under these conditions. This reaction is of particular importance in the preparation of pyrazine-based hydroxamic acids which have antibiotic properties. 

In the case of substituted phenazine fV-oxides some activation of substituents towards nucleophilic substitution is observed. 1-Chlorophenazine is usually very resistant to nucleophilic displacements, but the 2-isomer is more reactive and the halogen may be displaced with a number of nucleophiles. 1-Chlorophenazine 5-oxide (56), however, is comparable in its reactivity with 2-chlorophenazine and the chlorine atom is readily displaced in nucleophilic substitution reactions. 2-Chlorophenazine 5,10-dioxide (57) and 2-chlorophenazine 5-oxide both show enhanced reactivity relative to 2-chlorophenazine itself. On the basis of these observations, similar activation of 5- or 6-haloquinoxaline fV-oxides should be observed but little information is available at the present time. 

As in the pyridopyrimidines, selective nucleophilic substitution reactions at reactive ring positions have been a fruitful source of pyridopyridazines. 

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