Substitution, nucleophilic solvent effects

Nevertheless, several kinetic studies have shown that certain nucleophilic substitution reactions of aryl diazonium ions are first order and independent of the concentration of the nucleophilic species. Solvent effects, isotope effects, and substituent effects are also in agreement with a rate-determining unimolecular decomposition of the aryl diazonium ion. In other reactions, an adduct of the nucleophile and diazonium ion is a distinct intermediate. Substitution results when nitrogen is eliminated from the adduct. Finally, substitution can occur via radical... 

The major effect of the solvent is on the rate of nucleophilic substitution not on what the products are Thus we need to consider two related questions... 

Solvent Effects on the Rate of Substitution by the S 2 Mechanism Polar solvents are required m typical bimolecular substitutions because ionic substances such as the sodium and potassium salts cited earlier m Table 8 1 are not sufficiently soluble m nonpolar solvents to give a high enough concentration of the nucleophile to allow the reaction to occur at a rapid rate Other than the requirement that the solvent be polar enough to dis solve ionic compounds however the effect of solvent polarity on the rate of 8 2 reactions IS small What is most important is whether or not the polar solvent is protic or aprotic Water (HOH) alcohols (ROH) and carboxylic acids (RCO2H) are classified as polar protic solvents they all have OH groups that allow them to form hydrogen bonds... 

The range of nueleophiles whieh have been observed to partieipate in nueleophilie aromatie substitution is similar to that for S[, 2 reactions and includes alkoxides, phenoxides, sulftdes, fluoride ion, and amines. Substitutions by earbanions are somewhat less common. This may be because there are frequently complications resulting from eleetron-transfer proeesses with nitroaromatics. Solvent effects on nucleophilic aromatic substitutions are similar to those discussed for S 2 reactions. Dipolar... 

Other measures of nucleophilicity have been proposed. Brauman et al. studied Sn2 reactions in the gas phase and applied Marcus theory to obtain the intrinsic barriers of identity reactions. These quantities were interpreted as intrinsic nucleo-philicities. Streitwieser has shown that the reactivity of anionic nucleophiles toward methyl iodide in dimethylformamide (DMF) is correlated with the overall heat of reaction in the gas phase he concludes that bond strength and electron affinity are the important factors controlling nucleophilicity. The dominant role of the solvent in controlling nucleophilicity was shown by Parker, who found solvent effects on nucleophilic reactivity of many orders of magnitude. For example, most anions are more nucleophilic in DMF than in methanol by factors as large as 10, because they are less effectively shielded by solvation in the aprotic solvent. Liotta et al. have measured rates of substitution by anionic nucleophiles in acetonitrile solution containing a crown ether, which forms an inclusion complex with the cation (K ) of the nucleophile. These rates correlate with gas phase rates of the same nucleophiles, which, in this crown ether-acetonitrile system, are considered to be naked anions. The solvation of anionic nucleophiles is treated in Section 8.3. 

Most of the kinetic measures of solvent effects have been developed for the study of nucleophilic substitution (Sn) at saturated carbon, solvolytic reactions in particular. It may, therefore, be helpful to give a brief review of aliphatic nucleophilic substitution. Two mechanistic routes have been clearly identified. One of these is shown by... 

To derive the maximum amount of information about intranuclear and intemuclear activation for nucleophilic substitution of bicyclo-aromatics, the kinetic studies on quinolines and isoquinolines are related herein to those on halo-1- and -2-nitro-naphthalenes, and data on polyazanaphthalenes are compared with those on poly-nitronaphthalenes. The reactivity rules thereby deduced are based on such limited data, however, that they should be regarded as tentative and subject to confirmation or modification on the basis of further experimental study. In many cases, only a single reaction has been investigated. From the data in Tables IX to XVI, one can derive certain conclusions about the effects of the nucleophile, leaving group, other substituents, solvent, and comparison temperature, all of which are summarized at the end of this section. 

Esters can also be synthesized by an acid-catalyzed nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction of a carboxylic acid with an alcohol, a process called the Fischer esterification reaction. Unfortunately, the need to use an excess of a liquid alcohol as solvent effectively limits the method to the synthesis of methyl, ethyl, propyl, and butyl esters. 

Other salts, especially fluoride salts, (e.g., KF) can be used to perform nucleophilic substitution. As is well known, halides, and particularly the fluoride anions, are rather powerful Lewis bases and can exert a catalytic effect on aromatic nucleophilic substitutions in dipolar aprotic solvents. Phenols can be alkylated in the presence of KF (or CsF) absorbed on Celite64,65 or Et4NF.66 Taking advantage of this reaction, halophenols and dihalides with bisphenols have been successfully polymerized in sulfolane at 220-280°C by using KF as the base. 

Ejfect ofSolvent. In addition to the solvent effects on certain SeI reactions, mentioned earlier (p. 764), solvents can influence the mechanism that is preferred. As with nucleophilic substitution (p. 448), an increase in solvent polarity increases the possibility of an ionizing mechanism, in this case SeI, in comparison with the second-order mechanisms, which do not involve ions. As previously mentioned (p. 763), the solvent can also exert an influence between the Se2 (front or back) and SeI mechanisms in that the rates of Se2 mechanisms should be increased by an increase in solvent polarity, while Sni mechanisms are much less affected. 

A unimolecular ionization was shown to be the mechanism of solvolysis by means of rate studies, solvent effects, salt effects, and structural effects (179,180). The products of reaction consist of benzo [bjthiophen derivatives 209 or nucleophilic substitution products 210, depending upon the solvent system employed. By means of a series of elegant studies, Modena and co-workers have shown that the intermediate ion 208 can have either the open vinyl cation structure 208a or the cyclic thiirenium ion 208b, depending... 

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