Nucleophilicity trends

Why are the differences in nucleophilicity relatively the same over many different substitution reactions Nucleophilicity describes the ability of the nucleophile to make an electron pair available to the electrophile (i.e., the alkylating agent). With this as the basic idea, the experimentally observable nucleophilicity trends can be interpreted as follows. 

In this chapter, the concepts of organic bases and basicity were presented. These discussions were expanded to define nucleophiles and nucleophilicity. Trends associated with conjugate bases of acids and nucleophilicity were presented and translated to define the concept of leaving groups. As discussions continue, all of these concepts will play important roles in the various organic reaction mechanistic types presented in the following chapters. 

Use the nucleophilicity trend to decide which of the following two alternatives is the faster process in methanol solvent. 

The second consequence of comparatively weaker solvation of anions by aprotic solvents is that the nucleophilicity trend observed in protic solvents inverts. Thus, while the reactivity of all anions increases, that of the smaller ones increases more than that of the others. For many nucleophiles, including the halide series, base strength overrides solvation Back to our original expectation ... 

Certain base adducts of borane, such as triethylamine borane [1722-26-5] (C2H )2N BH, dimethyl sulfide borane [13292-87-OJ, (CH2)2S BH, and tetrahydrofuran borane [14044-65-6] C HgO BH, are more easily and safely handled than B2H and are commercially available. These compounds find wide use as reducing agents and in hydroboration reactions (57). A wide variety of borane reducing agents and hydroborating agents is available from Aldrich Chemical Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Base displacement reactions can be used to convert one adduct to another. The relative stabiUties of BH adducts as a function of Group 15 and 16 donor atoms are P > N and S > O. This order has sparked controversy because the trend opposes the normal order estabUshed by BF. In the case of anionic nucleophiles, base displacement leads to ionic hydroborate adducts (eqs. 20,21). 

The importance of solvent participation in the borderline mechanisms should be noted. Nucleophilic participation is minimized by high electronegativity, which reduces the Lewis basicity and polarizability of the solvent molecules. Trifluoroacetic acid and perfiuoro alcohols are among the least nucleophilic of the solvents used in solvolysis studies. These solvents are used to define the characteristics of reactions proceeding without nucleophilic solvent participation. Solvent nucleophilicity increases with the electron-donating capacity of the molecule. The order trifluoroacetic acid < trifluoroetha-nol <acetic acid < water < ethanol gives a qualitative indication of the trend in solvent nucleophilicity. More will be said about solvent nucleophilicity in Section 5.5. 

One of the most important and general trends in organic chemistry is the increase in carbocation stability with additional alkyl substitution. This stability relationship is fundamental to imderstanding many aspects of reactivity, especially of nucleophilic... 

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. ... 

Examples of effects of reactant stmcture on the rate of nucleophilic substitution reactions have appeared in the preceding sections of this chapter. The general trends of reactivity of primaiy, secondary, and tertiaiy systems and the special reactivity of allylic and benzylic systems have been discussed in other contexts. This section will emphasize the role that steric effects can pl in nucleophilic substitution reactions. 

This trend is also observed in the reactions with nitrogen- and carbon-centered nucleophiles (2001H425). Thus, the reaction of 109 with sodium indolyl in DMF affords methyl 2-(indol-l-yl)indole-3-carboxylate (188, 77%). In better yield, 2-(indol-l-yl)indole-3-carbaldehyde (189, 95%) is formed in the corresponding reaction (99H1157) of 115a (Scheme 28). Sodium imidazolyl reacts with 109 in DMF at 60°C to afford methyl 2-(imidazol-l-yl)indole-3-carboxylate (190,28%), methyl indole-3-carboxylate (191,11 %), and unreacted 109 (36%). In contrast, under the same conditions, 110 and 115a provide higher yields of methyl 2-(imidazol-... 

At first, the reaction was investigated in batch mode, by use of different ionic liquids with wealdy coordinating anions as the catalyst medium and compressed CO2 as simultaneous extraction solvent. These experiments revealed that the activation of Wilke s catalyst by the ionic liquid medium was clearly highly dependent on the nature of the ionic liquid s anion. Comparison of the results in different ionic liquids with [EMIM] as the common cation showed that the catalyst s activity drops in the order [BARF] > [Al OC(CF3)2Ph 4] > [(CF3S02)2N] > [BFJ . This trend is consistent with the estimated nucleophilicity/coordination strength of the anions. 

However, the situation is not as clear-cut as it might at first seem since a variety of other factors may also contribute to the above-mentioned trend. Abuin et a/.141 pointed out that the transition state for addition is sterically more demanding than that for hydrogen-atom abstraction. Within a given series (alkyl or alkoxy), the more nucleophilic radicals are generally the more bulky (i.e. steric factors favor the same trends). It can also be seen from Tabic 1.6 that, for alkyl radicals, the values of D decrease in the series primary>secondary>tertiary (i.e. relative bond strengths favor the same trend). 

Thiols react more rapidly with nucleophilic radicals than with electrophilic radicals. They have very large Ctr with S and VAc, but near ideal transfer constants (C - 1.0) with acrylic monomers (Table 6.2). Aromatic thiols have higher C,r than aliphatic thiols but also give more retardation. This is a consequence of the poor reinitiation efficiency shown by the phenylthiyl radical. The substitution pattern of the alkanethiol appears to have only a small (<2-fokl) effect on the transfer constant. Studies on the reactions of small alkyl radicals with thiols indicate that the rate of the transfer reaction is accelerated in polar solvents and, in particular, water.5 Similar trends arc observed for transfer to 1 in S polymerization with Clr = 1.4 in benzene 3.6 in CUT and 6.1 in 5% aqueous CifiCN.1 In copolymerizations, the thiyl radicals react preferentially with electron-rich monomers (Section 3.4.3.2). 

This area of reactivity has been the subject of excellent reviews (J5). Silyl enol ethers are not sufficiently nucleophilic to react spontaneously with carbonyl compounds they do so under the influence of either Lewis acids or fluoride ion, as detailed above. Few clear trends have emerged from the somewhat limited number of definitive studies reported so far, with ambiguities in diastereoisomeric assignments occasionally complicating the issue even further. 

A fivefold variation in added iodide ion concentration produced no detectable trend in the rate coefficients, which had the mean value 99+10 at 20 °C, and therefore nucleophilic attack of iodide ion on tin appears kinetically non-significant. 

Since the decomposition of the Meisenheimer intermediate is not the ratedetermining step, the trends for the leaving groups are quite different from common nucleophilic substitution. The leaving group trends for SnAt substitutions were reported to have the following order F > N02 > SOPh > Cl > Br I > OAr > OR > SR52 53. 

The chemoselectivity of the other alkenes of Table 1 is more variable. It appears that bulky substituents favour bromide over methanol attack of the bromonium ion, since dibromlde increases from 39 to 70 % on going from methyl to tert-butyl in the monosubstituted series. The same trend is observed in the disubstituted series with a contraction of the chemoselectivity span (37 to 43 % on going from methyl to teH-butyl) for the trans isomers. Since the solvated bromide ion can be viewed as a nucleophile larger than methanol, the influence of steric effects, important in determining the regioselectivity, does not seem very significant as regards the chemoselectivity. This result has been interpreted in terms of a different balance between polar and steric effects of the substituents on these two selectivities. 

Reversible formation of ionic intermediates in halogenated solvents has been suggested to be due to the weakly nucleophilic character of the counteranion, the tribromide ion, which should dissociate into nucleophilic bromide and free bromine before reacting with the bromonium ion (refs. 11,25,26). In order to check this hypothesis the product distribution of the c/s-stilbene bromination in chloroform was investigated (ref. 27). In the latter solvent the formation constant of Br3 is considerably lower than in DCE, Kf = 2.77 (0.13) x 10 against > 2 x 107 M 1. (ref. 28). As a consequence, at 10 3 M [Br2] relevant amounts of bromide ions are present as counteranion of the bromonium intermediate. Nevertheless, the same trend for the isomerization of cis- to rran -stilbene, as well as an increase of... 

The enthalpies of reaction for nucleophilic carbencs depend on the stereoelec-tronic properties of the ligands affecting the availability of the carbene lone pair. An example of electronic influence is the 3.5 kcal/mol enthalpy difference between the isosteric pair IMes and IMesCI that shows the electron-withdrawing nature of Cl compared to H. This trend again is in line with electron donor/withdrawing ability of arene substituents. The effect in this la.st case is a long range electronic... 

Belonging to group (i) are alkylmetal carbonyls and cyclopentadienylmetal alkyl carbonyls of formula RMn(CO)5, CpFe(CO)2R, and CpMo(CO)3R. Solvent dependence of the reaction of MeMn(CO)5 with CjHi,NH2 is illustrated also in Table I. The rate varies markedly with the dielectric constant and with the nucleophilic power of the solvent. For example, on going from dimethylformamide to mesitylene, the rate of insertion is reduced by 10. Similarly, the sequence MeCN > MejCO > THF > CHCI3 > CjHj was reported for the reaction of MeMn(CO)5 with P(0CH2)3CR (R = Me and Et) in various solvents (97). Analogous trends were observed for the insertion reactions of CpFe(CO)2R and CpMo(CO)3R (48, 80, 98). 

They demonstrated that electron-deficient R groups and electron-rich R substituents at S accelerated the reductive elimination. They proposed 123 (Lj = DPPE, R = Ph, R = Ar) as a transition state, where R acts as an electrophile and thiolate as a nucleophile. The Hammet plot for the reductive elimination showed that the resonance effect of the substituent in R determines the inductive effect of the R group, and the effect in SR showed an acceptable linear relationship with the standard o-values. The relative rate for sulfide elimination as a function of the hybrid valence configuration of the carbon center bonded to palladium followed the trend sp > sp spl... 

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