Oxonium

H3O" is strictly the oxonium ion actually, in aqueous solutions of acid this and Other solvated-proton structures exist, but they are conveniently represented as... 

Oxonium salt formation. Shake up 0 5 ml. of ether with 1 ml. of cone. HCl and note that a clear solution is obtained owing to the formation of a water-soluble oxonium salt. Note that aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons do not behave in this way. In general diaryl ethers and alkyl aryl ethers are also insoluble in cone. HCl. 

It should be noted that the Friedel-Crafts acylation differs from the Friedel-Crafts alkylation (compare Sections IV,3-4 and discussion preceding Section IV,1) in one important respect. The alkylation requires catal3d.ic quantities of aluminium chloride, but for acylation a molecular equivalent of aluminium chloride is necessary for each carbonyl group present in the acylating agent. This is because aluminium chloride is capable of forming rather stable complexes with the carbonyl group these complexes probably possess an oxonium... 

It is probable that, in general, acylation also occurs by the oxonium complex ... 

Many oxygen-containing compounds dissolve because of the formation of oxonium salts the latter are readily decomposed (hydrolysed) by pouring the acid into ice water. 

The results of aetivatioii of aeyl cations led to our study of other carboxonium ions. Carboxonium ions are highly stabilized compared to alkyl cations. As their name indicates, they have both carbocationic and oxonium ion nature. 

Similar to oxonium ions, our studies of sulfonium ions also showed protosolvolytic activation in superacids to give sulfur superelectrophiles. The parent sulfonium ion (HjS ), for example, gives H4S (diprotonated hydrogen sulfide) in superacids. 

That some modification to the position so far described might be necessary was indicated by some experiments of Nesmeyanov and his co-workers. Amongst other compounds they nitrated phenyl trimethyl ammonium and triphenyloxonium tetrafluoroborates with mixed acid the former gave 96 % of m- and 4 % of -nitro compound (88 % total yield), whilst the latter gave 80% of the tri-(p-nitrophenyl)oxonium salt. Ridd and his co-workers have made a quantitative study of the phenyl trimethyl ammonium ion. Their results, and those of other recent workers on the nitration of several cations, are collected in table 9.3. 

The systematic name for the conjugate acid of water (HjO" ) is oxonium ion Its com mon name is hydronium ion... 

We can extend the general principles of electrophilic addition to acid catalyzed hydration In the first step of the mechanism shown m Figure 6 9 proton transfer to 2 methylpropene forms tert butyl cation This is followed m step 2 by reaction of the car bocation with a molecule of water acting as a nucleophile The aUcyloxomum ion formed m this step is simply the conjugate acid of tert butyl alcohol Deprotonation of the alkyl oxonium ion m step 3 yields the alcohol and regenerates the acid catalyst... 

With secondary and tertiary alcohols Ihis slage is an 8 1 reaclion m which Ihe alkyl oxonium ion dissociates to a carbocalion and water... 

Step 1 Proton transfer to the oxygen of the epoxide to give an oxonium ion... 

Step 2 Nucleophilic attack by water on carbon of the oxonium ion The carbon-oxygen bond of the ring is broken in this step and the ring opens... 

Step 3 The oxonium ion formed m step 2 loses a proton to give the tetrahedral intermediate m its neutral form This step concludes the first stage m the mechanism... 

Step 3 Deprotonation of the oxonium ion to give the neutral form of the tetrahedral intermediate... 

Protonation of the carbonyl oxygen as emphasized earlier makes the carbonyl group more susceptible to nucleophilic attack A water molecule adds to the carbonyl group of the protonated ester m step 2 Loss of a proton from the resulting oxonium ion gives the neutral form of the tetrahedral intermediate m step 3 and completes the first stage of the mechanism... 

Once formed the tetrahedral intermediate can revert to starting materials by merely reversing the reactions that formed it or it can continue onward to products In the sec ond stage of ester hydrolysis the tetrahedral intermediate dissociates to an alcohol and a carboxylic acid In step 4 of Figure 20 4 protonation of the tetrahedral intermediate at Its alkoxy oxygen gives a new oxonium ion which loses a molecule of alcohol m step 5 Along with the alcohol the protonated form of the carboxylic acid arises by dissocia tion of the tetrahedral intermediate Its deprotonation m step 6 completes the process... 

Step 3 Deprotonation of oxonium ion to give neutral form of tetrahedral intermediate OH OH... 

Oxonium ion (Section 1 13) The species H30" (also called hydronium ion)... 

Polyatomic Cations. Polyatomic cations derived by addition of more protons than required to give a neutral unit to polyatomic anions are named by adding the ending -onium to the root of the name of the anion element for example, PH4, phosphonium ion HjU, iodonium ion H3O+, oxonium ion CH3OHJ, methyl oxonium ion. 

The main contributing resonance forms include the oxonium (7), carbonium (8), and ammonium stmctures (9) ... 

Trifluoromethanesulfonic acid is miscible in all proportions with water and is soluble in many polar organic solvents such as dimethylformamide, dimethyl sulfoxide, and acetonitrile. In addition, it is soluble in alcohols, ketones, ethers, and esters, but these generally are not suitably inert solvents. The acid reacts with ethyl ether to give a colorless, Hquid oxonium complex, which on further heating gives the ethyl ester and ethylene. Reaction with ethanol gives the ester, but in addition dehydration and ether formation occurs. 

Cocatalysts of two types occur (/) proton-donor substances, such as hydroxy compounds and proton acids, and (2) cation-forming substances (other than proton), including alkyl and acyl haUdes which form carbocations and other donor substances leading to oxonium, sulfonium, halonium, etc, complexes. 

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