Phenol phenoxide ions from

Free Phenolic Structures Containing /3-Ary I Ether Bonds The first step of the reaction involves the formation of a quinone methide from the phenolate anion by the elimination of a hydroxide, alkoxide, or phenoxide ion from the a-carbon (Fig. 7-25). The subsequent course of reactions depends on whether hydrosulfide ions are present or not. In the latter case (soda pulping), the dominant reaction is the elimination of the hydroxymethyl group from the quinone methide with formation of formaldehyde and a styryl aryl ether structure without cleavage of the /8-ether bond (Fig. 7-26). When hydrosulfide ions are present (strong nucleophiles) they react with the... 

In the strongly basic medium, the reactant is the phenoxide ion high nucleophilic activity at the ortho and para positions is provided through the electromeric shifts indicated. The above scheme indicates theorpara substitution is similar. The intermediate o-hydroxybenzal chloride anion (I) may react either with a hydroxide ion or with water to give the anion of salicyl-aldehyde (II), or with phenoxide ion or with phenol to give the anion of the diphenylacetal of salicylaldehyde (III). Both these anions are stable in basic solution. Upon acidification (III) is hydrolysed to salicylaldehyde and phenol this probably accounts for the recovery of much unreacted phenol from the reaction. 

Reaction with arenediazonium salts Adding a phe nol to a solution of a diazonium salt formed from a primary aromatic amine leads to formation of an azo compound The reaction is carried out at a pH such that a significant portion of the phenol is pres ent as its phenoxide ion The diazonium ion acts as an electrophile toward the strongly activated ring of the phenoxide ion... 

The predominance of a-substituted products in the reaction of 2,4,6-tribromopyridine in phenol solution may result from competitive attack by free phenol in preference to attack by the phenoxide ion reagent involving structures 18 (B = base) or 19. A wealth of chemistry awaits elucidation by physical-organic studies. 

The rates of bromination of 3-nitrophenol in aqueous solution at 25 °C have been measured at various concentrations of perchloric acid and sodium bromide294. An increase in both caused a decrease in rate the latter again shows that Br is much less reactive than Br2, whilst the former shows that reaction occurs principally on the 3-nitrophenoxide ion and the difference from the observation for phenol in acetic acid (above p. 117) is undoubtedly partly due to the greater stability of the 3-nitrophenoxide relative to the phenoxide ion. The... 

Still another possibility in the base-catalyzed reactions of carbonyl compounds is alkylation or similar reaction at the oxygen atom. This is the predominant reaction of phenoxide ion, of course, but for enolates with less resonance stabilization it is exceptional and requires special conditions. Even phenolates react at carbon when the reagent is carbon dioxide, but this may be due merely to the instability of the alternative carbonic half ester. The association of enolate ions with a proton is evidently not very different from the association with metallic cations. Although the equilibrium mixture is about 92 % ketone, the sodium derivative of acetoacetic ester reacts with acetic acid in cold petroleum ether to give the enol. The Perkin ring closure reaction, which depends on C-alkylation, gives the alternative O-alkylation only when it is applied to the synthesis of a four membered ring ... 

Contrary to the above expectations, the bromination of anisole (Tee and Bennett, 1984) and of phenols (Tee and Bennett, 1988a) in the presence of a-CD is not strongly retarded, so that some form of catalysis must occur. In some cases, actual rate increases are observed in spite of the several complexations that reduce the free reactant concentrations. Analysis of the effects of substituents on the kinetics leads to the conclusion that the catalysis by a-CD most probably results from reaction of CD-bound bromine with free substrate (12a) and that the a-CD-Br2 complex is 3-31 times more reactive than free Br2 towards phenols and phenoxide ions (cf. Tee et al., 1989). For the kinetically equivalent reaction of the substrate CD complex with free bromine (12b), the rate constants (A 2 ) for phenols do not correlate sensibly with the nature and position of the substituents, and for three of the phenoxide ions they have unrealistically high values, greater than 10u m 1 s . 

The mesomeric quinonemethides and 0-quinonemethides described above are somewhat more stable than the simple p-quinonemethides whose properties are already well known even from classical studies. The o-quinonemethides XX and XVII do not add on water even in solution in aqueous organic solvents their solution in dioxane/water is stable for months. They do not add on methanol or higher alcohols and react only slowly with phenols and organic acids. The addition of water is not catalyzed by mild alkalies the red color of the phenoxide ion (XVIII) prevails for weeks in soda solution. Addition of water occurs more rapidly in strongly alkaline solution. The addition of mineral acids and reduction by sodium borohydride are instantaneous. The addition of HC1 is rapid even at pH 4.0, the conditions used for determining the carbonyl content of lignin by the hydroxylamine hydrochloride reaction 13). 

Phenolic Hydroxyl Group. An ethanolic solution of 3,4,5-tri-methoxybenzyl alcohol (4-0-methylsyringyl alcohol) and sodium hydroxide was prepared, and ultraviolet spectra of the solution were recorded immediately and 3 days after preparation. These spectra were compared with the spectrum of the model compound in neutral ethanol. The three spectra were identical with the absorption curve possessing a broad maximum in the 270-280 m/x region. Further visual observation of the alkaline solution for 2 weeks revealed no color formation. This suggests that phenoxide ion formation may be a necessary initial step in reactions leading to the development of chromophoric structures from lignin model compounds. 

It is also possible to examine the effect of oxygen substituents on the stability of arenonium ions. Wirz has studied keto-enol equilibria for phenol,151 naphthol (Wirz J, Personal communication), and anthrol.152,153 The tautomeric constants may be combined with p/y,s for protonation of the keto tautomer and ionization of the phenol to provide pifas f°r protonation of the aromatic ring of phenol and the phenoxide ion. As illustrated in Scheme 18 the unstable keto tautomer of phenol 22 was produced by photolysis of the bicyclooctene dione 21. Except in the case of the anthrone a pA a for protonation of the keto tautomer has not been measured directly. However, values can be estimated from the pfor protonation of the 4,4-dimethylated analog136 with a correction for the substituent effect of the methyl groups. 

In more recent work concerned with the protonation of anthracene radical anion (AN ) by phenol in DMF, no indications of deviations from ECE behaviour were found during DPSC (Amatore and Saveant, 1980) or DCV studies (Ahlberg and Parker, 1981b,c). However, when the reaction was examined in the presence of phenoxide ion it became apparent that the protonation step is reversible and the kinetic law is quite complex (Parker, 1981i). The data reproduced in Table 4 are instructive with regard to the use of some... 

However, there are additional structures to be considered. Being basic, oxygen can share more than a pair of electrons with the ring this is indicated by contribution from structures V-VII for phenol, and VIII-X for the phenoxide ion. 

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