Proton transfer in addition

The proton transfer in these clusters via the water bridge was found to be about three times as fast as a nonassisted transfer, underscoring the importance of the solvent for the reaction mechanism [98IJQ855]. In addition to the relative stabilities of the cytosine tautomers, the structures and properties of some cytosine derivatives have been investigated, mainly those of 5-hydroxycytosine 111 and 5,6-dihydroxycytosine 112 (Scheme 73) [99JST1, 99JST49]. 

Seminal studies on the dynamics of proton transfer in the triplet manifold have been performed on HBO [109]. It was found that in the triplet states of HBO, the proton transfer between the enol and keto tautomers is reversible because the two (enol and keto) triplet states are accidentally isoenergetic. In addition, the rate constant is as slow as milliseconds at 100 K. The results of much slower proton transfer dynamics in the triplet manifold are consistent with the earlier summarization of ESIPT molecules. Based on the steady-state absorption and emission spectroscopy, the changes of pKa between the ground and excited states, and hence the thermodynamics of ESIPT, can be deduced by a Forster cycle [65]. Accordingly, compared to the pKa in the ground state, the decrease of pKa in the... 

Further studies on 1,3-dipolar addition reactions of diazophosphonates have been recorded,122 and work on 2-diazo-l-hydroxyalkylphosphonates also continues.123 The ester (155 R = H) reacts with esters of acetylenedicarboxylic acid without liberation of nitrogen to give stereoisomeric C-phosphorylated pyrazolines, which can be decomposed with both phosphorus-carbon and carbon-carbon bond fission, affording mixtures containing dimethyl acetylphosphonate, dimethyl hydrogen phosphonate, and tri(alkoxycarbonyl)pyrazolines. In the reaction between the same diazophosphonate and diazomethane, the latter conceivably acts as a basic catalyst for proton transfer in a series of steps which includes phosphonate-phosphate isomerization. The importance of a labile proton is demonstrated by the fact that the ester (155 R = Me) does not react in the manner described above. 

Mechanism of esterification of carboxylic acids The esterification of carboxylic acids with alcohols is a kind of nncleophilic acyl snbstitntion. Protonation of the carbonyl ojq gen activates the carbonyl gronp towards nncleophilic addition of the alcohol. Proton transfer in the tetrahedral intermediate converts the hydrojq l group into - 0H2 group, which, being a better leaving group, is eliminated as neutml water molecule. The protonated ester so formed finally loses a proton to give the ester. 

The collapse of the proteolytic tetrahedral intermediate of the promoted-water pathway requires a proton donor in order to facilitate the departure of the leaving amino group. Rees and Lipscomb (1982) considered Glu-270, but favored Tyr-248 for this role, but Monzingo and Matthews (1984) fully elaborated on a role for Glu-270 of carboxypeptidase A and Glu-143 of thermolysin as intermediate proton donors. This proposal for carboxypeptidase A is corroborated by the near-normal activity observed for the Tyr-248- Phe mutant of rat carboxypeptidase A (Garden et al, 1985 Hilvert et al, 1986) and is reflected in the mechanistic scheme of Fig. 31 (Christianson and Lipscomb, 1989). Mock (1975) considered Glu-270 a proton donor in the carboxypeptidase A mechanism, but his mechanism does not favor a Glu-270/zinc-promoted water molecule as the hydrolytic nucleophile. Schepartz and Breslow (1987) observed that Glu-270 may mediate an additional proton transfer in the generation of the Pi product carboxylate. 

The study of proton transfer in solution with coupling to a rate promoting vibration in the sense we discussed above, was pioneered by Borgis and Hanes. They used a Marcus-like model with the important addition that the tunneling matrix element between the reactant and product states is written as... 

In conclusion, a typical time of 300 fs has been found for the excited-state intramolecular double proton transfer in TAB and DAC. The proton transfer dynamics is not influenced by aggregation. In addition, a vibronic cooling time of 20 ps has been measured for the probe molecules in the molecular and stacked configurations. Finally, aggregation is found to almost completely hamper the rotational diffusion motions of the molecules during the fluorescence state lifetime of 4 ns. 

The high diastereoselectivity in the addition of i-PrOH, t-BuOH and EtOH (at low concentration) suggests that E Z photoisomerization of (E)- or (Z)-16 does not occur in solution at room temperature or that the trapping of (E)- or (Z)-16 by alcohols proceeds faster than the E Z isomerization. In addition, the results show that proton transfer in the intermediate adduct formed by the disilenes and alcohols occurs much faster than rotation around the Si—Si bond. However, in the reaction with ethanol, an appreciable amount of the anti addition product was formed. Thus, the diastereoselectivity remarkably depended on the concentration of ethanol. 

Studies on catalytic asymmetric aza-Baylis-Hillman reaction has shown that the reaction involves rate-limiting proton transfer in the absence of added protic species, but exhibits no autocatalysis.41 Brpnsted acidic additives lead to substantial rate enhancements through acceleration of the elimination step. Furthermore, it has been found that phosphine catalysts, either alone or in combination with protic additives, can cause racemization of the aza-Baylis-Hillman product by proton exchange at the stereogenic centre. 

The chiral discrimination in the self-association of chiral l,3a,4,6a-tetrahydroi-midazo[4,5-d]imidazoles 3 has been studied using density functional theory methods [37], (Scheme 3.20). Clusters from dimers to heptamers have been considered. The heterochiral dimers (RR SS or SS RR) are more stable than the homochiral ones (RR RR or SS SS) with energy differences up to 17.5 kJ mol-1. Besides, in larger clusters, the presence of two adjacent homochiral molecules imposes an energetic penalty when compared to alternated chiral systems (RR SS RR SS...). The differences in interaction energy within the dimers of the different derivatives have been analyzed based on the atomic energy partition carried out within the AIM framework. The mechanism of proton transfer in the homo- and heterochiral dimers shows large transition-state barriers, except in those cases where a third additional molecule is involved in the transfer. The optical rotatory power of several clusters of the parent compound has been calculated and rationalized based on the number of homochiral interactions and the number of monomers of each enantiomer within the complexes. 

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