Quinone methides aromatic resonance

We consider the relatively high pKA values of 6-8 to be typical value for a cation-quinone methide equilibrium. The formation of a resonance-stabilized aromatic carbocation is one reason for these high pKA values. Another reason is the high energy of the quinone methide. The thermodynamic cycle shown in... 

Effects of oxygen substitutents in an aromatic ring upon an exocyclic rather than endocyclic carbocation charge center have also been measured. The possibility of comparing HO, MeO, and O substituent effects for the benzylic cations is provided by recent studies of quinone methides, including the unsubstituted / -quinone methide 23, which may be considered as a resonance-stabilized benzylic cation with a /xoxyanion substituent. 

The 1,2- and 1,4-quinone methides are formally neutral molecules. However, the zwitterionic aromatic valence bond resonance structures (Scheme 1) make an important contribution to their structure. This combination of neutral and zwitterionic valence bond structures confers a distinctive chemical reactivity to quinone methides, which has attracted the interest of many chemists and biochemists. 

During my early years as an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky, I demonstrated the synthesis of a simple quinone methide as the product of the nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction of water at a highly destabilized 4-methoxybenzyl carbocation. I was struck by the notion that the distinctive chemical reactivity of quinone methides is related to the striking combination of neutral nonaromatic and zwitterionic aromatic valence bond resonance structures that contribute to their hybrid resonance structures. This served as the starting point for the interpretation of the results of our studies on nucleophile addition to quinone methides. At the same time, many other talented chemists have worked to develop methods for the generation of quinone methides and applications for these compounds in organic syntheses and chemical biology. The chapter coauthored with Maria Toteva presents an overview of this work. 

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