Reaction rate, electronic effects

Inductive effects Electron-withdrawing groups make the carbonyl carbon more electrophilic and increase the reaction rate electron-donating groups make the carbonyl carbon less electrophilic and decrease the reaction rate. 

The Marcus theory, as described above, is a transition state theory (TST, see Section 14.3) by which the rate of an electron transfer process (in both the adiabatic and nonadiabatic limits) is assumed to be determined by the probability to reach a subset of solvent configurations defined by a certain value of the reaction coordinate. The rate expressions (16.50) for adiabatic, and (16.59) or (16.51) for nonadiabatic electron transfer were obtained by making the TST assumptions that (1) the probability to reach transition state configuration(s) is thermal, and (2) once the reaction coordinate reaches its transition state value, the electron transfer reaction proceeds to completion. Both assumptions rely on the supposition that the overall reaction is slow relative to the thermal relaxation of the nuclear environment. We have seen in Sections 14.4.2 and 14.4.4 that the breakdown of this picture leads to dynamic solvent effects, that in the Markovian limit can be characterized by a friction coefficient y The rate is proportional to y in the low friction, y 0, limit where assumption (1) breaks down, and varies like y when y oo and assumption (2) does. What stands in common to these situations is that in these opposing limits the solvent affects dynamically the reaction rate. Solvent effects in TST appear only through its effect on the free energy surface of the reactant subspace. 

The nature of the electronic and geometric structure of the surface is usually crucial in determining the reaction rate. The effect of surface morphology will be considered in the next section, but here we will exemplify the effect of global variations in electronic structure by considering a particular catalytic reaction, namely CO hydrogenation, and how the choice of different transition metals affect the selectivity of the product pattern. This is illustrated in fig. 36 and shows that metals in group VIII tend to be the Fischer-Tropsch... 

Clearly, the steric crowding that influences reaction rates in Sn2 processes plays no role in SnI reactions. The order of alkyl hahde reactivity in SnI reactions is the same as the order of carbocation stability the more stable the carbocation, the more reactive the alkyl halide. We have seen this situation before in the reaction of alcohols with hydrogen halides (Section 4.12), in the acid-catalyzed dehydration of alcohols (Section 5.9), and in the conversion of alkyl hahdes to alkenes by the El mechanism (Section 5.17). As in these other reactions, an electronic effect, specifically, the stabilization of the carbocation intermediate by alkyl substiments, is the decisive factor. 

Spectator ligands—those not directly involved in the ligand substitution process— can affect the reaction rate electronically (cis and trans effects), through steric hindrance or acceleration, or through influencing solvation. 

Table 6 3 shows that the effect of substituents on the rate of addition of bromine to alkenes is substantial and consistent with a rate determining step m which electrons flow from the alkene to the halogen Alkyl groups on the carbon-carbon double bond release electrons stabilize the transition state for bromonium ion formation and increase the reaction rate... 

The nonbonding electron clouds of the attached fluorine atoms tend to repel the oncoming fluorine molecules as they approach the carbon skeleton. This reduces the number of effective coUisions, making it possible to increase the total number of coUisions and stiU not accelerate the reaction rate as the reaction proceeds toward completion. This protective sheath of fluorine atoms provides the inertness of Teflon and other fluorocarbons. It also explains the fact that greater success in direct fluorination processes has been reported when the hydrocarbon to be fluorinated had already been partiaUy fluorinated by some other process or was prechlorinated, ie, the protective sheath of halogens reduced the number of reactive coUisions and aUowed reactions to occur without excessive cleavage of carbon—carbon bonds or mnaway exothermic processes. 

Ionization reaction rates are subject to both electronic and steric effects. The most important electronic effects are stabilization of the carbocation by electron-releasing... 

Simple alkyl radicals such as methyl are considered to be nonnucleophilic. Methyl radicals are somewhat more reactive toward alkenes bearing electron-withdrawing substituents than towards those with electron-releasing substituents. However, much of this effect can be attributed to the stabilizing effect that these substiments have on the product radical. There is a strong correlation of reaction rate with the overall exothermicity of the reaction. Hydroxymethyl and 2-hydroxy-2-propyl radicals show nucleophilic character. The hydroxymethyl radical shows a slightly enhanced reactivity toward acrylonitrile and acrolein, but a sharply decreased reactivity toward ethyl vinyl ether. Table 12.9 gives some of the reactivity data. 

The reaction rates and product yields of [2+2] cycloadditions are expectedly enhanced by electronic factors that favor radical formation. Olefins with geminal capto-dative substituents are especially efficient partners (equations 33 and 34) because of the synergistic effect of the electron acceptor (capto) with the electron donor (dative) substituents on radical stability [95]... 

A further complication arises with Ingold s suggestion" that both the inductive and resonance effects are composed of initial state equilibrium displacements that reveal themselves in equilibrium properties like dipole moments and equilibrium constants and of time-dependent displacements produced during reaction by the approach of an attacking reagent, observed rate effects being resultants of both types of electronic effects. Hammett, however, claims that it is not necessary or possible to make this distinction. 

Some authors use O] instead of cr as the substituent constant in such correlations.) An example is provided by the aminolysis of phenyl esters in dioxane the substrates RCOOPh were reacted with -butylamine, and the observed first-order rate constants were related to amine concentration by = k2 [amine] kj [amine]. The rate constants kz and k could be correlated by means of Eq. (7-54), the reaction constants being p = +2.14, b = + 1.03 (for A 2) and p = -1-3.03,8 = -1-1.08 (for ks). Thus, the two reactions are about equally sensitive to steric effects, whereas the amine-catalyzed reaction is more susceptible to electronic effects than is the uncatalyzed reaction. 

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