Reaction rates Hammond postulate

Because the rates of chemical reactions are controlled by the free energy of the transition state, information about the stmcture of transition states is crucial to understanding reaction mechanism. However, because transition states have only transitory existence, it is not possible to make experimental measurements that provide direct information about their structure.. Hammond has discussed the circumstances under which it is valid to relate transition-state stmcture to the stmcture of reactants, intermediates, and products. His statements concerning transition-state stmcture are known as Hammond s postulate. Discussing individual steps in a reaction mechanism, Hammond s postulate states if two states, as, for example, a transition state and an unstable intermediate, occur consecutively during a reaction process and have neariy the same energy content, their interconversion will involve only a small reorganization of molecular stmcture. ... 

An explanation of the relationship between reaction rate and intermediate stability was first advanced in 1955. Known as the Hammond postulate, the argument goes like this transition states represent energy maxima. They are high-energy activated complexes that occur transiently during the course of a reaction and immediately go on to a more stable species. Although we can t... 

According to the Hammond postulate (Section 6.10), any factor that stabilizes a high-energy intermediate also stabilizes the transition state leading to that inlermediate. Since the rate-limiting step in an S l reaction is the spontaneous, unimolecLilar dissociation of the substrate to yield a carbocation, the reaction is favored whenever a stabilized carbocation intermediate is formed. The more stable the carbocation intermediate, the faster the S l reaction. 

The Hammond postulate says that any factor stabilizing the intermediate carbocation should increase the rate of an S l reaction. Solvation of the carbocation—the interaction of the ion with solvent molecules—has just such an effect. Solvent molecules orient around the carbocation so that the electron-rich ends of the solvent dipoles face the positive charge (Figure 11.14), thereby lowering the energy of the ion and favoring its formation. 

This correlation between /7-values for rates and equilibria reflects a long-established principle of physical organic chemistry, the so-called Hammond postulate (Hammond, 1955 see also Farcasiu, 1975). This postulate states that in a series of related reactions the transition state becomes more product-like as the positive enthalpy differences between reagents and products increase. 

Another method for evaluating carbocation stability involves the measurement of solvolysis rates (14,45). Typically, the transition state of the rate-determining step in SN1 reactions is assumed to closely resemble the intermediate ion pair, on the basis of the Hammond postulate (46). Thus, the free energy of activation for this reaction, AG, reflects the relative thermodynamic stabilities of the intermediate carbocations. 

Hammond postulate has been used to explain the effect of substituents on the rate of benzilic acid rearrangements, mechanism of electrophillic aromatic substitution reactions and reactions involving highly reactive intermediates such as carbonium ions and carbon ions. 

There is one experimental parameter that does serve to distinguish between the semiclassical model and the quantum model for nonadiabatic proton transfer. In the semiclassical model, if one assumes that the magnitude of the electronic barrier directly correlates with the thermodynamic driving force, a statement of the Hammond postulate, then as the driving force increases the rate of reaction increases, eventually reaching a maximum rate. The quantum model has a... 

The Hammond postulate provides a key relationship between the rate of reaction and the activated complex of that reaction (Figure 5.14). In practice, structural changes are made in the reactant(s) and the influence of those changes on the rate of reaction is measured. If the reaction is faster, then the change in the... 

However, the Hammond postulate also holds for exergic reactions where the transition state is early and the activated complex more resembles the reactant. For such reactions changes in the energy of the reactants have the greatest effect on the energy of the transition state and thus the rate of the reaction. 

How does this order of the rates v > vtom come about As high-energy species, radical intermediates react exergonically with most reaction partners. According to the Hammond postulate, they do this very rapidly. Radicals actually often react with the first reaction partner they encounter. Their average lifetime is therefore very short. The probability of a termination step in which two such short-lived radicals meet is consequently low. 

Hammond s postulate can be applied to this series of the selectivity-determining steps of the radical chlorination. They all take place via early transition states, i.e. via transition states that are similar to the starting materials. The more stable the resulting radical, the more similar the transition state is to the starting materials. The stability differences between these radicals are therefore manifested only to a very small extent as stability differences between the transition states that lead to them. All transition states are therefore very similar in energy and thus the different reaction rates are very similar. This means that the regioselectivity of the radical chlorination of saturated hydrocarbons is generally low. 

Finally, because the addition of Br2 to cyclohexene is 27 kcal/mol - 11 kcaFmol = 16 kcal/ mol more exothermic than the substitution of Br2 on cyclohexene, can we conclude that the first reaction also takes place more rapidly Not necessarily The (fictitious) substitution reaction of Br2 on cyclohexene should be a multistep reaction and proceed via a bromonium ion formed in the first and also rate-determining reaction step. This bromo-niurn ion has been demonstrated to be the intermediate in the known addition reaction of Br2 to cyclohexene (Section 3.5.1). Thus, one would expect that the outcome of the competition of substitution vs. addition depends on whether the bromonium ion is converted— in each case in an elementary reaction—to the substitution or to the addition product. The Hammond postulate suggests that the bromonium ion undergoes the more exothermic (exergonic) reaction more rapidly. In other words, the addition reaction is expected to win not only thermodynamically but also kinetically. 

The tetrahedral intermediate is a high-energy intermediate. Therefore, independently of its charge and also independently of the detailed formation mechanism, it is formed via a late transition state. It also reacts further via an early transition state. Both properties follow from the Hammond postulate. Whether the transition state of the formation of the tetrahedral intermediate has a higher or a lower energy than the transition state of the subsequent reaction of the tetrahedral intermediate determines whether this intermediate is formed in an irreversible or in a reversible reaction, respectively. Yet, in any case, the tetrahedral intermediate is a transition state model of the rate-determining step of the vast majority of SN reactions at the carboxyl carbon. In the following sections, we will support this statement by formal kinetic analyses of the most important substitution mechanisms. 

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