Solvolysis nucleophilic aliphatic substitution

In TFE the secondary isotope effect for solvolysis ( h/ d3)s is found to have the value 1.46 and that for Na,Np-rearrangement (kH/kD3)r has the value 1.42 (Szele and Zollinger, 1981). The two isotope effects are similar to the largest values observed in nucleophilic aliphatic substitutions following the DN + AN mechanism (Shiner,... 

Let us turn briefly to the special case of nucleophilic aliphatic substitution in which the solvent is the nucleophile solvolysis. In its various aspects, solvolysis is— and has been for many years—the most intensively studied reaction in organic chemistry. Yet it is the reaction about which there is probably the most intense disagreement. 

The essential features of the mechanism for aliphatic nucleophilic substitution at tertiary carbon were established in studies by Hughes and Ingold." ° However, as chemists probed more deeply, the problems associated with the characterization of borderline reaction mechanisms were encountered, and controversy remains to this day about whether these problems have been entirely solved." What is generally accepted is that ferf-butyl derivatives undergo borderline solvolysis reactions through a ferf-butyl carbocation intermediate that is too unstable to diffuse freely through nucleophilic solvents such as methanol and water. The borderline nature of substitution reactions at tertiary carbon is exemplihed by the following observations. 

There is an ongoing controversy about whether there is any stabilization of the transition state for nucleophilic substitution at tertiary aliphatic carbon from interaction with nucleophilic solvent." ° This controversy has developed with the increasing sophistication of experiments to characterize solvent effects on the rate constants for solvolysis reactions. Grunwald and Winstein determined rate constants for solvolysis of tert-butyl chloride in a wide variety of solvents and used these data to define the solvent ionizing parameter T (Eq. 3). They next found that rate constants for solvolysis of primary and secondary aliphatic carbon show a smaller sensitivity (m) to changes in Y than those for the parent solvolysis reaction of tert-butyl chloride (for which m = 1 by definition). A second term was added ( N) to account for the effect of changes in solvent nucleophilicity on obsd that result from transition state stabilization by a nucleophilic interaction between solvent and substrate. It was first assumed that there is no significant stabilization of the transition state for solvolysis of tert-butyl chloride from such a nucleophilic interaction. However, a close examination of extensive rate data revealed, in some cases, a correlation between rate constants for solvolysis of fert-butyl derivatives and solvent nucleophicity. " ... 

Aliphatic alcohols do not undergo solvolysis as readily as benzylic alcohols, and are generally converted into halides under basic reaction conditions via an intermediate sulfonate. Because of the hydrophobicity of polystyrene, however, nucleophilic substitutions with halides on this support do not always proceed as readily as in solution (Table 6.3). Alternatively, phosphorus-based reagents can also be used to convert aliphatic alcohols into halides. 

Most reactions in two-phase systems occur in a liquid phase following the transfer of a reactant across an interface these are commonly known as extractive reactions. If the transfer is facilitated by a catalyst, it is known as phase-transfer catalysis [2]. Unusually, reactions may actually occur at an interface (interfacial reactions) examples include solvolysis and nucleophilic substitution reactions of aliphatic acid chlorides [3 ] and the extraction of cupric ion from aqueous solution using oxime ligands insoluble in water [4], see Section 5.2.1.3(ii). 

The success of the single parameter Grunwald-Winstein equation is largely due to the limited range of solvent change such as variation of composition of mixtures. When different solvent types are employed extra terms are needed in the equation to fit the data. Solvolysis reactions in aliphatic nucleophilic substitution involve nucleophilic attack of the solvent and it is unlikely that solvents of different structure would have similar nucleophilicities excepting those in a series of mixed solvents such as ethanol-water (Chapter 2). The simplest treatment involves dividing the solvent action into nucleophilic and electrophilic components as shown in Equation (32). 

The solvolysis reactions of cyclopropylmethyl systems also provide evidence for the intermediacy of carbonium ions in nucleophilic substitution reactions. We have seen in Table 5.2 that the stabilizing effect a cyclopropyl group exerts on a carbonium ion is appreciable. A similar effect is evident on comparing rates of hydrolysis of cyclopropylmethyl compounds with model aliphatic compounds. The tertiary p-nitrobenzoates represented by the structure 1 had the relative rates indicated for hydrolysis in 80% aqueous dioxane at 60°C ... 

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