Strength, of nucleophiles

Detection and characterization of a kinetic product of deoxyadenosine (dA) alkylation helps to reconcile the apparent contradiction between the strength of nucleophiles in DNA and their propensity for addition to a model quinone methide. (Adapted from Veldhuyzen et al., 2001)... 

Strength of nucleophiles The rate of the SnI reaction does not depend on the nature of the nucleophiles, since the nucleophiles come into play after the rate-determining steps. Therefore, the reactivity of the nucleophiles has no effect on the rate of the SnI reaction. Sometimes in SnI reaction the... 

We have learnt that the molecules can have both nucleophilic and electrophilic centres and so can act as nucleophiles or as electrophiles. However, it is generally found that there is a preference to react as one rather than the other. This can be explained by considering the relative strengths of nucleophilic and electrophilic... 

Table 6-3 lists some common nucleophiles in decreasing order of their nucleophilicity in hydroxylic solvents such as water and alcohols. The strength of nucleophiles in these solvents shows three major trends ... 

Since Swain s and Scott s efforts [217] to quantify the kinetic term nu-cleophilicity, chemists have continued to search for a quantitative concept of nucleophilic reactivity [218]. Most of this work has dealt with Sn2 type reactions, however, and the marked dependence of the relative strengths of nucleophiles on the nature of the electrophile and the polarity of the solvent has become textbook knowledge. 

Several factors influence whether a reaction will occur by an Sn1 or Sn2 mechanism carbocation stability, steric effects, strength of nucleophile, and the solvent. Tertiary halides tend to react by the SN1 process because they can form the relatively stable tertiary carbocations and because the presence of three large alkyl groups sterically discourages attack by the nucleophile on the carbon-halogen bond. The Sn2 reaction is favored for primary halides because it does not involve a carbocation intermediate (primary carbocations are unstable) and because primary halides do not offer as much steric hindrance to attack by a nucleophile as do the more bulky tertiary halides. Strong nucleophiles favor the Sn2 mechanism and polar solvents promote SN1 reactions. 

Strength of nucleophile and leaving group ability are reiated and pKg is a guide to both... 

The relative strengths of nucleophiles can be correlated with three structural features ... 

Factors that influence the strength of nucleophiles and bases are discussed in Sections 4.2 and 1.7.2... 

Therefore compared to alcohol or water, aprotic solvents such as THF or dioxane are considerably more inert (i.e., they do not formally take part in sol-gel processing reactions), although, as discussed previously, they may influence reaction kinetics by increasing the strength of nucleophiles or decreasing the strength of electrophiles. 

As we have seen the nucleophile attacks the substrate m the rate determining step of the Sn2 mechanism it therefore follows that the rate of substitution may vary from nucleophile to nucleophile Just as some alkyl halides are more reactive than others some nucleophiles are more reactive than others Nucleophilic strength or nucleophilicity, is a measure of how fast a Lewis base displaces a leaving group from a suitable substrate By measuring the rate at which various Lewis bases react with methyl iodide m methanol a list of then nucleophihcities relative to methanol as the standard nucleophile has been compiled It is presented m Table 8 4... 

The susceptibihty of dialkyl peroxides to acids and bases depends on peroxide stmcture and the type and strength of the acid or base. In dilute aqueous sulfuric acid (<50%) di-Z fZ-butyl peroxide is resistant to reaction whereas in concentrated sulfuric acid this peroxide gradually forms polyisobutylene. In 50 wt % methanolic sulfuric acid, Z fZ-butyl methyl ether is produced in high yield (66). In acidic environments, unsymmetrical acychc alkyl aralkyl peroxides undergo carbon—oxygen fission, forming acychc alkyl hydroperoxides and aralkyl carbonium ions. The latter react with nucleophiles,... 

Mechanistically the rate-determining step is nucleophilic attack involving the hydroxide ion and the more positive siUcon atom in the Si—H bond. This attack has been related to the Lewis acid strength of the corresponding silane, ie, to the abiUty to act as an acceptor for a given attacking base. Similar inductive and steric effects apply for acid hydrolysis of organosilanes (106). 

In this section three main aspects will be considered. Firstly, the basic strengths of the principal heterocyclic systems under review and the effects of structural modification on this parameter will be discussed. For reference some pK values are collected in Table 3. Secondly, the position of protonation in these carbon-protonating systems will be considered. Thirdly, the reactivity aspects of protonation are mentioned. Protonation yields in most cases highly reactive electrophilic species. Under conditions in which both protonated and non-protonated base co-exist, polymerization frequently occurs. Further ipso protonation of substituted derivatives may induce rearrangement, and also the protonated heterocycles are found to be subject to ring-opening attack by nucleophilic reagents. 

Many properties have an influence on nucleophilicity. Those considered to be most significant are (1) the solvation energy of the nucleophile (2) the strength of the bond being formed to carbon (3) the size of the nucleophile (4) flie electronegativity of the attacking atom and (5) the polarizability of the attacking atom. Let us consider how each of these factors affects nucleophilicity ... 

A stronger bond between the nucleophilic atom and carbon is reflected in a more stable transition state and therefore a reduced activation energy. Since the 8 2 process is concerted, the strength of the partially formed new bond is reflected in the energy of the transition state. 

The soft-nucleophile-soft-electrophile combination is also associated with a late transition state, in which the strength of the newly forming bond contributes significantly to the stability of the transition state. The hard-nucleophile-hffld-elechophile combination inqilies an early transition state with electrostatic attraction being more important than bond formation. The reaction pathway is chosen early on the reaction coordinate and primarily on the basis of charge distributiotL... 

In fee absence of fee solvation typical of protic solvents, fee relative nucleophilicity of anions changes. Hard nucleophiles increase in reactivity more than do soft nucleophiles. As a result, fee relative reactivity order changes. In methanol, for example, fee relative reactivity order is N3 > 1 > CN > Br > CP, whereas in DMSO fee order becomes CN > N3 > CP > Br > P. In mefeanol, fee reactivity order is dominated by solvent effects, and fee more weakly solvated N3 and P ions are fee most reactive nucleophiles. The iodide ion is large and very polarizable. The anionic charge on fee azide ion is dispersed by delocalization. When fee effect of solvation is diminished in DMSO, other factors become more important. These include fee strength of fee bond being formed, which would account for fee reversed order of fee halides in fee two series. There is also evidence fiiat S( 2 transition states are better solvated in protic dipolar solvents than in protic solvents. 

The strength of their- car bon-halogen bonds causes aryl halides to react very slowly in reactions in which carbon-halogen bond cleavage is rate-detenrrining, as in nucleophilic substitution, for example. Later in this chapter we will see exanples of such reactions that do take place at reasonable rates but proceed by mechanisms distinctly different from the classical SnI and Sn2 pathways. 

A qualitative difference in the type of solvation (not simply in the strength of solvation) in a series of nucleophiles may contribute to curvature. Jencks has examined this possibility. " " An example is the reaction of phenoxide, alkoxide, and hydroxide ions with p-nitrophenyl thiolacetate, the Br insted-type plot showing Pnuc = 0.68 for phenoxide ions (the weaker nucleophiles) and Pnu = 0.17 for alkoxide ions. It is suggested that the need for desolvation of the alkoxide ions prior to nucleophilic attack results in their decreased nucleophilicity relative to the phenoxide ions, which do not require this desolvation step. 

Other measures of nucleophilicity have been proposed. Brauman et al. studied Sn2 reactions in the gas phase and applied Marcus theory to obtain the intrinsic barriers of identity reactions. These quantities were interpreted as intrinsic nucleo-philicities. Streitwieser has shown that the reactivity of anionic nucleophiles toward methyl iodide in dimethylformamide (DMF) is correlated with the overall heat of reaction in the gas phase he concludes that bond strength and electron affinity are the important factors controlling nucleophilicity. The dominant role of the solvent in controlling nucleophilicity was shown by Parker, who found solvent effects on nucleophilic reactivity of many orders of magnitude. For example, most anions are more nucleophilic in DMF than in methanol by factors as large as 10, because they are less effectively shielded by solvation in the aprotic solvent. Liotta et al. have measured rates of substitution by anionic nucleophiles in acetonitrile solution containing a crown ether, which forms an inclusion complex with the cation (K ) of the nucleophile. These rates correlate with gas phase rates of the same nucleophiles, which, in this crown ether-acetonitrile system, are considered to be naked anions. The solvation of anionic nucleophiles is treated in Section 8.3. 

The different C— Le bond strengths arising from the reacting carbon being bound to different elements have a rather small effect on the rate of nucleophilic substitution of substituted benzenes. 

At first, the reaction was investigated in batch mode, by use of different ionic liquids with wealdy coordinating anions as the catalyst medium and compressed CO2 as simultaneous extraction solvent. These experiments revealed that the activation of Wilke s catalyst by the ionic liquid medium was clearly highly dependent on the nature of the ionic liquid s anion. Comparison of the results in different ionic liquids with [EMIM] as the common cation showed that the catalyst s activity drops in the order [BARF] > [Al OC(CF3)2Ph 4] > [(CF3S02)2N] > [BFJ . This trend is consistent with the estimated nucleophilicity/coordination strength of the anions. 

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