Substituent effects stabilization energies

The polarizability effect index is based on the stabilizing energy Ex caused by the polarizability effect for a substituent X interacting with a point charge q [Cao and Li, 1998]. For alkyl and aliphatic alcohol substituents, the stabilizing energy Ex is defined as ... 

It is always important to keep in mind the relative nature of substituent effects. Thus, the effect of the chlorine atoms in the case of trichloroacetic acid is primarily to stabilize the dissociated anion. The acid is more highly dissociated than in the unsubstituted case because there is a more favorable energy difference between the parent acid and the anion. It is the energy differences, not the absolute energies, that determine the equilibrium constant for ionization. As we will discuss more fully in Chapter 4, there are other mechanisms by which substituents affect the energy of reactants and products. The detailed understanding of substituent effects will require that we separate polar effects fiom these other factors. 

Another example of enhanced sensitivity to substituent effects in the gas phase can be seen in a comparison of the gas-phase basicity for a series of substituted acetophenones and methyl benzoates. It was foimd that scnsitivtiy of the free energy to substituent changes was about four times that in solution, as measured by the comparison of A( for each substituent. The gas-phase data for both series were correlated by the Yukawa-Tsuno equation. For both series, the p value was about 12. However, the parameter r" ", which reflects the contribution of extra resonance effects, was greater in the acetophenone series than in the methyl benzoate series. This can be attributed to the substantial resonance stabilization provided by the methoxy group in the esters, which diminishes the extent of conjugation with the substituents. 

Table 12.4. Substituent Effects on Radical Stability from Measurements of Bond Dissociation Energies and Theoretical Calculations of Radical Stabilization Energies...

HMO calculations have been ultilized in the search for substituted thiepins liable to be good candidates for synthesis due to electronic substituent effects.7 Based on these results, the presence of at least two carboxy groups and one fluorine group give an increased resonance energy per electron to positive values, indicating at least some thermal stability. 

Figure 7.24. Solid-state photochemical decarbonylation model for ketones. The dashed path corresponds to the experimentally determined energies of acetone (in kcal/mol). The effects of substituents with radical stabilizing energies (RSEs) are illustrated by the solid line in the reaction coordinate. See color insert.

The low C=C barriers in push-pull ethylenes compared to the 6S.S kcal/ mol in ethylene show that die effects of delocalization on the tr-electron energy in the transition state must be much greater than the effects in the ground state— that is, the important substituent effects on the barriers must occur in the transition state. Besides, an effect that improves delocalization in the ground state would be barrier raising, if it were not accompanied by an at least equal stabilization of the transition state. 

If the assumption that the substituents do not cause any great change of electron distribution is valid, and if one assumes that as a first approximation it is only the inductive effect of the methyl groups which causes the change of the Coulomb integral, then the additional stabilization energy can be specified as... 

The first indication of the existence of a captodative substituent effect by Dewar (1952) was based on 7t-molecular orbital theory. The combined action of the n-electrons of a donor and a captor substituent on the total Jt-electron energy of a free radical was derived by perturbation theory. Besides the formulation of this special stabilizing situation and the quotation of a literature example [5] (Goldschmidt, 1920, 1929) as experimental evidence, the elaboration of the phenomenon was not pursued further, neither theoretically nor experimentally. 

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