Substituent effects ether reactions

CASE STUDIES SUBSTITUENT EFFECTS ON REACTIONS OF PHENETHYL PHENYL ETHERS... 

Case Studies Substituent Effects on Reactions of Phenethyl Phenyl Ethers... 

KSIEs for the reaction of aromatic olefins, 1,1-diphenylethylene and a-methylstyrene (Table 21) are significantly smaller they can be related to transition states earlier than those in the aliphatic series. Unfortunately, for the reactions of highly reactive aromatic olefins or enol ethers, whose low sensitivity to solvent and substituent effects indicates very early transition states, there are not enough KSIE data to confirm this conclusion. 

This result, associated with those on substituent effects, supports previous conclusions to the effect that the position of the transition state depends on the reactivity in agreement with RSP. In particular, stabilization of the intermediate as a result of conjugation, such as that in the reaction of enol ethers, makes the transition state very early. The few available KSIEs also suggest that the transition states for aromatic series are earlier than those for alkenes. 

The distinction between electrophilic and electron-transfer mechanisms of addition reactions to vinyl double bonds of ArX—CH=CH2 (X = S, O, Se) has been achieved by studying substituent effects. Specifically, the effects of meta and para substituents on the rates of electrophilic additions correlated with Hammett radical cations correlates with statistical tests. The ofclcctrophilicj/o-1 (FT) dichotomy is in accord with the conventional paradigm for cr/cr+ correlations and further support has been found by ah initio calculations. Interestingly, the application of this criterion to the reactions of aryl vinyl sulfides and ethers with tetracyanoethylene indicates that cyclobutanes are formed via direct electrophilic addition to the electron-rich alkene rather than via an electron-transfer mechanism.12... 

It can be seen from the examples displayed above that the Claisen rearrangement of allyl vinyl ethers with an amino substituent at C(n and C(2) proceeds much faster than that of allyl vinyl ether itself. Several models98- 00 have been proposed in order to interpret the substituent effect on the rate of Claisen rearrangement. Both the acceleration of the rearrangements of / -allyloxyenamine and 0-allylketene TV, 0-acetals and deceleration of the reaction of enamine 120 are in agreement with the prediction of the models. 

Tributylstannyl ethers and dibutylstannylene acetals of a-D-glucopyranosides have been converted into 2,6-di-O-substituted derivatives in high yields with a wide range of electrophiles,74 107 151 152 but it should be noted that not all conditions result in selective reactions. 2,3,6-Tri-O-benzoyl derivatives can also be made in reasonable yields,74 153 constituting presumably another example of the electron-withdrawing substituent effect. 

However, this interaction should also be increased by alkyl substituents, which lower the alkene IP, or, equivalently, raise the alkene HOMO energy. Experimentally, there is either no change in rate, or a small decrease, as the IP of the alkene decreases. Thus, an apparent contradiction is revealed in these examples dipole LUMO-alkene HOMO control nicely accounts for regioselectivity and the nitrile oxide substituent effect, but does not explain the decrease in rate for increasing alkyl substitution. More potent electron-donors do, indeed, accelerate the reaction, but only feebly. For example, butyl vinyl ether reacts 2.1 times faster than ethylene with BNO at 0 °C, while styrene reacts only 1.2 times faster than ethylene with BNO, in spite of the low IP of styrene (8.48 eV)72. ... 

The proximity of the diffusion limit also inhibits a detailed discussion of the data in Table 7, but a significant difference to the substituent effects discussed in Section III.D.4 is obvious. Whereas the reactivities of terminal alkenes, dienes, and styrenes toward AnPhCH correlate with the stabilities of the new carbenium ions and not with the ionization potentials of the 7r-nucleophiles [69], the situation is different for the reactions of enol ethers with (p-ClC6H4)2CH+ [136]. In this reaction series, methyl groups at the position of electrophilic attack activate the enol ether double bonds more than methyl groups at the new carbocationic center, i.e., the relative activation free enthalpies are not controlled any longer by the stabilities of the intermediate carbocations but by the ionization potentials of the enol ethers (Fig. 20). An interpretation of the correlation in Fig. 20 has not yet been given, but one can alternatively discuss early transition states which are controlled by frontier orbital interactions or the involvement of outer sphere electron transfer processes [220]. 

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