Sulfonate ester hydrolysis mechanisms

Oae found that for both base- and acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of phenyl benzenesul-fonate, there was no incorporation of 0 from solvent into the sulfonate ester after partial hydrolysis. This was interpreted as ruling out a stepwise mechanism, but in fact it could be stepwise with slow pseudorotation. In fact this nonexchange can be explained by Westheimer s rules for pseudorotation, assuming the same rules apply to pentacoordinate sulfur. For the acid-catalyzed reaction, the likely intermediate would be 8 for which pseudorotation would be disfavored because it would put a carbon at an apical position. Further protonation to the cationic intermediate is unlikely even in lOM HCl (the medium for Oae s experiments) because of the high acidity of this species a Branch and Calvin calculation (See Appendix), supplemented by allowance for the effect of the phenyl groups (taken as the difference in between sulfuric acid and benzenesulfonic acid ), leads to a pA, of -7 for the first pisTa of this cation about -2 for the second p/sTa. and about 3 for the third Thus, protonation by aqueous HCl to give the neutral intermediate is likely but further protonation to give cation 9 would be very unlikely. 

On the other hand, the substrate may undergo nucleophilic attack by base, either in the rate-determining step — with or without formation of an intermediate — or in a fast pre-equilibrium step which is followed by rate-determining breakdown of the intermediate. These three possibilities are included in the B2 mechanism according to Ingold s nomenclature [14]. Examples of one-step B2 reactions (SN2 mechanisms) are the alkaline hydrolyses of sulfonic esters [14] and 2,4,6,-tri-f-butylbenzoic esters [18]. Intermediates are formed by carbonyl addition of hydroxide ion in the alkaline hydrolyses of (unhindered) carboxylic esters and amides. Addition of OH is partially or completely rate-determining in ester hydrolysis [4, 15], but probably not in amide hydrolysis [15]. 

Sulfur in oxidation state IV can be used to produce a variety of anionic snUbnates, as depicted in Scheme 1.5. Sodium bisulfite can be used to prepare sulfonates of a,b-unsaturated acids and esters, such as those prepared from maleic anhydride. The mechanism involves Michael addition to the activated double bond by the more nucleophilic sulfur atom, and is conducted in an aqueous two-phase system where, for example, a maleate half acid ester or diester is dispersed and heated under narrowly controlled pH conditions to minimize ester hydrolysis and avoid competitive hydroxide addition to the double bond. The resulting classes of surfactants include sulfosuccinates (which are in fact carboxylate sulfonate disalt surfactants) prepared from the maleic half acid esters of fatty alcohols or alcohol ethoxylates. Diesters of maleic are sulfonated by the same type of process to produce surfactants such as the ubiquitous dioctyl sulfosuccinate (DOSS) from the diester of 2-ethylhexyl alcohol and maleic anhydride. 

When sulfonate esters such as 187 react with aqueous acid or aqueous hydroxide, the parent sulfonic acid is regenerated. This is formally analogous to the saponification reaction discussed in Section 20.2. Acid or base hydrolysis of 187 gives 2-methylpropanesulfonic acid (181) as the product. The mechanism of this process is the exact reverse of that shown for converting the acid to the ester, except that an excess of water is used rather than an excess of alcohol. Sulfonate esters are useful compounds in a variety of applications. 

Buffer catalysis of the hydrolysis of phenyl (311 R = Ph) and methyl (311 R = Me) benzenesulfinates to give the sulfinic acid (312) and alcohol ROH is strongly accelerated by both carboxylate and amine components of the buffer which give Bronsted /i values of approximately unity on separate lines. The carboxylates are about 44 tunes more effective than amines of similar basicity. A concerted. S n2 mechanism with a hypervalent intermediate (313) is proposed for the nucleophilic reaction of these esters.286 The reaction of the thiosulfinate esters (314) with sulfenyl chlorides RSCI and sulfenate esters (315) to give sulfinyl chlorides and disulfides and sulfinate esters and disulfides, respectively, has been studied.287 Hydrolysis of 2-(3-aminophenyl)sulfonyl-ethanol hydrogensulfate gives under different conditions various products such as the ether (316) and the sulfone (317).288... 

Because the sulfone looks like the original antibiotic, penicillinase accepts it as a substrate, forming an ester, as it does with penicillin. If the ester were then hydrolyzed, penicillinase would be liberated and, therefore, would be free to react with penicillin. However, the electron-withdrawing sulfone provides an alternative pathway to hydrolysis that forms a stable imine. Because imines are susceptible to nucleophilic attack, an amino group at the active site of penicillinase reacts with the imine, forming a second covalent bond between the enzyme and the inhibitor. The covalently attacked group inactivates penicillinase, thereby wiping out the resistance to penicillin. The sulfone is another example of a mechanism-based suicide inhibitor (Section 25.8). 

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