Swain primary

Dr. Michael R. Swain (Primary Contact), Patrick Filoso, Dr. Matthew N. Swain... 

Important additional evidence for aryl cations as intermediates comes from primary nitrogen and secondary deuterium isotope effects, investigated by Loudon et al. (1973) and by Swain et al. (1975 b, 1975 c). The kinetic isotope effect kH/ki5 measured in the dediazoniation of C6H515N = N in 1% aqueous H2S04 at 25 °C is 1.038, close to the calculated value (1.040-1.045) expected for complete C-N bond cleavage in the transition state. It should be mentioned, however, that a partial or almost complete cleavage of the C — N bond, and therefore a nitrogen isotope effect, is also to be expected for an ANDN-like mechanism, but not for an AN + DN mechanism. 

Thus the primary and secondary isotope eifects are all within the semiclassical limits and their relationship is in full accord with the semiclassical Swain-Schaad relationship. There is no indication from the magnitudes of the secondary isotope elfects in particular of any coupling between motion at the secondary center and the reaction-coordinate for hydride transfer. Thus the sole evidence taken to indicate tunneling is the rigorous temperature-independence of the primary isotope elfects. 

Bahnson et al. extended the series of mutations to include ones in which reductions occurred in the second-order rate constant / cat/ M by as much as a factor of 100. No substantial changes were observed in the primary isotope effects or their Swain-Schaad exponent. However, the precisely measured secondary isotope effects changed systematically as the rate constant decreased, such that the Swain-Schaad exponent decreased monotonically with decreasing fecat/ M from exponent of 8.5 for the L57F mutant (reactivity equivalent to the wild-type enzyme) to an exponent of 3.3 for the V203G mutant, slower by 100-fold. 

The observation of a primary tritium isotope effect (H/T) that is substantially larger than the value predicted on the basis of the semiclassical Swain-Schaad relation (Chart 3) from a heavy-hydrogen (DAT) isotope effect. The same information can be expressed in terms of a Swain-Schaad exponent required to relate the two isotope effects that is substantially larger than the semiclassical value of 3.26. 

This exponential relationship is called the Swain relationship in honor of the senior author of a report on how one can calculate the magnitude of primary isotope effects. Use of this relationship allowed Northrop to obtain the following expression ... 

The primary T and D KIEs for cacodylate-catalysed C -hydron transfer from racemic 458 (equation 270), ku/ky = 1.8 0.1, obey the Swain-Schaad relation515 and are consistent with incomplete proton transfer in the rate-limiting TS516,517. 

Quantum dynamics effects for hydride transfer in enzyme catalysis have been analyzed by Alhambra et. al., 2000. This process is simulated using canonically variational transition-states for overbarrier dynamics and optimized multidimensional paths for tunneling. A system is divided into a primary zone (substrate-enzyme-coenzyme), which is embedded in a secondary zone (substrate-enzyme-coenzyme-solvent). The potential energy surface of the first zone is treated by quantum mechanical electronic structure methods, and protein, coenzyme, and solvent atoms by molecular mechanical force fields. The theory allows the calculation of Schaad-Swain exponents for primary (aprim) and secondary (asec) KIE... 

Finally the temperature dependence of the primary isotope effects was determined. Here the traditional expectations of Chart 3 were fully met the results translate into AH/AD = 1.1 0.1, aD — aH = 0.8 kcal/mol. Thus the amount of tunneling present, adequate to produce the observed exaltation of secondary isotope effects, violations of the Swain-Schaad relationship, and violations of the Rule of the Geometric Mean in the neighborhood of room temperature, does not lead to anomalies in either the ratio of isotopic pre-exponential factors nor the isotopic activation energy difference over the temperature range studied (approximately 0-40 °C). As will be seen later, the temperature dependence of isotope effects for reactions that include tunneling is in general a complex, unresolved issue. 

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