Tetrahedral mechanism of nucleophile

Reactivity factors in additions to carbon-hetero multiple bonds are similar to those for the tetrahedral mechanism of nucleophilic substitution. If A and/or B are electron-donating groups, rates are decreased. Electron-attracting substituents increase rates. This means that aldehydes are more reactive than ketones. Aryl groups are somewhat deactivating compared to alkyl, because of resonance that stabilizes the substrate molecule but is lost on going to the intermediate ... 

The electrophile shown in step 2 is the proton. In almost all the reactions considered in this chapter the electrophilic attacking atom is either hydrogen or carbon. It may be noted that step 1 is exactly the same as step 1 of the tetrahedral mechanism of nucleophilic substitution at a carbonyl carbon (p. 331), and it might be expected that substitution would compete with addition. However, this is seldom the case. When A and B are H, R, or Ar, the substrate is an aldehyde or ketone and these almost never undergo substitution, owing to the extremely poor nature of H, R, and Ar as leaving groups. For carboxylic acids and their... 

AdN-E Tetrahedral mechanism of nucleophilic addition followed by elimination. 

In the hope of gaining further experimental insight into the mechanism of nucleophilic displacement at sulfur, the alkaline hydrolysis of chiral dialkoxysulfonium salts was investigated (162). At least two interesting features of these model systems for nucleo-phihc substitution studies should be accentuated both alkoxy groups are of comparable leaving group ability, and there are essentially two identical tetrahedral faces to be attacked by the nucleophile. 

The mechanism of nucleophilic acyl substitution is a major emphasis of this chapter. As the preceding equation indicates, the reaction proceeds in two stages. In the first stage, nucleophilic addition to the carbonyl group occurs to give a tetrahedral intermediate. The second stage restores the carbonyl group by elimination. Experimental support exists for several different mechanisms of nucleophilic acyl substitution. Because most reactions of this type involve tetrahedral intermediates, only mechanisms based upon them will be presented in this chapter. 

The second step of the AdE mechanism of nucleophilic substitution i.e., the breakdown of the tetrahedral intermediate XXVII, is stereoselective and depends on the conformation of XXVII. 

Figure21.1 The general mechanisms of nucleophilic addition and nucleophilic acyl substitution reactions. Both reactions begin with addition of a nucleophile to a polar C=0 bond to give a tetrahedral, alkoxide ion intermediate. (a) The intermediate formed from an aldehyde or ketone is protonated to give an alcohol, but (b) the intermediate formed from a carboxylic acid derivative expels a leaving group to give a new carbonyl compound.

The kinetics of the hydrolysis of some imines derived from benzophenone anc primary amines revealed the normal dependence of mechanism on pH with ratedetermining nucleophilic attack at high pH and rate-determining decomposition of the tetrahedral intermediate at low pH. The simple primary amines show a linear correlation between the rate of nucleophilic addition and the basicity of the amine Several diamines which were included in the study, in particular A, B, and C, al showed a positive (more reactive) deviation from the correlation line for the simple amines. Why might these amines be more reactive than predicted on the basis of thei ... 

When written in this way it is clear what is happening. The mechanisms of these reactions are probably similar, despite the different p values. The distinction is that in Reaction 10 the substituent X is on the substrate, its usual location but in Reaction 15 the substituent changes have been made on the reagent. Thus, electron-withdrawing substituents on the benzoyl chloride render the carbonyl carbon more positive and more susceptible to nucleophilic attack, whereas electron-donating substituents on the aniline increase the electron density on nitrogen, also facilitating nucleophilic attack. The mechanism may be an addition-elimination via a tetrahedral intermediate ... 

The net effect of the addition/elimination sequence is a substitution of the nucleophile for the -Y group originally bonded to the acyl carbon. Thus, the overall reaction is superficially similar to the kind of nucleophilic substitution that occurs during an Sn2 reaction (Section 11.3), but the mechanisms of the two reactions are completely different. An SN2 reaction occurs in a single step by backside displacement of the Leaving group a nucleophilic acyl substitution takes place in two steps and involves a tetrahedral intermediate. 

Tire mechanism of the Claisen condensation is similar to that of the aldol condensation and involves the nucleophilic addition of an ester enolate ion to the carbonyl group of a second ester molecule. The only difference between the aldol condensation of an aldeiwde or ketone and the Claisen condensation of an ester involves the fate of the initially formed tetrahedral intermediate. The tetrahedral intermediate in the aldol reaction is protonated to give an alcohol product—exactly the behavior previously seen for aldehydes and ketones (Section 19.4). The tetrahedral intermediate in the Claisen reaction, however, expels an alkoxide leaving group to yield an acyl substitution product—exactly the behavior previously seen for esters (Section 21.6). The mechanism of the Claisen condensation reaction is shown in Figure 23.5. 

Notice that the mechanism of the nucleophilic acyl substitution step can be given in an abbreviated form that saves space by not explicitly showing the tetrahedral reaction intermediate. Instead, electron movement is shown as a heart-shaped path around the carbonyl oxygen to imply the full mechanism. 

Several studies have been made of the directionality of approach by the nucleophile. ° Menger ° has proposed for reactions in general, and specifically for those hat proceed by the tetrahedral mechanism, that there is no single definable preferred transition state, but rather a cone of trajectories. All approaches within this cone lead to reaction at comparable rates it is only when the approach comes outside of the cone that the rate falls. 

Nucleophilic substitution at a vinylic carbon is difficult (see p. 433), but many examples are known. The most common mechanisms are the tetrahedral mechanism and the closely related addition-elimination mechanism. Both of these mechanisms are impossible at a saturated substrate. The addition-elimination mechanism has... 

In contrast to such systems, substrates of the type RCOX are usually much more reactive than the corresponding RCH2X. Of course, the mechanism here is almost always the tetrahedral one. Three reasons can be given for the enhanced reactivity of RCOX (1) The carbonyl carbon has a sizable partial positive charge that makes it very attractive to nucleophiles. (2) In an Sn2 reaction a cr bond must break in the rate-determining step, which requires more energy than the shift of a pair of n electrons, which is what happens in a tetrahedral mechanism. (3) A trigonal carbon offers less steric hindrance to a nucleophile than a tetrahedral carbon. 

Not all the reactions in this chapter are actually nucleophilic substitutions. In some cases the mechanisms are not known with enough certainty even to decide whether a nucleophile, an electrophile, or a free radical is attacking. In other cases (such as 10-79), conversion of one compound to another can occur by two or even all three of these possibilities, depending on the reagent and the reaction conditions. However, one or more of the nucleophilic mechanisms previously discussed do hold for the overwhelming majority of the reactions in this chapter. For the alkylations, the Sn2 is by far the most common mechanism, as long as R is primary or secondary alkyl. For the acylations, the tetrahedral mechanism is the most common. 

Another way to esterify a carboxylic acid is to treat it with an alcohol in the presence of a dehydrating agent. One of these is DCC, which is converted in the process to dicyclohexylurea (DHU). The mechanism has much in common with the nucleophilic catalysis mechanism the acid is converted to a compound with a better leaving group. However, the conversion is not by a tetrahedral mechanism (as it is in nucleophilic catalysis), since the C—O bond remains intact during this step ... 

This is reminiscent of the nucleophilic tetrahedral mechanism at a vinylic carbon (p. 429). 

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