Transition reactant-like

The significance of the concept incorporated in Hammond s postulate is that, in appropriate cases, it permits discussion of transition-state structure in terms of the reactants, inteimediates, or products in a multistep reaction sequence. The postulate indicates that the cases in which such comparison is appropriate are those in which the transition state is close in energy to the reactant, intermediate, or product. Chemists sometimes speak of early or late transition states. An early transition state is reactant-like whereas a late transition state is product-like. 

Important differences are seen when the reactions of the other halogens are compared to bromination. In the case of chlorination, although the same chain mechanism is operative as for bromination, there is a key difference in the greatly diminished selectivity of the chlorination. For example, the pri sec selectivity in 2,3-dimethylbutane for chlorination is 1 3.6 in typical solvents. Because of the greater reactivity of the chlorine atom, abstractions of primary, secondary, and tertiary hydrogens are all exothermic. As a result of this exothermicity, the stability of the product radical has less influence on the activation energy. In terms of Hammond s postulate (Section 4.4.2), the transition state would be expected to be more reactant-like. As an example of the low selectivity, ethylbenzene is chlorinated at both the methyl and the methylene positions, despite the much greater stability of the benzyl radical ... 

Obtain the energies of propene, dimethylborane, and 1-propyldimethyl borane, and calculate AH n for dimethylborane addition. Is this reaction exothermic or endothermic Use this result and the Hammond Postulate to predict whether the transition state will be more reactant like or more product like . Compare the geometry of the transition state to that of the reactants and products. Does the Hammond Postulate correctly anticipate the structure of the transition state Explain. 

In contrast to the open-chain and dipolar models, which are based on conformations of the carbonyl compound not representing energy minima, Karabatsos proposed a different model assuming an early, reactant-like transition state in which the most stable conformation of the free carbonyl compound is preserved1314. Thus, the C-M bond eclipses the carbonyl double bond and, in order to minimize the energy of the transition state, the nucleophile approaches close to the small substituent on the stereogenic center (Figure 5). 

Radical additions are typically highly exothermic and activation energies are small for carbon30-31 and oxygen centered32,33 radicals of the types most often encountered in radical polymerization, Thus, according to the Hammond postulate, these reactions are expected to have early reactant-like transition states in which there is little localization of the free spin on C(J. However, for steric factors to be important at all, there must be significant bond deformation and movement towards. sp hybridization at Cn. 

Fig. 7-2. Potential energy E as a function of the reaction coordinate for reactions of the P-nitrogen of arenediazonium ions with nucleophiles yielding (Z)- and (is)-azo compounds, a) Reactant-like transition states (e. g., reaction with OH) b) product-like transition states (e. g., diazo coupling reaction with phenoxide ions product = cyclohexadienone-type o-complex (see Sec. 12.8).

Transition states (Continued) in hydrogen abstraction, 25 in phosphodiester hydrolysis, 190 reactant-like vs product-like, 96 solvation energy of, 211, 213,214 solvent effects on, 46 stabilization of charge distribution, 91, 225-227... 

Another model can be used to predict diastereoselectivity, which assumes reactant-like transition states and that the separation of the incoming group and any electronegative substituent at the a carbon is greatest. Transition state models 45 and 46 are used to predict diastereoselectivity in what is known as the Felkin Ahn model ... 

The position of the transition state along the reaction coordinates in relation to the well-known Hammond postulate [53] will now be considered. If the activation energy, AG+, of a reaction is only small the TS looks like the GS (it is depicted as a reactant-like transition state ). Consequently, the polarity is only slightly modified between the GS and TS during the course of the reaction and only weak specific micro-wave effects can be foreseen under these conditions. 

In the common parlance of physical organic chemists such phrases as product-like or reactant-like transition states are common. The degree of resemblance of transition states to either reactants or products is usually assessed for reaction series obeying the linear-free-energy principle on the basis of suitable reaction constants, such as Bronsted a- and (3-values, and Hammett reaction constants p. The question is inherently more complex for cyclisation reactions, since they are not expected to follow the linear-free-energy principle. 

The H-bonded H HOH product species was previously depicted in Fig. 5.16, while the structure and leading n— a interaction for the corresponding H2 OH-reactant species are shown in Fig. 5.33. Figure 5.34 similarly depicts the structure of the transition-state species and principal n—a interaction for the reactant-like Lewis structure that better describes the resonance hybrid (see below). 

As wR(s) and wp(s) vary between these limits, they necessarily cross in the neighborhood of the transition state. The TS complex therefore corresponds to a resonance hybrid of nearly equal reactant-like and product-like contributions,92... 

Finally, as is the case for the secondary a-deuterium KIEs, the /3-deuterium KIE is assumed to vary in magnitude from near unity for a reactant-like transition state to a maximal value for a transition state resembling the carbocation formed in an SN1 reaction. The experimentally determined KIE may, therefore, be used as a measure of transition state structure provided that the maximum value of the KIE, i.e. the EIE for the formation of the carbocation, is known. 

The authors concluded that the transition states for the Menshutkin reactions of the benzyl substrates were early (reactant-like) with nitrogen-alpha carbon bond formation lagging behind alpha carbon-oxygen bond rupture. The transition states for the Menshutkin reactions with the methyl and ethyl substrates, on the other hand, are tight (product-like) with nitrogen-alpha carbon bond formation greater than alpha carbon-oxygen bond rupture. 

In order to explain this trend, Nasipuri and co-workers (135) adopted the essentially acyclic models 115 and 116 leading to the (R)- and (S)-carbinols respectively (Scheme 16). Models 115 and 116 are Newman-type formulas viewed along the C—H—C axis. The transition states are assumed to be reactant-like and involve loosely bound opposite dipoles O8- and M8+. 

If secondary isotope effects arise strictly from changes in force constants at the position of substitution, with none of the vibrations of the isotopic atom being coupled into the reaction coordinate, then a secondary isotope effect will vary from 1.00 when the transition state exactly resembles the reactant state (thus no change in force constants when reactant state is converted to transition state) to the value of the equilibrium isotope effect when the transition state exactly resembles the product state (so that conversion of reactant state to transition state produces the same change in force constants as conversion of reactant state to product state). For example in the hydride-transfer reaction shown under point 1 above, the equilibrium secondary isotope effect on conversion of NADH to NAD is 1.13. The kinetic secondary isotope effect is expected to vary from 1.00 (reactant-like transition state), through (1.13)° when the stmctural changes from reactant state to transition state are 50% advanced toward the product state, to 1.13 (product-like transition state). That this naive expectation... 

However, the more hindered, less basic lithium hexamethyldisilazamide reacts slowly with 1 at 0 °C to provide chemoselectively the desired enolate species 5. The a-protons of these rhenium-acyl complexes are believed to have a lower pKa than the cyclopentadienyl protons, but unless treated with hulky, selective hases the cyclopentadienyl protons exhibit greater kinetic acidity due to statistical factors and an earlier, reactant-like transition state since minimal rchybridiza-tion is required at the anionic center after cyclopentadienyl deprotonation. Equilibration of the cyclopentadienyl anion to the thermodynamically more stable enolate species cannot compete with the rapid acyl migration84. 

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