Transition state bimolecular nucleophilic

Hughes and Ingold interpreted second order kinetic behavior to mean that the rate determining step is bimolecular that is that both hydroxide ion and methyl bromide are involved at the transition state The symbol given to the detailed description of the mech anism that they developed is 8 2 standing for substitution nucleophilic bimolecular... 

As can be seen from the data presented, the high energies of complex formation decrease sharply the endothermicity of the retro-Wittig type decomposition and, moreover, fundamentally change the reaction mechanism. As has been shown for betaines (")X-E14Me2-CH2-E15( + )Me3 (X = S, Se E14 = Si, Ge E14 = P, As), the reaction occurs as bimolecular nucleophilic substitution at the E14 atom. For silicon betaines, the transition states TS-b-pyr with pentacoordinate silicon and nearby them no deep local minima corresponding to the C-b complexes can be localized in the reaction coordinate. 

It is easy to understand the lower reactivity of non-ionic nucleophiles in micelles as compared with water. Micelles have a lower polarity than water and reactions of non-ionic nucleophiles are typically inhibited by solvents of low polarity. Thus, micelles behave as a submicroscopic solvent which has less ability than water, or a polar organic solvent, to interact with a polar transition state. Micellar medium effects on reaction rate, like kinetic solvent effects, depend on differences in free energy between initial and transition states, and a favorable distribution of reactants from water into a micellar pseudophase means that reactants have a lower free energy in micelles than in water. This factor, of itself, will inhibit reaction, but it may be offset by favorable interactions with the transition state and, for bimolecular reactions, by the concentration of reactants into the small volume of the micellar pseudophase. 

Bimolecular reactions of aniline with /V-acyloxy-/V-alkoxyamides are model Sn2 processes in which reactivity is dictated by a transition state that resembles normal Sn2 processes at carbon. Electronic influences of substituents support a non-synchronous process which has strong charge separation at the transition state and which is subject to steric effects around the reactive centre, at the nucleophile but not on the leaving group. The sp3 character of nitrogen and disconnection between the amino group and the amide carbonyl renders these reactions analogous to the displacement of halides in a-haloketones. 

A reaction described as Sn2, abbreviation for substitution, nucleophilic (bimolecular), is a one-step process, and no intermediate is formed. This reaction involves the so-called backside attack of a nucleophile Y on an electrophilic center RX, such that the reaction center the carbon or other atom attacked by the nucleophile) undergoes inversion of stereochemical configuration. In the transition-state nucleophile and exiphile (leaving group) reside at the reaction center. Aside from stereochemical issues, other evidence can be used to identify Sn2 reactions. First, because both nucleophile and substrate are involved in the rate-determining step, the reaction is second order overall rate = k[RX][Y]. Moreover, one can use kinetic isotope effects to distinguish SnI and Sn2 cases (See Kinetic Isotope Effects). 

In addition to solvolysis and nitrenium ion formation, Af-aLkoxy-A-chloroamides (2) also undergo bimolecular reactions with nucleophiles at nitrogen. Not only is the configuration destabilized by the anomeric effect, it also parallels that of a-halo ketones, where halogen on an sp carbon is activated towards reactions by the adjacent carbonyl. This rate-enhancing effect on 8 /2 processes at carbon is well-known, and has been attributed to conjugation of the p-orbital on carbon with the carbonyl jr-bond in the S 2 transition state stabilization of ionic character at the central carbon as outlined by Pross as weU as electrostatic attraction to the carbonyl carbon. The transition states are also affected by the nature of the nucleophile. ... 

Nucleophilic attack by iV-methylaniline is favoured by electron-withdrawing groups on the amide and acyloxyl side chains. A series of / ara-substituted Af-acetoxy-Af-butoxy-benzamides (138) (Table 6) gave a weak but positive Hammett correlation with a constants (p = 0.13, r = 0.86) °. The analogous reactions of pyridine with para-substituted phenacyl halides in methanol afforded a similar Hammett correlation a, p = 0.25) . The bimolecular rate constants for the limited series of Ai-benzoyloxy-A-benzyloxybenzamides (139) in Table 6 correlated strongly with Hammett a constants (p = 1.7, r = 0.97) °. Stabilization of developing carboxylate character supported the computed charge redistribution in the transition state ... 

Azide reacted bimolecularly with analogous A-alkoxy-A-chloroamides. However, ionic nucleophiles such as azide and acetate are thought to react with a-haloketones through tighter classical Sat2 transition states, which are insensitive to steric effects ... 

Nucleophilic substitution of azide ion at (4-Me)-l-Cl is zero order in the concentration of azide ion [NJ] but, there is a strong bimolecular substitution reaction of azide ion with (4-Me)-l-S(Me)2 This change in the kinetic order for the reaction of azide ion shows that the pentavalent transition state... 

There is minimal steric hindrance in the transition state for coupled concerted bimolecular nucleophilic substitution at primary carbon [D 0, Fig. 2.4(11)] to... 

By contrast, vinyl halides such as chloroethene, CHj CHCl, and halogenobenzenes are very unreactive towards nucleophiles. This stems from the fact that the halogen atom is now bonded to an sp hybridised carbon, with the result that the electron pair of the C—Cl bond is drawn closer to carbon than in the bond to an sp hybridised carbon. The C—Q is found to be stronger, and thus less easily broken, than in, for example, CH3CH2CI, and the C—Q dipole is smaller there is thus less tendency to ionisation (8 1) and a less positive carbon for OH to attack Sf l) the n electrons of the double bond also inhibit the close approach of an attacking nucleophile. The double bond would not help to stabilise either the 8 y2 transition state or the carbocation involved in the 8 1 pathway. Very much the same considerations apply to halogenobenzenes, with their sp hybridised carbons and the tt orbital system of the benzene nucleus their reactions, which though often bimolecular are not in fact simply 8 2 in nature, are discussed further below (p. 170). 

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