Transition state carbonate esters

FIGURE 2 The expected transition states for ester or carbonate hydrolysis reactions. Phosphonate ester and phosphate ester compounds, respectively, make good transition-state analogs for these reactions. 

Substitution reactions by the ionization mechanism proceed very slowly on a-halo derivatives of ketones, aldehydes, acids, esters, nitriles, and related compounds. As discussed on p. 284, such substituents destabilize a carbocation intermediate. Substitution by the direct displacement mechanism, however, proceed especially readily in these systems. Table S.IS indicates some representative relative rate accelerations. Steric effects be responsible for part of the observed acceleration, since an sfp- caibon, such as in a carbonyl group, will provide less steric resistance to tiie incoming nucleophile than an alkyl group. The major effect is believed to be electronic. The adjacent n-LUMO of the carbonyl group can interact with the electnai density that is built up at the pentacoordinate carbon. This can be described in resonance terminology as a contribution flom an enolate-like stmeture to tiie transition state. In MO terminology,.the low-lying LUMO has a... 

Similarly, carboxylic acid and ester groups tend to direct chlorination to the / and v positions, because attack at the a position is electronically disfavored. The polar effect is attributed to the fact that the chlorine atom is an electrophilic species, and the relatively electron-poor carbon atom adjacent to an electron-withdrawing group is avoided. The effect of an electron-withdrawing substituent is to decrease the electron density at the potential radical site. Because the chlorine atom is highly reactive, the reaction would be expected to have a very early transition state, and this electrostatic effect predominates over the stabilizing substituent effect on the intermediate. The substituent effect dominates the kinetic selectivity of the reaction, and the relative stability of the radical intermediate has relatively little influence. 

Upon the irradiation the nitrous acid ester 1 decomposes to give nitrous oxide (NO) and an alkoxy radical species 3. The latter further reacts by an intramolecular hydrogen abstraction via a cyclic, six-membered transition state 4 to give an intermediate carbon radical species 5, which then reacts with the nitrous oxide to yield the 3-nitroso alcohol 2 ... 

The addition of dibutylcupratc to the a-substituted /1-formyl esters 1 preferentially affords, via chelation control, the cw-disubstituted y-lactone 241. These results are in agreement with those found with a-unsubstituted /1-esters39-41 (vide supra), assuming a seven-membered chelate as transition state of the addition reaction. The diastercosclectivity is somewhat lower with esters 1 as the stereogenic center is one carbon atom further removed from the reaction center and therefore the steric influence of the substituent R1 is less pronounced. 

The m-nitro ester (5), with trm.NC)2= +0-71, is hydrolysed 63-5 times as fast as the unsubstituted ester (powerful electron-withdrawal markedly assisting eOH attack on the carbonyl carbon atom, and stabilising the transition state leading to the negatively charged tetrahedral intermediate) while the m-Me ester (6), with (Tm.MC = —0 07, is hydrolysed 0-66 times as fast as the unsubstituted ester (very weakelectron-donationslightly inhibiting eOH attack, etc.). 

The mechanism of phosphate ester hydrolysis by hydroxide is shown in Figure 1 for a phosphodiester substrate. A SN2 mechanism with a trigonal-bipyramidal transition state is generally accepted for the uncatalyzed cleavage of phosphodiesters and phosphotriesters by nucleophilic attack at phosphorus. In uncatalyzed phosphate monoester hydrolysis, a SN1 mechanism with formation of a (POj) intermediate competes with the SN2 mechanism. For alkyl phosphates, nucleophilic attack at the carbon atom is also relevant. In contrast, all enzymatic cleavage reactions of mono-, di-, and triesters seem to follow an SN2... 

Fig. 3 The hydrolysis of an aryl ester [1] (X = CH2) or a carbonate [1] (X = O) proceeds through a tetrahedral intermediate [2] which is a close model of the transition state for the reaction. It differs substantially in geometry and charge from both...

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