Carbocation-like reactivity patterns in X'-substituted-4-biphenylylnitrenium ions

1998 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Ren ◽  
Robert A McClelland

4-Azido-X'-substituted biphenyls (X' = 4'-MeO, 4'-Me, 4'-F, 3'-Me, 4'-Cl, H, 3'-MeO, 3'-Cl, 4'-CF3) have been prepared and subjected to 248 nm flash photolysis irradiation in 20:80 acetonitrile:water. Transient X'-substituted 4-biphenylylnitrenium ions 10 (Ar C6H4-N + H) are observed, with lifetimes ranging from 0.6 ms (4'-MeO) to 26 ns (4'-CF3). These cations are quenched by azide ion, with values of kaz ranging from 6 to 10 x 109 M-1 s-1, with the majority in the range (9-10) x 109. This near constant kaz provides further evidence that arylnitrenium ions are quenched by azide ion at the diffusion limit. The solvent reactivities, plotted in a single-parameter Hammett plot against σ sup + (X), exhibit a poor correlation, with the points for the para π-electron donors deviating from the correlation line based on the other substituents in the direction of requiring a more negative substituent parameter. The data are more satisfactorily fit to the two-parameter Yukawa-Tsuno equation; the parameter r + obtained in this fit is 2.8. Thus the resonance interaction of the para π -donor X'-substituents with the positive charge of the cation is underestimated by σ sup + , a situation that has previously been observed with benzylic-type carbenium ions. The conclusion is made that, in their reaction with water, 4-biphenylylnitrenium ions behave like benzyl cations bearing two additional stabilizing vinyl groups, i.e., as if they had the structure Ar-C + (C = C)2. The inherent reactivity and the pattern of the aryl substituent effects are in fact similar to those in the carbocation series Ar-C + (Ph)2.Key words: nitrenium, nitrene, aryl azide, photochemistry, lifetime.

2001 ◽  
Vol 79 (12) ◽  
pp. 1875-1880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick H Ruane ◽  
Robert A McClelland

Photolysis of 4-(N-methylacetamido)phenyl azide in aqueous solution results in quantitative formation of the 4-(N-methylacetamido)phenylnitrenium ion, this cation arising from solvent protonation of an initially formed singlet arylnitrene. The cation is observed by flash photolysis, and is identified through characteristic quenching by azide ion and by 2'-deoxyguanosine, both excellent nucleophiles for arylnitrenium ions in water. The nitrenium ion is protonated in acidic solutions to form the 4-(N-methylacetamido)aniline dication, whose pKa is determined to be 1.5 based on the rate–pH profile. This means that the nitrenium ion is relatively basic, which suggests that there is significant positive charge on the N-methylacetamido group. Further evidence for this is seen in the remarkably long lifetime (5 ms) of the nitrenium ion in water. In fact, the 4-(N-methylacetamido)phenylnitrenium ion is 5000-fold longer-lived than the 4-methoxy-substituted analog. A 4-methoxy substituent on a phenyl ring is more electron donating according to σ+ values (–0.78 for MeO vs. –0.60 for NMeAc). The dramatic reversal in the arylnitrenium ions is another example of the failure of these to follow the carbocation scale.Key words: nitrenium ion, flash photolysis, amide substituent.


1998 ◽  
Vol 76 (10) ◽  
pp. 1327-1337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A McClelland ◽  
Timothy A Gadosy ◽  
Daniel Ren

The carcinogens 4-aminobiphenyl and 2-aminofluorene are metabolized to hydroxylamine esters that undergo N-O heterolysis to produce arylnitrenium ions that react with DNA, especially at guanine residues. These nitrenium ions and a number of their derivatives have been studied by the laser flash photolysis technique, to provide direct kinetic information about the lifetimes of the electrophiles in water and their reactivities with added nucleophiles. Arylnitrenium ions ArNH+ are longer-lived in water than arylcarbenium analogs ArCH2+, in some cases significantly longer-lived. The nitrenium ions do react with azide ion at the diffusion limit (providing the cation is not highly stabilized). This behaviour completely parallels that of carbenium ions. The biphenylyl- and fluorenylnitrenium ions react with guanine derivatives such as 2-deoxyguanosine (dG) with rate constants that are close to or at the diffusion limit (2 × 109 M-1 s-1) for the more reactive cations. Thus, in spite of cation lifetimes of the order of 100 ns to a millisecond in water, dG effectively competes with the solvent. The product is a C8 adduct, the same adduct observed with carcinogenic arylamines and DNA. With delocalized carbenium ions that have similar lifetimes, guanine derivatives compete very poorly with water. Thus, arylnitrenium ions have high dG:water selectivities; arylcarbenium ions have low selectivities. Nitrenium ions and carbenium ions do have parallel reactivities with primary alkyl amines. More reactive cations show a greater reactivity with less basic amines and the rate constants level below the diffusion limit. This can be explained by hydrogen bonding of the amine lone pair. Using the NH2 group of the alkyl amines as a model for the C2-NH2 group of guanine shows why nitrenium ions show no detectable reactivity at this site. The rate constant for the nitrenium-guanine reaction that forms the C8 adduct is at least an order of magnitude greater than that of a nitrenium-NH2 reaction. Nitrenium ions do form a guanine-NH2 adduct in DNA, suggesting that incorporation into the polymer changes reactivity patterns. With imidazoles, nitrenium ions show reactivity trends that parallel the nitrenium-dG reaction, with rate constants levelling at the 2 × 109 limit for the more reactive cations. Imidazole itself and 1-methylimidazole are generally less reactive than dG, while 2-methylimidazole and 1,2-dimethylimidazole are very similar. A Brönsted-like plot incorporating points for dG, primary amines and imidazoles shows no correlation of nitrenium rate constants with nitrogen basicity. This is true even if only dG and imidazoles are considered. Thus a previous correlation of nitrenium reactivity with purine N7 basicity is suspect. The conclusion is that there is some feature of guanine that makes its reaction with nitrenium ions unusually fast. The reasons for this are not immediately apparent, especially since there is conflicting evidence as to the detailed nature of the mechanism of the reaction that forms the C8 adduct. Key words: nitrenium, aryl azide, guanine, DNA, carcinogen.


1998 ◽  
Vol 76 (12) ◽  
pp. 1910-1915 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A McClelland ◽  
Victoria E Licence ◽  
John P Richard ◽  
Kathleen B Williams ◽  
Shrong-Shi Lin

4-Methoxybenzyl cations bearing α-(N,N-dimethylcarbamoyl) and α-(N,N-dimethylthiocarbamoyl) substituents have been generated photochemically upon irradiation of precursors with pentafluorobenzoate or 4-methoxybenzoate leaving groups. The ions have been observed with flash photolysis in 40:60 acetonitrile:water and in 50:50 methanol:water, and rate constants were measured for their decay in solvent alone and for their capture by azide ion. The cations so studied and their lifetimes in 40% acetonitrile are 6, ArC+H-CONMe2, 0.6 μs; 2, ArC+H-CSNMe2, 7 ms; and 4, ArC+(CH3)-CSMe2, 6 ms, where Ar = 4-MeOC6H4. The cation 4 reacts with solvent by elimination of a proton from the α-methyl group, and the rate constant for solvent addition must be less than 1 s-1. The CSNMe2 substituted cations are 105-107-fold longer lived than analogs where the thioamide group has been replaced with an α-methyl. The UV-visible absorption spectra of these two cations also show significant differences from those of typical 4-methoxybenzyl cations. Thus, both the lifetimes and spectra point to a strong interaction of the benzylic centre with the thioamide group. Key words: flash photolysis, thiocarbamoyl stabilized carbocation, photosolvolysis.


2000 ◽  
Vol 122 (34) ◽  
pp. 8271-8278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjay Srivastava ◽  
Patrick H. Ruane ◽  
John P. Toscano ◽  
Michael B. Sullivan ◽  
Christopher J. Cramer ◽  
...  

1999 ◽  
Vol 77 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 1148-1161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Latifa Chahoua ◽  
Alain Vigroux ◽  
Yvonne Chiang ◽  
James C Fishbein

A study of the solvolysis of a series of (N-nitrosomethylamino)arylmethyl esters and azides and the products of nucleophilic trapping of the corresponding N-nitrosiminium ion intermediates in aqueous media, 25°C, ionic strength 1 M is reported. Structure-reactivity data for the forward and reverse reactions have been obtained. In three cases, the rate constants for reactions of the cations with nucleophiles have been measured directly by laser flash photolysis. The data allow a comparison of the degree to which the N-methyl-N-nitroso functionality enhances cation stability from a thermodynamic and kinetic perspective. It has been possible to deduce that the carbon basicity of azide ion is less than 1 kcal/mol greater than that of acetate ion.Key words: nitrosiminium ions, α-acetoxynitrosamines, carbocations, iminium ions, nucleophilicity.


1980 ◽  
Vol 58 (23) ◽  
pp. 2537-2549 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Leigh ◽  
Donald R. Arnold ◽  
Robert W. R. Humphreys ◽  
Po Cheong Wong

The half-wave reduction potentials, measured by cyclic voltammetry, and n,π* triplet energies, measured by phosphorescence spectroscopy, were determined for a series of eighteen symmetrically and unsymmetrically substituted benzophenones. Attempts are made to correlate the results with Hammett substituent constants. Better correlations are observed when the data are correlated with a two-parameter function consisting of Hammett substituent constants and a set of substituent parameters describing variations in free radical stability. Significant deviations from "normal" behaviour are observed for benzophenones substituted by both electron-donating and electron-withdrawing substituents. These deviations are attributed to merostabilization of the radical-like species, and an empirical approach designed to evaluate the importance of this effect is developed. Abinitio calculations of molecular orbital energies in meta- and para-substituted benzaldehydes are used to evaluate the substituent effects on E1/2red and ETn,π* in terms of the effect on the energies of the n- and π*-orbitals.


1999 ◽  
Vol 77 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 922-933 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina L Amyes ◽  
Tadeusz Mizerski ◽  
John P Richard

The addition of a pair of ortho-methyl groups to ring-substituted cumyl derivatives to give the corresponding 2,6-dimethylcumyl derivatives X-1-Y leads to modest (<5-fold) changes in the observed rate constant for reaction in 50:50 (v:v) trifluoroethanol-water (I = 0.50, NaClO4). The reactions of X-1-Y proceed by a stepwise mechanism through the liberated 2,6-dimethylcumyl carbocations X-2 that partition between nucleophilic addition of solvent and deprotonation to give good yields ([Formula: see text] 67%) of the corresponding 2-(2,6-dimethylaryl)propenes X-3. The carbocations X-2 are also trapped by nucleophilic addition of azide ion to give good yields ([Formula: see text] 68% at [N3-] = 0.50 M) of the corresponding 2,6-dimethylcumyl azides X-1-N3. In the presence of high concentrations of azide ion there are constant limiting yields of the alkenes X-3, which shows that X-2 also undergo significant reactions with azide ion as a Brønsted base. The product rate constant ratios for partitioning of the 2,4,6-trimethylcumyl carbocation Me-2 between reaction with azide ion as a Lewis and a Brønsted base, kaz/kB, the nucleophilic addition of azide ion and solvent, kaz/ks (M-1), and deprotonation by solvent, kaz/ke (M-1), were combined with (kaz + kB) = 5 × 109 M-1 s-1 for the diffusion-limited reaction of azide ion to give absolute rate constants for the reactions of Me-2. The data show that the addition of a pair of ortho-methyl groups to the 4-methylcumyl carbocation to give the sterically hindered Me-2 results in a 70-fold decrease in the rate constant for nucleophilic addition of solvent to the benzylic carbon, but a 60-fold increase in the rate constant for deprotonation of the carbocation by solvent.Key words: carbocation, ortho-substituent effects, steric effects, solvolysis, elimination.


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