Herbert Mayr

Kinetics of electrophile-nucleophile combinations: A general approach to polar organic reactivity

Benzhydrylium ions (Ar2CH+) and structurally related quinone methides are employed as reference electrophiles for comparing the nucleophilicities of a large variety of compounds, e.g., alkenes, arenes, alkynes, allylsilanes, allylstannanes, enol ethers, enamines, diazo compounds, carbanions, transition-metal π-complexes, hydride donors, phosphanes, amines, alkoxides, etc., using the correlation equation log k (20 °C) = s(N + E), where s and N are nucleophile-dependent parameters and E is an electrophilicity parameter. The same equation was employed to derive the electrophilicity parameter E for different types of carbocations, cationic transition-metal π-complexes, typical Michael acceptors, and electron-deficient arenes. The E, N, and s parameters thus obtained can be used for predicting rates and selectivities of polar organic reactions.

Farewell to the HSAB treatment of ambident reactivity.

The concept of hard and soft acids and bases (HSAB) proved to be useful for rationalizing stability constants of metal complexes. Its application to organic reactions, particularly ambident reactivity, has led to exotic blossoms. By attempting to rationalize all the observed regioselectivities by favorable soft-soft and hard-hard as well as unfavorable hard-soft interactions, older treatments of ambident reactivity, which correctly differentiated between thermodynamic and kinetic control as well as between different coordination states of ionic substrates, have been replaced. By ignoring conflicting experimental results and even referring to untraceable experimental data, the HSAB treatment of ambident reactivity has gained undeserved popularity. In this Review we demonstrate that the HSAB as well as the related Klopman-Salem model do not even correctly predict the behavior of the prototypes of ambident nucleophiles and, therefore, are rather misleading instead of useful guides. An alternative treatment of ambident reactivity based on Marcus theory will be presented.

N‐Heterocyclic Carbenes: Organocatalysts with Moderate Nucleophilicity but Extraordinarily High Lewis Basicity

Since the first isolation and characterization of stable Nheterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) by Arduengo and co-workers in 1991, these compounds have attracted great interest in various fields of chemistry. As molecules with divalent carbon atoms, NHCs (e.g., 1–3, Scheme 1) are not only of theoretical interest but also of practical relevance as ligands in metal complexes and as nucleophilic organocatalysts.

A quantitative approach to nucleophilic organocatalysis.

Summary The key steps in most organocatalytic cyclizations are the reactions of electrophiles with nucleophiles. Their rates can be calculated by the linear free-energy relationship log k(20 °C) = s N(E + N), where electrophiles are characterized by one parameter (E) and nucleophiles are characterized by the solvent-dependent nucleophilicity (N) and sensitivity (s N) parameters. Electrophilicity parameters in the range –10 < E < –5 were determined for iminium ions derived from cinnamaldehyde and common organocatalysts, such as pyrrolidines and imidazolidinones, by studying the rates of their reactions with reference nucleophiles. Iminium activated reactions of α,β-unsaturated aldehydes can, therefore, be expected to proceed with nucleophiles of 2 < N < 14, because such nucleophiles are strong enough to react with iminium ions but weak enough not to react with their precursor aldehydes. With the N parameters of enamines derived from phenylacetaldehyde and MacMillan’s imidazolidinones one can rationalize why only strong electrophiles, such as stabilized carbenium ions (–8 < E < –2) or hexachlorocyclohexadienone (E = –6.75), are suitable electrophiles for enamine activated reactions with imidazolidinones. Several mechanistic controversies concerning iminium and enamine activated reactions could thus be settled by studying the reactivities of independently synthesized intermediates. Kinetic investigations of the reactions of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) with benzhydrylium ions showed that they have similar nucleophilicities to common organocatalysts (e.g., PPh3, DMAP, DABCO) but are much stronger (100–200 kJ mol–1) Lewis bases. While structurally analogous imidazolylidenes and imidazolidinylidenes have comparable nucleophilicities and Lewis basicities, the corresponding deoxy Breslow intermediates differ dramatically in reactivity. The thousand-fold higher nucleophilicity of 2-benzylidene-imidazoline relative to 2-benzylidene-imidazolidine is explained by the gain of aromaticity during electrophilic additions to the imidazoline derivatives. O-Methylated Breslow intermediates are a hundred-fold less nucleophilic than deoxy Breslow intermediates.

Negishi Cross-Couplings of Unsaturated Halides Bearing Relatively Acidic Hydrogen Atoms with Organozinc Reagents

A wide range of polyfunctional aryl, heteroaryl, alkyl, and benzylic zinc reagents were coupled with unsaturated halides bearing an acidic NH or OH function, using Pd(OAc)(2) (1 mol %) and S-Phos (2 mol %) as catalyst without the need of protecting groups.

Electrophilic Reactivities of α,β-Unsaturated Iminium Ions†

for amine-catalyzed additions of nucleophiles to cinnamaldehyde (1). The cycle is initiated by the condensation of the catalyst 2with the aldehyde 1 to produce the reactive iminium ion intermediate 3, which is attacked by the nucleophile in the second step. In the final step, the product is released, and the catalyst is regenerated. Despite numerous applications of the iminium ion catalysis in organic syntheses, mechanistic data, which are needed to systematically optimize known processes and explore the scope and limitations, are rare. During the preparation of this manuscript, Platts, Tomkinson et al. reported kinetic and theoretical investigations of the iminium ion catalyzed Diels–Alder reaction of cinnamaldehyde with cyclopentadiene, using 2-(trifluoromethyl)pyrrolidine as the catalyst. By studying the first two steps of the organocatalytic cycle separately, they concluded that the cycloaddition step is rate-determining under the specific reaction conditions used. The key step in Scheme 1, as in related organocatalytic cycles employing iminium catalysis, is the reaction of an iminium ion with a nucleophile. Because reactions of carbocations and Michael acceptors with C, N, O, and P nucleophiles have previously been reported to follow Equation (1), where electrophiles are characterized by one

A Practical Guide for Estimating Rates of Heterolysis Reactions

Chemists are well trained to recognize what controls relative reactivities within a series of compounds. Thus, it is well-known how the rate of ionization of R-X is affected by the stabilization of the carbocation R(+), the nature of the leaving group X(-), or the solvent ionizing power. On the other hand, when asked to estimate the half-life of the ionization of a certain substrate in a certain solvent, most chemists resign. This question, however, is crucial in daily laboratory practice. Can a certain substrate R-X be handled in alcoholic or aqueous solution without being solvolyzed? Can a biologically active tertiary amine or azole be released by ionization of a quaternary ammonium ion? In this Account, we describe a straightforward means of addressing such experimental concerns. A semiquantitative answer to these questions is given by the correlation equation log k(25 °C) = s(f)(N(f) + E(f)), in which carbocations R(+) are characterized by the electrofugality parameter E(f), and leaving groups X(-) in a certain solvent are characterized by the nucleofugality parameter N(f) and the nucleofuge-specific sensitivity parameter s(f). As s(f) is typically around 1 (0.8 < s(f) < 1.2), ionization half-lives of around 1 h at 25 °C can be expected when E(f) + N(f) = -4. This correlation equation is formally analogous to the linear free energy relationship that was used to derive the most comprehensive nucleophilicity and electrophilicity scales presently available (Mayr, H.; Bug, T.; Gotta, M. F.; Hering, N.; Irrgang, B.; Janker, B.; Kempf, B.; Loos, R.; Ofial, A. R.; Remennikov, G.; Schimmel, H. Reference Scales for the Characterization of Cationic Electrophiles and Neutral Nucleophiles. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123, 9500-9512). By subjecting 628 solvolysis rate constants k(25 °C) for different benzhydryl derivatives (aryl(2)CH-X) to a least-squares minimization on the basis of the correlation equation, we obtained and tabulate here (i) the electrofugality parameters E(f) for 39 benzhydrylium ions and (ii) the nucleofuge-specific parameters N(f) and s(f) for 101 combinations of common leaving groups and solvents. We show that the E(f) parameters of the reference electrofuges can be used to determine N(f) and s(f) for almost any combination of leaving group and solvent. The nucleofuge-specific parameters of the reference systems can analogously be used to derive the electrofugalities E(f) of other types of carbocations. While it has long been recognized that good nucleophiles are not necessarily poor nucleofuges, it is now reported that there is also no general inverse relationship between electrophilicity and electrofugality. Although more electrophilic methyl- and methoxy-substituted benzhydrylium ions are generally weaker electrofuges, the inverse relationship between electrophilicity and electrofugality breaks down in the series of amino-substituted benzhydrylium ions. Because neither differential solvation of the carbocations nor steric effects are explicitly considered by this treatment, predictions for substrates not belonging to the benzhydrylium series are only reliable within a factor of 10. This is hardly acceptable to physical organic chemists, who are used to high precision within narrow groups of compounds. The synthetic chemist, however, who is seeking orientation in a reactivity range of 25 orders of magnitude, might appreciate the simplicity of this approach, which only requires considering the sum E(f) + N(f) or consulting our summary graphs.

Free Energy Relationships for Reactions of Substituted Benzhydrylium Ions: From Enthalpy over Entropy to Diffusion Control

Second-order rate constants k(2) for the reactions of various donor- and acceptor-substituted benzhydrylium ions Ar(2)CH(+) with π-nucleophiles in CH(2)Cl(2) were determined by laser flash irradiation of benzhydryl triarylphosphonium salts Ar(2)CH-PAr(3)(+)X(-) in the presence of a large excess of the nucleophiles. This method allowed us to investigate fast reactions up to the diffusional limit including reactions of highly reactive benzhydrylium ions with m-fluoro and p-(trifluoromethyl) substituents. The rate constants determined in this work and relevant literature data were jointly subjected to a correlation analysis to derive the electrophilicity parameters E for acceptor-substituted benzhydrylium ions, as defined by the linear free energy relationship log k(2)(20 °C) = s(N)(N + E). The new correlation analysis also leads to the N and s(N) parameters of 18 π-nucleophiles, which have only vaguely been characterized previously. The correlations of log k(2) versus E are linear well beyond the range where the activation enthalpies ΔH(++) of the reactions are extrapolated to reach the value of ΔH(++) = 0, showing that the change from enthalpy control to entropy control does not cause a bend in the linear free energy relationship, a novel manifestation of the compensation effect. A flattening of the correlation lines only occurs for k(2) > 10(8) M(-1) s(-1) when the diffusion limit is approached.

Quantification of the electrophilic reactivities of aldehydes, imines, and enones.

The rates of the epoxidation reactions of aldehydes, of the aziridination reactions of aldimines, and of the cyclopropanation reactions of α,β-unsaturated ketones with aryl-stabilized dimethylsulfonium ylides have been determined photometrically in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). All of these sulfur ylide-mediated cyclization reactions as well as the addition reactions of stabilized carbanions to N-tosyl-activated aldimines have been shown to follow a second-order rate law, where the rate constants reflect the (initial) CC bond formation between nucleophile and electrophile. The derived second-order rate constants (log k(2)) have been combined with the known nucleophilicity parameters (N, s(N)) of the aryl-stabilized sulfur ylides 4a,b and of the acceptor-substituted carbanions 4c-h to calculate the electrophilicity parameters E of aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes (1a-i), N-acceptor-substituted aromatic aldimines (2a-e), and α,β-unsaturated ketones (3a-f) according to the linear free-energy relationship log k(2) = s(N)(N + E) as defined in J. Am. Chem. Soc.2001, 123, 9500-9512. The data reported in this work provide the first quantitative comparison of the electrophilic reactivities of aldehydes, imines, and simple Michael acceptors in DMSO with carbocations and cationic metal-π complexes within our comprehensive electrophilicity scale.

Towards a comprehensive hydride donor ability scale.

Rates of hydride transfer from several hydride donors to benzhydrylium ions have been measured at 20 °C and used for the determination of empirical nucleophilicity parameters N and s(N) according to the linear free energy relationship log k(20 °C) = s(N)(N+E). Comparison of the rate constants of hydride abstraction by tritylium ions with those calculated from the reactivity parameters s(N), N, and E showed fair agreement. Therefore, it was possible to convert the large number of literature data on hydride abstraction by tritylium ions into N and s(N) parameters for the corresponding hydride donors, and construct a reactivity scale for hydride donors covering more than 20 orders of magnitude.