Effect of medium on reactivity for alkaline hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl acetate and S-p-nitrophenyl thioacetate in DMSO–H₂O mixtures of varying compositions: ground state and transition state contributions

Abstract

Second-order rate constants (kN) for reactions of p-nitrophenyl acetate (1) and S-p-nitrophenyl thioacetate (2) with OH‒ have been measured spectrophotometrically in DMSO-H2O mixtures of varying compositions at 25.0 ± 0.1 oC. The kN value increases from 11.6 to 32,800 M‒1s‒1 for the reactions of 1 and from 5.90 to 190,000 M‒1s‒1 for those of 2 as the reaction medium changes from H2O to 80 mol % DMSO, indicating that the effect of medium on reactivity is more remarkable for the reactions of 2 than for those of 1. Although 2 possesses a better leaving group than 1, the former is less reactive than the latter by a factor of 2 in H2O. This implies that expulsion of the leaving group is not advanced in the rate-determining transition state (TS), i.e., the reactions of 1 and 2 with OH‒ proceed through a stepwise mechanism, in which expulsion of the leaving group from the addition intermediate occurs after the rate-determining step (RDS). Addition of DMSO to H2O would destabilize OH‒ through electronic repulsion between the anion and the negative-dipole end in DMSO. However, destabilization of OH‒ in the ground state (GS) is not solely responsible for the remarkably enhanced reactivity upon addition of DMSO to the medium. The effect of medium on reactivity has been dissected into the GS and TS contributions through combination of the kinetic data with the transfer enthalpies (ΔΔHtr) from H2O to DMSO-H2O mixtures for OH‒ ion.