Rate-Limiting Formation of Diazonium Ions in the Aqueous Decomposition of Primary Alkanediazoates
作者:Jian Ho、James C. Fishbein
DOI:10.1021/ja00094a016
日期:1994.7
Rate constants, k(0), for the buffer-independent decomposition of four primary (E)-alkanediazoates and one primary (Z)-alkanediazoate in aqueous media at 25 degrees C, ionic strength 1 M (NaClO4) are reported. Between pH 4 and 12 the plot of log k(0) against pH is biphasic with a hydrogen ion-dependent reaction at the high-pH end changing to a pH-independent region at lower pH. The change in absorbance at 235 nm of the relatively stable (E)-trifluoroethanediazoate as a function of pH gives a good fit to a simple titration curve for a monofunctional acid with pK(a) = 7.00 +/- 0.04 that is in good agreement with the kinetic pK(a) determined from the pH-rate profile between pH 4 and 12. The plot of log k(1), the pH-independent rate constant, against sigma* for the primary (E)-alkanediazoates, and (E)-methane- and (E)-2-butanediazoates previously reported, yields a common line with a slope rho* = -4.4. Of the 1-butanol formed from the decomposition of (E)-1-butanediazoate in D2O at pH(obs),b, = 10.50, 6% contains deuterium, while, of the 1-butanol formed in the presence of 1 M NaOD in D2O, 25% contains deuterium. A total of 96% of the iodotrifluoroethane formed upon decomposition of (E)-trifluoroethanediazoate in a D2O solution that is 1 M in NaI contains at least a single deuterium atom. These data combined with small negative values of Delta S#, normal solvent deuterium isotope effects, and the decreases in k(1) of between 500- and 1000-fold on change of solvent to ethanol are consistent with a mechanism that involves the rate-limiting unassisted heterolytic bond fission of the diazoic acid to yield the diazonium ion. The decomposition of [O-16]-(E)-1-butanediazoate in water containing 47 +/- 2% O-18 yields 1-butanol of which 49 +/- 2% contains O-18. This observation, in combination with the observed pH-dependent deuterium incorporation into 1-butanol during decomposition of (E)-1-butanediazoate, above, indicates that the 1-butanediazonium ion is a diffusionally equilibrated intermediate. The rate constant for the pH-independent decomposition of the (Z)-trifluoroethanediazoate is 2600 times greater than that for the corresponding (E) isomer. The decomposition of the (Z)-trifluoroethanediazoate, but not its (E) isomer, is catalyzed by buffer acids, and the catalysis by carboxylic acids is characterized by a Bronsted plot with a slope alpha = 0.41. Catalysis by methoxylammonium ion is comparatively weak, the rate constant falling a log unit below the aforementioned Bronsted line. The solvent deuterium isotope effect for formic acid catalysis is k(HA)/k(DA) = 3.1 +/- 0.2 It is concluded that the mechanism for general acid catalysis of the decomposition of the (Z)-diazoic acid entails proton transfer to oxygen that is concerted with N-O bond heterolysis to yield the diazonium ion.