摘要:
N-Chloroamino acids are unstable in aqueous solution and decompose through different pathways depending on the reaction conditions, yielding precursors of carcinogenic and/or mutagenic compounds, One of these pathways is a 1,2-elimination process, which has scarcely received any attention and for which no systematic analysis is available, The process is first order relative to the N-chloroamino acid and to that of hydroxide ion, The use of 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol and 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoropropan-2-ol buffer solutions established that the process is general-base catalysed, The reaction rate is affected by the presence of a methyl group on the nitrogen atom and the nature of the leaving group, The results show an important steric effect due to the alkyl substituents on the alpha-carbon. With bulky alkyl substituents on the a-carbon, and in particular in the case of N-alkylamino acids, the catalytic effect increases as the base strength decreases. To characterize the transition state, Bronsted's beta and beta(lg) were used. A More O'Ferrall-Jencks diagram shows the transition state structure changing from carbanion like to nitrenium-like, a large perpendicular effect being evident, The reaction proceeds through a concerted mechanism A(xh)D(H)D(N) instead of the stepwise A(xh)D(H) double dagger+D-N proposed earlier.