A kinetic study on nucleophilic displacement reactions of aryl benzenesulfonates with potassium ethoxide: role of K+ ion and reaction mechanism deduced from analyses of LFERs and activation parameters.

Pseudofirst-order rate constants (k(obsd)) have been measured spectrophotometrically for the nucleophilic substitution reactions of 2,4-dinitrophenyl X-substituted benzenesulfonates 4a-f and Y-substituted phenyl benzenesulfonates 5a-k with EtOK in anhydrous ethanol. Dissection of k(obsd) into k(EtO(-)) and k(EtOK) (i.e., the second-order rate constants for the reactions with the dissociated EtO(-) and ion-paired EtOK, respectively) shows that the ion-paired EtOK is more reactive than the dissociated EtO(-), indicating that K(+) ion catalyzes the reaction. The catalytic effect exerted by K(+) ion (e.g., the k(EtOK)/k(EtO(-)) ratio) decreases linearly as the substituent X in the benzenesulfonyl moiety changes from an electron-donating group (EDG) to an electron-withdrawing group (EWG), but it is independent of the electronic nature of the substituent Y in the leaving group. The reactions have been concluded to proceed through a concerted mechanism from analyses of the kinetic data through linear free energy relationships (e.g., the Brønsted-type, Hammett, and Yukawa-Tsuno plots). K(+) ion catalyzes the reactions by increasing the electrophilicity of the reaction center through a cyclic transition state (TS) rather than by increasing the nucleofugality of the leaving group. Activation parameters (e.g., ΔH(‡) and ΔS(‡)) determined from the reactions performed at five different temperatures further support the proposed mechanism and TS structures.