The α-Effect in Hydrazinolysis of 4-Chloro-2-Nitrophenyl X-Substituted-Benzoates: Effect of Substituent X on Reaction Mechanism and the α-Effect

Second-order rate constants (k(N)) have been measured spectrophotometrically for the reaction of 4-chloro-2-nitrophenyl X-substituted-benzoates (6a-6h) with a series of primary amines including hydrazine in 80 mol % H2O/20 mol % DMSO at 25.0 degrees C. The Bus-listed-type plot for the reaction of 4-chloro-2-nitrophenyl benzoate (6d) is linear with beta(nuc) = 0.74 when hydrazine is excluded from the correlation. Such a linear Bronsted-type plot is typical for reactions reported previously to proceed through a stepwise mechanism in which expulsion of the leaving group occurs in the rate-determining step (RDS). The Hammett plots for the reactions of 6a-6h with hydrazine and glycylglycine are nonlinear. In contrast, the Yukawa-Tsuno plots exhibit excellent linear correlations with rho(x) = 1.29-1.45 and r = 0.53-0.56, indicating that the nonlinear Hammett plots are not due to a change in RDS but are caused by resonance stabilization of the substrates possessing an electron-donating group (EDG). Hydrazine is ca. 47-93 times more reactive than similarly basic glycylglycine toward 6a-6h (e.g., the alpha-effect). The alpha-effect increases as the substituent X in the benzoyl moiety becomes a stronger electron-withdrawing group (EWG), indicating that destabilization of the ground state (GS) of hydrazine through the repulsion between the nonbonding electron pairs on the two N atoms is not solely responsible for the substituent-dependent alpha-effect. Stabilization of transition state (TS) through five-membered cyclic TSs, which would increase the electrophilicity of the reaction center or the nucleofugality of the leaving group, contributes to the alpha-effect observed in this study.