From carbanions to organometallic compounds: quantification of metal ion effects on nucleophilic reactivities.

The influence of the metal on the nucleophilic reactivities of indenyl metal compounds was quantitatively determined by kinetic investigations of their reactions with benzhydrylium ions (Ar2 CH(+) ) and structurally related quinone methides. With the correlation equation log k2 =sN (N+E), it can be derived that the ionic indenyl alkali compounds are 10(18) to 10(24) times more reactive (depending on the reference electrophile) than the corresponding indenyltrimethylsilane.

Quantification of ion-pairing effects on the nucleophilic reactivities of benzoyl- and phenyl-substituted carbanions in dimethylsulfoxide.

Second-order rate constants for the reactions of acceptor-substituted phenacyl (PhCOCH(-) Acc) and benzyl anions (PhCH(-) Acc) with diarylcarbenium ions and quinone methides (reference electrophiles) have been determined in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) solution at 20 °C. By studying the kinetics in the presence of variable concentrations of potassium, sodium and lithium salts (up to 10(-2)  mol L(-1) ), the influence of ion-pairing on the reaction rates was examined. As the concentration of K(+) did not have any influence on the rate constants at carbanion concentrations in the range of 10(-4) -10(-3)  mol L(-1) , the acquired rate constants could be assigned to the reactivities of the free carbanions.

Nucleophilic reactivities of the anions of nucleobases and their subunits.

The kinetics of the reactions of different heterocyclic anions derived from imidazoles, purines, pyrimidines, and related compounds with benzhydrylium ions and structurally related quinone methides have been studied in DMSO and water. The second-order rate constants (log k(2)) correlated linearly with the electrophilicity parameters E of the electrophiles according to the correlation log k(2) = s(N)(N+E) (H. Mayr, M.