Concepts of sterically hindered resonance and buttressing effect: Gas-phase acidities of methyl-substituted benzoic acids and basicities of their methyl esters

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/ja00078a052

Two classical terms "Steric Hindrance to Resonance" and "Buttressing Effect" are revisited on the basis of the gas-phase acidities of nine methyl-substituted benzole acids and of the gas-phase basicities of their methyl esters, measured using FT- ICR spectrometry. By combining these data with published heats of formation of the neutrals and by using the principle of isodesmic reactions, relative enthalpies of formation were evaluated separately for the acid molecules, their anions (deprotonated), and their protonated cations (substituted by the protonated forms of the corresponding methyl esters). Energies of all species were also calculated at the semiempirical level (AMI). Substituent effects on the gas-phase acidity are similar to those on the acidity in water. All the methyl groups have a stabilizing polar effect, and o-methyl groups have a destabilizing steric effect, both effects increasing from the deprotonated forms to the acid molecules and then to the protonated forms. Separation of the two effects was attempted, assuming equal polar effects in the ortho and para positions. The results are internally consistent: their detailed analysis is in favor of a primary steric effect rather than a steric inhibition of resonance. The latter must be relatively weaker and operating only in 2,6-dimethyl derivatives, which are certainly nonplanar. In the literature this concept has been used too broadly, even for compounds for which the nonplanar conformation has not been proven. The concept of buttressing effect has been confirmed for methyl-substituted benzoic acids, but it is formulated more generally and more exactly. According to the new definition, it can be observed even for nonadjacent substituants.