Mesylate Derivatives of α-Hydroxy Phosphonates. Formation of Carbocations Adjacent to the Diethyl Phosphonate Group

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/ja00347a054

Mesylates 3-6 have been prepared and reacted in a variety of solvents.Product, rate, and solvent effect studies implicate carbocationic intermediates in these solvolyses despite the electron-withdrawing PO(OEt)2 group.Mesylate 3 gave exclusive substitution products.Optically active 3 gave racemic products on trifluoroacetolysis. α-Deuterium isotope effects were also in line with a cationic intermediate.Mesylate 4 gave some elimination product, 27, along with the substitution product 28, also via a cationic intermediate.Mesylates 5 and 6 gave exclusive elimination products.A β-deuterium isotope effect study gave a k_H6/k_D6 value of 2.8.This isotope effect, along with a small m value (0.45), suggested the intermediacy of a reversibly formed ion pair which subsequently loses a proton.This mechanism represents the merging of the classical E1 mechanism and the E2_C(+) mechanism, the latter representing the cationic counterpart of the E1_cb mechanism.Analysis of the solvolysis rates of 3 and 4 led to the conclusion that cationic intermediates are formed quite easily.Reasons are suggested for this unexpectedly facile generation of cations adjacent to the potent electron-withdrawing PO(OEt)2 substituent.