Precise Control of the Formation of a Covalent and an Ionic Bond in Carbocation-Carbanion Combination Reactions

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/jo00073a047

The electronic effect on the selectivity of covalent or ionic bond formation was examined for the reaction of Kuhn's anion 1(1-) (C67H39(1-); tris(7H-dibenzofluorenylidenemethyl)methide ion) and 1-aryl-2,3-dicyclopropylcyclopropenylium ions.The carbocation stability was progressively changed by varying the substituent on the phenyl ring, while the steric effect was kept essentially unchanged.The cations having the p-chlorophenyl (2a(1+)), phenyl (2b(1+)), m-methylphenyl (2c(1+)), or m,m'-dimethylphenyl (2d(1+)) group gave a covalent product, whereas a carbocation-carbanion salt was obtained from the cations having the p-methylphenyl (2e(1+)) or p-methoxyphenyl (2f(1+)) group.The reduction potentials E_red of the cations, as determined by cyclic voltammetry, showed that the formation of the covalent or ionic product is switched by a small difference in stability (<*> 0.4 kcal/mol) between 2d(1+) and 2e(1+).In chloroform, the salts 1(1-)2e(1+) and 1(1-)2f(1+) were transformed into covalent forms 1-2e and 1-2f, which can exist only in solution.When 1-(2a-d) and 1(1-)2e,f(1+) were dissolved in DMSO, equilibrium between a covalent compound and ions was established.A plot of the free energy of heterolysis ΔG⁰_het for 1-(2a-f) against the E_red of the corresponding cations 2a-f(1+) showed that ΔG⁰_het decreases as the cation is more stabilized.The heterolysis in DMSO was shown to be enhanced by ca. 13 kcal/mol both by the steric congestion in the covalent molecules and the stabilization of the cyclopropenylium ions by solvation.