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Can. J. Chem. Vol. 77, 1999
temperatures. The required, small corrections would affect
acid-catalyzed rate constants of enolization and ketonization
by the same factor that would cancel in their ratio, the
enolization constant.
was kept at 80.0 ± 0.1°C. Deuterium loss from phenol-2d in
samples removed periodically from the bath was determined
2
by integration of the two peaks observed in the H NMR
spectra, at δ 1.13 (HDO) and at 1.28 ppm (phenol-2d). The
first six samples covered two half-lives, the last was drawn
after seven half-lives.
Materials
Samples of tricyclo[6.2.1.02,7]undeca-5,9-dien-4-one (5) and
tricyclo[6.2.1.02,7]undeca-4,9-dien-3-one (6) were obtained
as a gift from Dr. C. Shiner, University of Colorado, Boulder
(23), and samples of 5,7-dioxobicyclo[2.2.2]octane-2,3-
dicarboxylic acid from Profs. M. Demuth, MPI Göttingen,
and C.A. Grob, University of Basel.
Deuteration rates of phenol in 1.0 N DCl in D2O were de-
1
termined by 300 MHz H NMR. The NMR tubes (10 for
each temperature) were heated in a water bath which was
held at 80.0, 70.0, or 60.0 ± 0.1°C, removed at appropriate
time intervals, and stored at in a refrigerator until all sam-
ples had been collected. The signal of the meta hydrogens (δ
= 7.4 ppm; dd, J2,3 = J3,4 = 7 Hz, 2H) was used as an inter-
nal standard. First-order exponential decays were fitted to
the integrated signal intensities of the ortho (δ = 6.9 ppm; d,
J2,3 = 7 Hz, 2H) and para (δ = 7.1 ppm; t, J3,4 = 7 Hz, 1H)
hydrogens (Table 3).
The contents of phenol-2t were determined by liquid scin-
tillation counting of 31 aliquots of 0.5 mL containing 7 mM
of phenol which were drawn periodically over three half-
lives of the exchange reaction. A final sample was measured
after 10 half-lives. The aliquots were extracted with 4 mL of
diethyl ether to separate the tritiated phenol from the tritium
that had exchanged into water. To correct for variations
(±10%) in the efficiency of the extraction, the absorbance of
each extract was measured at 274 and 281 nm, and the ra-
dioactivity of the samples were normalized by these
absorbances. In this way, the standard error of single mea-
surements was reduced to about 3%. The activity of the sam-
ples was determined by scintillation counting on a Packard
scintillation analyzer CA 2000 using 1,4-bis(5-phenyl-2-
oxazolyl)benzene (POPOP) and Packard emulsifier 299 as
scintillation reagents. Prior to the measurements, the instru-
ment was calibrated with a standard of known activity.
Phenol-2d was synthesized from 2-bromophenol as de-
scribed by Tashiro et al. (32). 1H NMR indicated >90%
deuteration at the 2-position. The same procedure was used
to synthesize phenol-2t: NaOH (500 mg) was dissolved in
1 mL of tritium-enriched water and 520 mg of 2-bromo-
phenolate (2.7 mmol) was added. CuAl catalyst (125 mg,
Ventron, Karlsruhe) was added. The solution was stirred vig-
orously for 30 min. The catalyst was removed by filtration.
The solution was acidified with 2 N HCl whereupon phenol
precipitated. The aqueous solution was extracted with 10 mL
of ether. The organic extract was dried with Na2SO4, and the
solvent was evaporated at room temperature under a stream
of N2. The residue was sublimed in vacuo (<1 Pa) at room
temperature. A sample containing 0.6 mg (6.4 µmol) of phe-
nol-2t had an activity of 1750 Bq on a calibrated scintilla-
tion counter which corresponds to a tritium content of
0.25 ppm.
Bicyclo[2.2.2]oct-7-ene-2,5-dione (4) was prepared by ox-
idative bisdecarboxylation of 5,7-dioxobicyclo[2.2.2]octane-
2,3-dicarboxylic acid, samples of which were obtained as
gifts from Profs. Grob (33) and Demuth (5). The following,
improved method was taken from the thesis of Weitemeyer
(34). Pb(OAc)4 (18 g) was added to a stirred solution of the
diacid (4.48 g) in pyridine (60 mL) which was immersed in
a water bath at 20°C. The yellow solution slowly turned or-
ange to deep red under evolution of CO2. After an hour, the
solution was gently warmed to 40°C until the gas evolution
ceased after 90 min. CHCl3 (200 mL) was added and the
mixture shaken with 40 mL of cold 20% HCl. The precipi-
tate was removed and washed with CHCl3. The combined
organic phases were washed four times with 40 mL of 20%
HCl until the color was removed, neutralized with NaHCO3,
and dried. Evaporation of the solvent left a brown–red solid
residue which was chromatographed on silica with an 80:20
mixture of hexane and diethyl ether and sublimed at 90°C in
vacuo to give 560 mg (20.6%) of 4 as colorless crystals.
A sample of 4 (50 mg) was deuterated in 2 mL of D2O
containing 0.1 g of NaOD. The solution turned yellow. After
10 min the diketone was extracted with ether. The organic
phase was washed with D2O, evaporated to dryness, and
sublimed at 80°C in vacuo, giving off-white crystals of 4-
Flash photolysis
All kinetic measurement were done with water-jacketed
quartz cells which were kept at 25.0 ± 0.1°C unless stated
otherwise. Temperature readings were taken from
a
thermoelement that was dipped into the sample solutions.
Acid and base strength was adjusted with HCl in the range
of 0.1 to 0.001 N or KOH in the range of 0.01 to 0.001 N.
Values from buffered solutions quoted in this paper were ob-
tained by extrapolation to zero buffer concentration and thus
refer to wholly aqueous solutions. All solutions were ad-
justed to ionic strength I = 0.1 M by the addition of NaCl.
Kinetic data determined by different persons using different
experimental setups differed by up to 20%, much more than
the standard error of sample means determined by a single
person in a series of experiments (cf., e.g., the first two en-
tries of Table 1).
Spectrophotometric titration of phenol
1
6,6,8,8-d4 (40 mg). H NMR (D2O) δ: 2.8 (m, <0.01 H), 3.8
A 0.3 mM solution of phenol in water (3 mL) containing
0.010 M NH4Cl and 0.09 M NaCl was titrated with 30 µL
portions of 0.1 N NaOH in a quartz cell which was left un-
touched in the thermostatted (25 ± 0.1°C) sample holder of a
Perkin–Elmer Lambda 9 UV spectrophotometer. The UV
spectra were recorded and digitized (250–310 nm, 120
absorbance readings per spectrum, 16 spectra per titration)
after each addition and the acid concentration was measured
(m, 1 H, > CH-), 6.8 ppm (m, 1 H, -CHϭ); solvent peak
(HDO) δ: 5.0 ppm. MS: 141 (8.8), 140 (100, M+), 139 (9.1).
Isotopic exchange experiments
The samples of phenol-2d (7 NMR tubes containing
0.5 mL, 0.04 M) and phenol-2t (20 mL, 0.007 M) in 0.1 N
HClO4 were heated simultaneously in a thermostat bath that
© 1999 NRC Canada