A series of t-butyl N-arylcarbamates in which the aryl group is a phenyl or a meta- or para-substituted phenyl ring has been prepared. Decomposition of these compounds in diphenyl ether at 177.5 °C has shown that the reaction is essentially first order, yielding carbon dioxide, isobutylene, and the corresponding amine. The rates of decomposition increase with increasing electronegativity of the substituent on the aromatic nucleus, and give a Hammett plot with a slope of 0.54. A cyclic mechanism is proposed for the decomposition reaction.

Organo-tin catalysts have been used to prepare a large number of new carbamates of tertiary alcohols. Cyclization of carbamates of unsaturated tertiary alcohols leads to the formation of 2-oxazolidinones, and provides a new synthetic route for some of these compounds.

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The influence of solvent, ring substituents, and tertiary carbon atom substituents on the decomposition at 423–473 K of some N-arylcarbamates of tertiary alcohols (p-XC6H4NHCO2C(CH3)2R, where X = CH3, H, Cl, NO2, R=C≡CH, C2H5, CH=CH2) has been investigated. In dodecane, diphenyl ether, acetophenone, nitrobenzene, and decanol, the reactions were first order yielding chiefly carbon dioxide, amine, and olefin. t-Pentyl carbamates yielded the olefins 2-methyl-1-butene and 2-methyl-2-butene in a 3:1 mixture. Solvent effects are reflected in variations in enthalpies and entropies of activation, but effects on the actual values of the specific rate constants are small. Substituent effects are also small, with changes in R from C≡CH to CH=CH2 producing only a tenfold rate increase. Variations in X yield Hammett σρ plots with slopes of about 0.50. These results are consistent with the charge separated cyclic transition state proposed before (1). In ethylene glycol, increased reaction rates and 1:1 yields of the olefins from the t-pentyl carbamates indicate a mechanism with greater carbonium ion character.

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