SummaryA comparison of the solvolysis rates of the substituted 2-exo-and 2-endo-norbornyl p-toluenesulfonates 1, 2, 3 and 4 and the substituted 1-and 2-adamantyl sulfonates 9 and 10, respectively, in 80% ethanol and 97% trifluoroethanol has shown that the sensitivity of rates to the I-effect of substituents, i.e. the inductivity of these compounds, varies strongly with structure, configuration and solvent. In 97 YO trifluoroethanol, a solvent of low nucleophilicity and high ionizing power, the inductivities of the 2-mdo-norbornyl p-toluenesulfonates 2 and 4 as well as the inductivities of the adamantyl derivatives 9 and 10 were larger than in 80% ethanol. In contrast, the inductivity of the 2-ex0 -norbornyl p-toluenesulfonates 1 was practically unchanged. It was, therefore, concluded that the transition states for the former compounds are not, or only weakly, bridged, whereas the transition states for the 2-ex0 -norbornyl p-toluenesulfonates 1 involve graded bridging by C(6). These results confirm that, due to differential bridging strain, 2-norbornyl cations are anisotropic to polar effects.
Introduction. -Recent studies [l] [2][3] have shown that the solvolysis rates of the 6-and 7-substituted 2-exo-and 2-endo-norbornyl p-toluenesulfonates (tosylates) 1, 2, 3 and 4 in 80% EtOH are strongly dependent on the position and orientation of the substituents relative to the nucleofugal tosyloxy group. In fact, the response of rates to the I-effect of the substituents, the so-called inductivity of the system'), varied from -2.0 for the series 1 to -0.72 for the series 4, although the number of bonds between the substituent and the reaction site is the same in all cases. It was, therefore, concluded that through-space induction, rather than through-bond induction, is responsible for these large differences and that the former involves graded bridging of C(6) and, to a far smaller extent, of C(7), to the incipient cationic center at C(2).