The rate coefficients for the reaction with diazodiphenylmethane in methanol, ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, t-butyl alcohol, 2-methoxyethanol, 2-n-butoxyethanol, dimethyl sulfoxide, ethyl acetate, and toluene at 30" and the pK, values in water, 50% ethanol-water, and 80% 2-methoxyethanol-water of 18 substituted acetic and propionic acids have been determined. A further 14 acids have been studied to a more limited extent. The effect of substitution has been estimated by linear free energy relations. The reaction constants for the ionization reaction are almost independent of the medium. This is interpreted as being due to the field effect of the proximate polar substituents passing through the molecular cavity almost alone. The occurrence of steric inhibition of solvation causing acid weakening for bulky multisubstitution is confirmed. The reaction constants for the esterification reaction are affected by the solvent. This is attributed to dependence on solvation of the transition state.Canadian Journal of Chemistry, 46, 2929 (1968)
IntroductionAs part of our examination of the mode of the transmission of polar effects, it was considered important that transmission in aliphatic systems and their dependence on the medium should be studied. Suitable reactions were considered to be the esterification of carboxylic acids with diazodiphenylmethane (DDM) and their ionization. The system chosen for this study was a series of singly substituted acetic and 3-substituted propionic acids, together with a number of more highly substituted acids. The intention was to obtain a comprehensive series of results for the esterification and ionization reactions for this model system in order to be able to discuss the influence of the substituents on reactivity in aliphatic systems.Taft in his pioneering studies (1) made a distinct advance in understanding polar substituent effects in aliphatic systems. The aliphatic polar substituent constants, a*, which had been separated from the accompanying steric effects in ester hydrolysis, were found to correlate, among other reactions, the ionization of aliphatic carboxylic acids in water at 25" (1) and the esterification of the acids with DDM in ethanol at 25" (2). Hoefelmeyer and Hancock (3) and Bowden, Chapman, and Shorter (4) have extended these correlations to the esterification of aliphatic