Electronic effects on enol acidity and keto-enol equilibrium constants for ring-substituted 2-tetralones

Abstract

Equilibrium constants for the ionization of a variety of phenyl-substituted 2-tetralones (pKaK), for the ionization of their enols (pKaE), and for keto-enol tautomerization (pKE) were determined. Hammett plots of pKaK and pKaE vs. σ- are linear with slopes (-ρ) of -1.66 ± 0.06 and -0.90 ± 0.03, respectively, except for deviations of the points corresponding to 6-nitro-2-tetralone (1b) and its enol. We have previously attributed the negative deviation of 1b from the correlation for the acidities of the ketones obtained with the more limited set of data to the lack of a free electron pair on C-1 of the free tetralone (Nevy et al.). The negative deviation of the point for 1b from the correlation for the acidities of the enols suggests that charge transfer from the hydroxyl group of the enol to the nitro group is less important than it is for phenols. This study represents the first systematic study of electronic effects on equilibria among ketone, enol, and enolate in aqueous solution. Key words: enol, acidity, equilibrium, substituent, conjugation.