Isotope effects in nucleophilic substitution reactions. II. Secondary α-deuterium kinetic isotope effects: a criterion of mechanism?

Abstract

A very large secondary α-deuterium kinetic isotope effect of 1.179 ± 0.007 (1.086 ± 0.003 per α-deuterium) has been observed for the SN2 reaction of thiophenoxide ion with benzyldimethylphenylammonium ion in DMF at 0°C. This large isotope effect which is far outside the range reported for SN2 reactions, is attributed to the fact that the extraordinarily large steric crowding around the Cα—H bonds in the substrate is reduced in the SN2 transition state. The structure of the transition state is shown to be consistent with this hypothesis.