Kinetics and mechanism of hydrolysis of 3-diazobenzofuran-2-one and its hydrolysis product (3-hydroxybenzofuran-2-one)

Abstract

Rates of acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of 3-diazobenzofuran-2-one, measured in concentrated aqueous perchloric acid and hydrochloric acid solutions, were found to correlate well with the Cox–Yates Xo excess acidity function, giving kH+ = 1.66 × 10–4 M–1 s–1, m‡ = 0.86 and kH+ /kD+ = 2.04. The normal direction (kH/kD > 1) of this isotope effect indicates that hydrolysis occurs by rate-determining protonation of the substrate on its diazo-carbon atom. It was found previously that the next higher homolog of the present substrate, 4-diazoisochroman-3-one, also undergoes hydrolysis by this reaction mechanism but with a rate constant 15 times greater than that for the present substrate; this difference in reactivity can be understood in terms of the various resonance forms that contribute to the structures of these substrates. The product of the present hydrolysis reaction is 3-hydroxybenzofuran-2-one, which itself quickly undergoes subsequent acid-catalyzed hydrolysis to 2-hydroxymandelic acid. The acidity dependence of this subsequent hydrolysis is much shallower than that of the diazo compound precursor, and rates of reaction correlate as well with [H+] as with Xo. This is due in part to incursion of a nonproductive protonation on the hydroxy group of 3-hydroxy benzo furan-2-one that impedes hydrolysis and produces saturation of acid catalysis. Rates of hydrolysis of the hydroxy compound were also measured in dilute HClO4 and NaOH solutions as well as in CH3CO2H, H2PO4–, (CH2OH)3CNH3+, and NH4+ buffers, and the rate profile constructed from these data showed the presence of uncatalyzed and hydroxide ion-catalyzed reactions. This hydroxide-ion catalysis became saturated at [NaOH] [Formula: see text] 0.05 M, implying occurrence of yet another nonproductive substrate ionization. Key words: diazo compound hydrolysis, lactone hydrolysis, Cox–Yates excess acidity, acid catalysis, alcohol protonation.