The nitrosation of N-alkylureas: Evidence for a proton transfer mechanism

✍ Scribed by Julio Casado; Guillermo González-Alatorre; Carmen Izquierdo; Christian Brunner

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 457 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0538-8066
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4601(1996)28:4<307::aid-kin9>3.0.co;2-z

✦ Synopsis

The kinetics of the nitrosation of methyl, ethyl. propyl. butyl, and ally1 urea were studied by conventional and stopped-flow spectrophotometry in the presence or absence of acetate or mono-di-, or trichloroacetate anions In the presence of a large excess of urea, the observed rate equation was

where K,, is the acidity constant of nitrous acid and KR that of the carboxylic acid The ureas exhibited the reactivity order methylurea + (ethylurea = propylurea -butylurea) * allylurea Experiments in DIO afforded values of kH20/kD?0 in general agreement with the values 4 1-5.5 predicted by a semiclassical transition state theory of kinetic isotope effects / i e . , kH2"/kDZO = e x p ( O . I 3 0 h ~/ / k T ) J , where F is the frequency of R3N-H stretching (2700-2250 cm-'1 in the protonated urea This result, the observed catalysis by carboxylate ions and the value of the Br~nsted parameter p(0.45) show the rate-controlling step of these reactions to be the transfer of a proton from the protonated N-alkyl-N-nitrosourea to the solvent or to the organic anion, if present. The observed order of substrate reactivities is explicable in terms of the capacity of the protonated N-alkyl-N-nitrosourea for forming a hydrogen bond with the water molecule to which the proton will be transferred, and the degree to which the formation of such bonds is hindered by the hydrophobic alkyl chain of the nitrosourea. 0