Second-order rate constants have been measured spectrophotometrically for the reactions of X-C6H4CO2C6H4-Y with a series of primary amines in H2O containing 20 mol% DMSO at 25.0 ± 0.1°C. The reactivity increases as the substituent (X and Y) becomes a stronger electron-withdrawing group. The sigma + constants give better Hammett correlation than sigma constants for the reactions of 4-nitrophenyl X-substituted benzoates with glycylglycine (glygly) and hydrazine (NH2NH2), indicating that the ground-state stabilization effect is unusually significant on the reaction rates. The reactions of X-C6H4CO2C6H4-Y with glygly and NH2NH2 appear to proceed through the same mechanism, but the degree of leaving-group departure and the negative charge developed in the acyl moiety at the rate-determining TS is considered to be more significant for the glygly system than the NH2NH2 system based on ßlg and rho X values. The magnitude of the alpha -effect is observed to be not always dependent on the ßnuc value but dependent on the electronic nature of the substituent X and Y, i.e., an electron-donating substituent increases the alpha -effect, while an electron-withdrawing one decreases the alpha -effect. The present study has led to the conclusion that the ground-state effect is important for the reaction rates but it is not solely responsible for the alpha -effect, and the intramolecular H-bonding interactions (4) are proposed for the cause of the increasing or decreasing alpha -effect trends observed in the present system.Key words: alpha -effect, intramolecular H-bonding interaction, ground-state stabilization effect.
