Isotope Effects in Nucleophilic Substitution Reactions. I. The Mechanism of the Reaction of Phenylbenzyldimethylammonium Ion with Thiophenoxide Ion
A kinetic study of the nucleophilic substitution reactions of a series of para-substituted phenylbenzyldimethylammonium nitrates with sodium thiophenoxide at 0 °C in N,N-dimethylformamide containing a large excess of sodium nitrate, has shown the reaction to be a second-order process which is first-order in both the substrate and the nucleophile. A Hammett ρ value of +2.04 for different para-substitutents on the N-phenyl group of the quaternary ammonium salt and a large nitrogen kinetic isotope effect of 1.0200 ± 0.0007 have excluded any mechanism involving a carbonium ion intermediate but are in accord with an SN2 mechanism with a substantial amount of carbon–nitrogen bond rupture in the transition state.