Vinyl ether hydrolysis. XIII. The failure of I-strain to produce a change in rate-determining step

Rates of hydrolysis of 1-ethoxy-3,3,5,5-tetramethylcyclopentene and 1-methoxy-2,3,3,5,5-pentamethylcyclopentene measured in mineral acid and formic and acetic acid buffer solutions show general acid catalysis and give large kinetic isotope effects in the normal direction (kH/kD > 1). This indicates that these reactions proceed by the conventional mechanism for vinyl ether hydrolysis in which proton transfer from the catalyzing acid to the substrate is rate-determining, and that the I-strain in these substrates is insufficiently great to shift the reaction mechanism to rapidly reversible substrate protonation followed by rate-determining hydration of the ensuing cationic intermediate.