Hydrolysis of trioxaadamantane ortho esters. II. Kinetic analysis and the nature of the rate-determining step

A detailed kinetic study of the hydrolysis of a series of 3-aryl-2,4,10-trioxaadamantanes is reported. These ortho esters equilibrate with the ring-opened dialkoxycarbocation, in a very rapid process which could be studied using temperature-jump spectroscopy for aryl = 2,4-dimethylphenyl. Relaxation rate constants are of the order of 104 s−1; these could be analyzed to provide the rate constants for both the ring opening and the ring closing. Product formation from this equilibrating mixture is much slower. In acid solutions (0.01 M H+ −50% H2SO4), first-order rate constants for product formation initially increase with increasing acidity, but a maximum is reached at 20–35% H2SO4 and the rate then falls. This behavior is explained by a counterbalancing of two factors. Increasing acidity increases the amount of the dialkoxycarbocation in the initial equilibrium, but, outside the pH region, it decreases the rate of hydrolysis of this cation through a medium effect. Rate constants over a range of pH have been measured for two trioxaadamantanes and for the cation DEt+ derived by treatment of the ortho ester with triethyloxonium tetraafluoroborate. The latter models the cation formed in the ortho ester hydrolysis but it cannot ring close. Rate–pH profiles obtained in these systems are more complex than expected on the basis of rate-determining cation hydration. An interpretation is proposed with a change in rate-determining step between high pH and low pH. Cation hydration is rate determining at high pH but at low pH hemiorthoester decomposition becomes rate determining. Under these conditions the hemiorthoester equilibrates with both the dialkoxycarbocation and with the trioxaadamantane. The change in rate-determining step occurs because acid-catalyzed reversion of the hemiorthoester to dialkoxycarbocation is a faster process than acid-catalyzed hemiorthoester decomposition. This makes the latter rate-determining in acid solutions. Additional pathways available to the decomposition, however, make it the faster process at higher pH. A kinetic analysis furnishes all of the rate and equilibrium constants for the system, and provides support for the mechanistic interpretation. A comparison of these numbers with those obtained for the three stages in the hydrolysis of a simple monocyclic ortho ester underlines the novelty of the trioxaadamantane system.