Vinyl ether hydrolysis. XVIII. The two-stage reaction of 2,3-dimethoxy-1,3-butadiene
The kinetics of acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of 2,3-dimethoxy-1,3-butadiene (1) to 3-methoxy-3-buten-2-one (2) and the subsequent 104 times slower conversion of the latter to biacetyl (3):[Formula: see text]were studied in aqueous solution at 25 °C. Both stages of this process give substantial hydrogen ion isotope effects, [Formula: see text] for Stage I and [Formula: see text] for Stage II, and Stage I shows general acid catalysis in formic and acetic acid buffers; both stages are therefore assigned the conventional mechanism for vinyl ether hydrolysis involving rate-determining proton transfer from catalyzing acid to substrate. The second vinyl ether group of the initial substrate (1) is found to have only a slight (3-fold) accelerative effect on the reactivity of the first group, but the acetyl substituent present in the intermediate 2 decreases its reactivity by a factor of 104; the latter appears to be due largely to the electron-withdrawing inductive effect of acetyl, with little or no influence from a countervailing electron-supplying resonance effect.