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The mechanism of aromatic nucleophilic substitution reaction between ethanolamine and fluoro‐nitrobenzenes: an investigation by kinetic measurements and DFT calculations
Author(s) -
Jose K.B.,
Cyriac J.,
Moolayil J. T.,
Sebastian V.S.,
George M.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of physical organic chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.325
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1395
pISSN - 0894-3230
DOI - 10.1002/poc.1817
Subject(s) - chemistry , acetonitrile , nitrobenzene , reactivity (psychology) , toluene , ethanolamine , reaction mechanism , activation energy , reaction rate constant , nitro compound , kinetics , nitro , photochemistry , medicinal chemistry , computational chemistry , organic chemistry , catalysis , medicine , alkyl , pathology , quantum mechanics , physics , alternative medicine
We have studied the kinetics and elucidated the mechanism by DFT calculation of the reaction between ethanolamine (EOA) and 1‐fluoro‐2,4‐dinitrobenzene (DNFB) in acetonitrile and toluene. To determine the contribution of the nitro group, the activation energy of the reaction between ethanolamine and 1‐fluoro‐2‐nitrobenzene (MNFB) vs. DNFB was determined in acetonitrile and calculated by DFT method. Kinetic measurements reveal that the reaction is faster in acetonitrile than in toluene. The reaction follows overall second‐order kinetics: first order with respect to both EOA and DNFB which is similar to the results reported for reaction between other primary amines and 1‐substituted‐2,4‐dinitrobenzenes. The calculations by using DFT methods reveal that the mechanism of the reaction involves the formation and decomposition of a Meisenheimer complex (MC). DFT calculations also reveal that the activation energy of the reaction is highest in vacuum and decreases with increasing polarity of the solvent reaching a minimum in acetonitrile. In addition, activation energies obtained by both DFT calculations and experiments show that the reactivity of MNFB is less than that of DNFB showing the effect of the 4‐nitro group. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.