Open-chain nitrogen compounds. Part XV. A kinetic study of the hydrolysis of 1-aryl-3-aryloxymethyl-3-methyltriazenes and related triazenes

The kinetics of hydyrolysis of a series of 1-aryl-3-aryloxymethyl-3-methyltriazenes, Ar-N=N-NMe-CH 2 OAr′, was studied over the pH range 2-7.5. Reactions were followed by the change in UV absorbance spectra of the triazenes. The aryloxymethyltriazenes decompose more slowly at pH 7.5 than the hydroxymethyltriazenes, Ar-N=NMe-CH 2 OH; the hydrolysis is favoured by the presence of an electron-withdrawing group in Ar′. A mixed isopropanol/buffer system was developed in order to improve solubility of the aryloxymethyl triazenes. Lowering the pH caused an increase in the rate of hydrolysis and under strongly acidic conditions an electron-withdrawing group in Ar′ actually slows down the reaction. A Hammett plot of the pseudo-first-order rate constant, k obs , is curved, indicating that two or more mechanisms operate simultaneously and that the contribution of each mechanism is substituent-dependent. A plot of k obs vs. [buffer] is linear; the slope of the plot affords the rate constant, k b for the buffer-catalyzed reaction for each substituent. A Hammett plot of k b vs. σ is linear with ρ = +0.55, suggesting that the buffer-catalyzed reaction involves nucleophilic displacement of the phenoxy group by the buffer anion. Further analysis afforded the specific acid-catalyzed rate constants, , for each substituent; this component of the reaction has a negative ρ, consistent with a mechanism involving protonation at the ether oxygen. The postulation that specific acid catalysis is a component of the reaction mechanism was confirmed by the observation of a solvent deuterium isotope effect, 2.28 > k H /k D > 1.60. Only the p-NO 2 and p-CN phenyloxymethyltriazenes showed any spontaneous decomposition.