Kinetics and mechanism of ring transformation of S-[1-(4-methoxyphenyl)pyrrolidin-2-on-3-yl]isothiuronium bromide to 2-methylimino-5-[2-(4-methoxyphenylamino)ethyl]thiazolidin-4-one

The kinetics and mechanism of transformation reaction of S-[1-(4- methoxyphenyl)pyrrolidin-2-one-3-yl]-N-methyl-isothiuronium bromide into 2-methylimino-5-[2-(4-methoxyphenylamino) ethyl)]thiazolidin-4-one have been studied in aqueous solutions of amine buffers (pH 8.1-11.5) and sodium hydroxide solutions (0.005-0.5 mol l-1) at 25 degrees C and at I = 1 mol l-1 at pseudo-first-order reaction conditions. The kinetics observed shows that the transformation reaction is subject to general base, general acid, and hydroxide-ion catalyses. The rate-limiting step of transformation is the splitting-off a proton from the tetrahedral intermediate In. The value of pKa for S-[1-(4-methoxyphenyl)- pyrrolidin-2-one-3-yl]-N-methylisothiuronium bromide has been determined from the kinetic data (pKa = 8.75 +/- 0.10) and by potentiometric titration (pKa = 8.90 +/- 0.05). With increasing pKa value of the acid buffer component, the value of Brønsted coefficient beta gradually decreases from about 0.7 to almost zero. The value of pKa approximately 10 for the intermediate to base-catalysed transformation has been found from this dependence. In the N-methylpyrrolidine and triethylamine buffers, the rate-limiting step of transformation is changed into ring opening of In-, and the general-base-catalysed reaction changes into a specific-base-catalysed one.