chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

, Si (substitution nucleophilic internal) refers to a specific, regio-selective but not often encountered

reaction mechanism In chemistry, a reaction mechanism is the step by step sequence of elementary reactions by which overall chemical reaction occurs. A chemical mechanism is a theoretical conjecture that tries to describe in detail what takes place at each stage ...

for nucleophilic aliphatic substitution. The name was introduced by Cowdrey et al. in 1937 to label nucleophilic reactions which occur with retention of configuration, but later was employed to describe various reactions that proceed with a similar mechanism. A typical representative

organic reaction Organic reactions are chemical reactions involving organic compounds. The basic organic chemistry reaction types are addition reactions, elimination reactions, substitution reactions, pericyclic reactions, rearrangement reactions, mechanistic organ ...

displaying this mechanism is the chlorination of

alcohol Alcohol may refer to: Common uses * Alcohol (chemistry), a class of compounds * Ethanol, one of several alcohols, commonly known as alcohol in everyday life ** Alcohol (drug), intoxicant found in alcoholic beverages ** Alcoholic beverage, an alco ...

s with

thionyl chloride Thionyl chloride is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a moderately Volatility (chemistry), volatile, colourless liquid with an unpleasant acrid odour. Thionyl chloride is primarily used as a Halogenation, chlorinating reagen ...

, or the decomposition of alkyl chloroformates, the main feature is retention of stereochemical configuration. Some examples for this reaction were reported by Edward S. Lewis and Charles E. Boozer in 1952. Mechanistic and kinetic studies were reported few years later by various researchers. Thionyl chloride first reacts with the alcohol to form an alkyl chloro sulfite, actually forming an

intimate ion pair In chemistry, the intimate ion pair concept, introduced by Saul Winstein, describes the interactions between a cation, anion and surrounding solvent molecules. In ordinary aqueous solutions of inorganic salts, an ion is completely solvated and sh ...

. The second step is the loss of a

sulfur dioxide Sulfur dioxide (IUPAC-recommended spelling) or sulphur dioxide (traditional Commonwealth English) is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless gas with a pungent smell that is responsible for the odor of burnt matches. It is r ...

molecule and its replacement by the chloride, which was attached to the sulphite group. The difference between S1 and Si is actually that the ion pair is not completely dissociated, and therefore no real carbocation is formed, which else would lead to a racemisation. This reaction type is linked to many forms of neighbouring group participation, for instance the reaction of the

sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

nitrogen Nitrogen is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a Nonmetal (chemistry), nonmetal and the lightest member of pnictogen, group 15 of the periodic table, often called the Pnictogen, pnictogens. ...

lone pair In chemistry, a lone pair refers to a pair of valence electrons that are not shared with another atom in a covalent bondIUPAC ''Gold Book'' definition''lone (electron) pair''/ref> and is sometimes called an unshared pair or non-bonding pair. Lone ...

in sulfur mustard or

nitrogen mustard Nitrogen mustards (NMs) are cytotoxic organic compounds with the bis(2-chloroethyl)amino ((ClC2H4)2NR) functional group. Although originally produced as chemical warfare agents, they were the first chemotherapeutic agents for treatment of canc ...

to form the

cation An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...

ic intermediate. This reaction mechanism is supported by the observation that addition of

pyridine Pyridine is a basic (chemistry), basic heterocyclic compound, heterocyclic organic compound with the chemical formula . It is structurally related to benzene, with one methine group replaced by a nitrogen atom . It is a highly flammable, weak ...

to the reaction leads to inversion. The reasoning behind this finding is that pyridine reacts with the intermediate sulfite replacing chlorine. The dislodged chlorine has to resort to nucleophilic attack from the rear as in a regular nucleophilic substitution. In the complete picture for this reaction the sulfite reacts with a chlorine ion in a standard S2 reaction with ''inversion'' of configuration. When the solvent is also a

nucleophile In chemistry, a nucleophile is a chemical species that forms bonds by donating an electron pair. All molecules and ions with a free pair of electrons or at least one pi bond can act as nucleophiles. Because nucleophiles donate electrons, they are ...

such as dioxane two successive S2 reactions take place and the stereochemistry is again ''retention''. With standard S1 reaction conditions the reaction outcome is ''retention'' via a competing Si mechanism and not racemization and with pyridine added the result is again ''inversion''.

References

{{Reaction mechanisms Nucleophilic substitution reactions Reaction mechanisms

See also

References