Solvent nucleophilicity

The rates of the reactions of benzhydrylium ions (diarylcarbenium ions) with solvent mixtures of variable composition (water/acetonitrile, methanol/acetonitrile, ethanol/acetonitrile, ethanol/water, and trifluoroethanol/water) have been determined photometrically by conventional UV-vis spectroscopy, stopped-flow methods, and laser flash techniques. It has been shown that the first-order rate constants follow the previously published relationship log k(20 degreesC) = s(N + E), where E is an empirical electrophilicity parameter, N is an empirical nucleophilicity parameter, and s is a nucleophile-specific slope parameter. From plots of log k versus E of the benzhydrylium ions are derived the solvent nucleophilicity parameters s and N, the latter of which are designated as N, to emphasize that their use in the quoted correlation equation gives rise to first-order rate constants. A linear correlation between N-1 and Kevill's solvent nucleophilicity N-T based on S-methyldibenzothiophenium ions is reported, which allows one to interconvert the two sets of data. Because the N, values are directly comparable to the previously reported nucleophilicity parameters N for pi-systems (www.cup.uni-muenchen.de/oc/mayr/), the systematic design of Friedel-Crafts reactions with solvolytically generated carbocations becomes possible.