Rationalization of the conflicting effects of hydrogen bond donor solvent on nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions in non-polar aprotic solvent: reactions of phenyl 2,4,6-trinitrophenyl ether with primary and secondary amines in benzene-methanol mixtures

The kinetics of the reactions of phenyl 2,4,6-trinitrophenyl ether with piperidine and cyclohexylamine respectively were studied at different amine concentrations in benzene. The reaction of cyclohexylamine was not base-catalysed while that of piperidine was catalysed by one molecule of the nucleophilic amine. Addition of small amounts of hydrogen-bond donor solvent, methanol to the benzene medium of the reactions produced different effects—rate diminution followed by rate increase in one and continuous rate diminution in the other. These effects are compared with that of aniline (previously studied) in which a continuous rate increase was observed. The results are rationalized in terms of the effect of amine-solvent interaction on the nucleophilicity of the amines in addition to some other factors operating through cyclic transition states leading to products. It is evident from the rationalization that the idea of ‘dimer nucleophile’ in nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions is erroneous.