Investigation of kinetic and mechanism of triphenylphosphine addition to para‐naphthoquinone

This work reports the results of a kinetic and mechanistic investigations of the addition reaction of triphenylphosphine to para‐naphtoquinone in 1,2‐dichloromethane as solvent. The order of reaction with respect to the reactants was determined using initial rate method, and the rate constant was obtained on the basis of pseudo‐first‐order method. Variable time method using Uv–Vis spectrophotometry (at 400 nm) was utilized for monitoring this addition reaction, for which the following Arrhenius equation was obtained: The resulting activation parameters E_a, ΔH^#, ΔG^#, and ΔS^# at 300 K were 13.63, 14.42, 18.75 kcal mol^?1, and ?14.54 cal mol^?1K^?1, respectively. The results suggest that the reaction is first order with respect to both triphenylphosphine and para‐naphthoquinone. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Chem Kinet 37: 427–433, 2005