Solvolysis of Tris-p-nitrophenyl-phosphate in aqueous and reverse micelles

The widespread use of toxic phosphates and phosphonates as insecticides, and their use as chemical weapons, has led to investigation of fast detoxification and decontamination methods. Micelles, microemulsions, cyclodextrines and liposomes have been used to accelerate phosphate ester decomposition by nucleophiles. Here, hydrolysis, methanolysis and hexanolysis of Tris-p-nitrophenyl phosphate (TNPP), a model for reactive phosphate esters, were studied in homogeneous phase, aqueous and reverse micelles. Kinetic micellar effects were quantitatively analyzed using pseudo-phase models. TNPP hydrolysis was catalyzed by cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC), cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), and hexadecylammonium propanesulfonate (HPS), micelles by factors of five, CTAC, and three, CTAB, HPS, respectively. The calculated rate constants for spontaneous and acetate-catalyzed hydrolysis in the micellar phase were significantly higher than those in the aqueous phase. While in water and in methanol the effect of the acetate cation was negligible, the catalytic efficiency of acetate for hexanolysis depended on the nature of the cation with the K⁺ salt being ca. 20 times more efficient than the tetraethylammonium salt in non-polar solvents. Sodium dodecylsulfate, SDS, micelles inhibited TNPP hydrolysis by a factor of eigth. Reverse micelles of CTAB in n-hexanol/isooctane (10:90, v/v) did not catalyze TNPP hydrolysis, but changed the bis-p-nitrophenyl phosphate/hexyl-bis-p-nitrophenylphosphate product ratio depending of CTAB concentration and water/detergent ratio.