Substituent effects on the acidity of weak acids. 2. Calculated gas-phase acidities of substituted benzoic acids

To investigate the origin of substituent effects on the acidity of benzoic acids, the structures of a series of substituted benzoic acids and benzoates have been calculated at the B3LYP/6-311+G* and MP2/6-311+G* theoretical levels. The vibrational frequencies were calculated using B3LYP/6-311+G* and allowed corrections for the change in zero-point energies on ionization, and the change in energy on going from 0 K (corresponding to the calculations) to 298 K. A more satisfactory agreement with the experimental values was obtained by energy calculations at the MP2/ 6-311++G* level using the above structures. The resulting Delta H(acid) values agree very well with the experimental gas-phase acidities. The energies of compounds with pi-electron-accepting or -releasing substituents, rotated to give the transition state geometries, provided rotational barriers that could be compared with those found for the corresponding substituted benzenes. Isodesmic reactions allowed the separate examination of the substituent effects on the energies of the acids and on the anions. Electron-withdrawing groups stabilize the benzoate anions more than they destabilize the benzoic acids. Electron-donating groups stabilize the acids and destabilize the anions by approximately equal amounts. The gas-phase acidities of meta- and para-substituted benzoic acids are linearly related. This is also found for the acidities of substituted phenylacetic acids and benzoic acids. Since direct pi-electron interactions are not possible with the phenylacetic acids, this indicates that the acidities are mainly controlled by a field effect interaction between the charge distribution in the substituted benzene ring and the negative charge of the carboxylate group. The Hammett sigma(M) and sigma(P) values are also linearly related for many small substituents from NO(2) through the halogens and to OH and NH(2). Most of the other substituents fall on a line with a different slope