Ruthenium(III)-catalyzed oxidation of amides by sodium N-bromobenzenesulphonamide in hydrochloric acid: a kinetic and mechanistic study

The kinetics of the RuIII-catalyzed oxidation of urea and substituted ureas namely: methylurea, ethylurea and propylurea, to the corresponding hydrazines by sodium N- bromobenzenesulphonamide or bromamine-B (BAB) in HCl medium has been studied at 303K. The reaction rate shows a first order dependence each upon BAB], amide] and RuIII] and is dependent on H+]. Addition of halide ions and benzenesulphonamide do not significantly affect the rate. Proton inventory studies were made in H2O-D2O mixtures for urea and methylurea. A Taft linear free energy relationship is observed for the reaction with *=–2.95 and =–0.25, showing that electron-donating groups enhance the rate. An isokinetic relation is observed with =370K, indicating that enthalpy factors control the rate; this result is also confirmed by Exner Criterion which showed a linear plot for the logarithms of rate constants at the highest and lowest temperatures employed. The protonation constant of monobromamine-B has been evaluated and equals 7.5. A mechanism consistent with the observed kinetic data has been proposed.