| Abstract: | 2-Fluoro-5-nitrothiophene reacts with sodium thiophenoxide and piperidine much faster than other 2-halogeno-5-nitrothiophenes. In methanol the reactions with both nucleophiles follow overall second order kinetics, while in benzene the observed second order rate constants of the reaction with piperidine show a linear dependence by the piperidine concentration. Such a dependence, which is mild for the chloro, bromo and iodo derivative, becomes strong for the fluoro compound. Moreover, the reaction of 2-fluoro-5-nitrothiophene with 1-2H]piperidine shows the absence of a primary isotope effect. The results are interpreted within the framework of the two-stage, intermediate-complex mechanism, the first stage (attack of the nucleophile on the substrate) being rate determing for the reactions of 2-fluoro-, -chloro-, -bromo- and -iodo-5-nitrothiophene with thiophenoxide in methanol and of 2-chloro-, -bromo- and -iodo-5-nitrothiophene with piperidine in benzene. In the case of the reaction of 2-fluoro-5-nitrothiophene with piperidine in benzene the data are in agreement with a mechanism in which the rate determining step is the decomposition of the tetrahedral intermediate into products. The intervention of a second amine molecule in the transition state of the rate determining step can be rationalized in terms of bifunctional catalysis. A comparison of reactivity of thiophenoxide and piperidine towards 2-halogeno-5-nitrothiophenes (Hal = F, Cl, Br, I) indicates a greater sensitivity of the reaction with piperidine than that with thiophenoxide to the change of the leaving group. |
