Kinetics and mechanism of acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of the diazo functional groups of 1-diazo-2-indanone and 2-diazo-1-indanone in aqueous solution

Rates of hydrolysis of 1-diazo-2-indanone and 2-diazo-1-indanone were measured in dilute aqueous perchloric acid solutions using both H2O and D2O as the solvent, and rates of hydrolysis of the latter substrate were measured in dilute aqueous (H2O only) formic acid buffer solutions as well. The data for 1-diazo-2-indanone gave the hydronium ion catalytic coefficient kH+ = 5.7 × 10–3 (mol/L)–1 s–1 and the isotope effect kH+/kD+ = 2.9. The normal direction (kH/kD > 1) of this isotope effect was taken as evidence for a reaction mechanism involving rate-determining hydron transfer from the hydronium ion to the substrate's diazo carbon atom; followed by rapid displacement of diazo nitrogen by a water molecule, giving the observed 1-hydroxy-2-indanone product. The data for 2-diazo-1-indanone, on the other hand, gave a hydronium ion catalytic coefficient two orders of magnitude greater than the value for 1-diazo-2-indanone (kH+ = 5.9 × 10–1 (mol/L)–1 s–1), and an isotope effect near unity (kH+/kD+ = 1.2). It is argued that this isotope effect represents a situation in which diazo carbon hydronation and displacement of diazo nitrogen are each partly rate determining, a conclusion supported by incipient saturation of buffer catalysis in the formic acid buffer solutions. The 100-fold difference in hydronium ion catalytic coefficients for the two substrates is rationalized in terms of differing electron densities on the diazo carbon atoms.Key words: diazo compound hydrolysis, solution kinetics, acid catalysis, solvent isotope effects, buffer catalysis saturation.