Dual bifunctional catalysis and the α-effect in the reaction of hydroxylamine with phenylacetate

The reaction of hydroxylamine with phenyl acetate was theoretically investigated to shed light on the role of catalysis and the origin of the α-effect in this system. Calculations at the B3LYP/6-311+G(2df,2p)//HF/6-31G(d) level and the solvent effect included at the PCM/HF/6-31G(d) level predict that the direct attack of hydroxylamine to the carbonyl centre has a high ΔG‡ barrier, close to 50 kcal mol-1. A second hydroxylamine molecule can catalyse the process through bifunctional catalysis using both the NH2 and OH groups simultaneously. This dual bifunctional catalysis decreases the ΔG‡ to 19 kcal mol-1 and is able to explain the experimentally observed kinetics and product ratio.