Unusual stability and carbon acidity of a dicationic carbon species.
1,1'-Methylenebis(pyridinium) dication (MDP) is an unusual ion with two formal positively charged substituents attached to a central carbon, yet it is remarkably stable to hydrolysis at pH < 8. However, above this pH it undergoes a biphasic reaction liberating two equiv of pyridine sequentially. The rate of the first phase is second order in hydroxide ion, while that of the second is pH-independent. The first phase is also accompanied by the generation of a chromophore at 366 nm, which has been identified as a pyridine-ring-opened unsaturated iminoaldehyde formed by an ANRORC-type mechanism. This intermediate then undergoes ring closure to give the second equiv of pyridine and formaldehyde. Below pD 8 there is a very slow alternative pathway for degradation that is first order in hydroxide ion, liberates only one equiv of pyridine, and forms N-(hydroxymethyl)pyridinium ion. Deuterium exchange of the central methylene in D2O is faster than the breakdown of MDP and is predominantly OD(-)-catalyzed with a small amount of buffer catalysis. The estimated pKa of MDP dication in H2O, 21.2 at 25 °C and I = 1.0 M (KCl), is unexpectedly high but is about 9 units lower than that for the monocationic N-methylpyridinium ion. Deuterium exchange also occurs at the 2 and 6 positions of the pyridinium rings, but at a lower rate that is first order in deuteroxide ion and competitive with the breakdown of MDP only below pD 11.
IPOS, The Page Laboratories, Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences, The University of Huddersfield , Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3DH, United Kingdom.
Dharmit
D
Mistry
Nicholas
N
Powles
Michael I
MI
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