title: Charge-enhanced acidity and catalyst activation.
abstract: Acidities are commonly measured in polar solvents but catalytic reactions are typically carried out in nonpolar media. IR spectra of a series of phenols in CCl4 and 1% CD3CN/CCl4 provide relative acidities. Nonprotonated charged substituents with an appropriate counterion are found to enhance their Brønsted acidities and improve catalyst performance by orders of magnitude.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States.
authors.forename: Masoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Samet
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States.
authors.forename: Jordan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Buhle
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States.
authors.forename: Yunwen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States.
authors.forename: Steven R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Kass