Vinyl ether hydrolysis. XXIX. 1-Methoxy-1,3-butadiene: reaction mechanism and implication for hydrolysis of the mutagen fecapentaene-12

Abstract

The hydrolysis of cis- and trans-1-methoxy-1,3-butadiene in aqueous solution occurs by hydron transfer to the δ-carbon atom with little or no β-hydronation to give crotonaldehyde as essentially the sole aldehyde product. The reaction gives appreciable hydronium-ion isotope effects in the normal direction [Formula: see text] and shows general acid catalysis; five carboxylic acid catalytic coefficients for hydrolysis of the trans isomer give a good Brønsted relation with the exponent α = 0.59. This is taken as evidence that these reactions occur by the conventional mechanism for vinyl ether hydrolysis involving rate-determining hydron transfer to substrate carbon followed by rapid formation and decomposition of a hemiacetal intermediate. Comparison of the reactivity of the present dienyl ethers with that of their monoenyl analog, methyl vinyl ether, shows that introduction of the second double bond decreases reactivity considerably: the hydronium-ion catalytic coefficient is reduced by a factor of 8.3 for the trans isomer and by a factor of 160 for the cis isomer. This reduction supports a hypothesis advanced to explain the occurrence of reaction by a different mechanism recently discovered in the hydrolysis of the strongly mutagenic polyenyl ether, fecapentaene-12.