Hydration of the carbonyl group — Acetic acid catalysis in the co-operative mechanism

Abstract

In a co-operative reaction, solvent molecules, specifically water molecules, participate actively in the mechanism to circumvent the formation of charged intermediates. This paper extends our earlier theoretical treatment of the neutral co-operative hydration of acetone to include general acid catalysis by acetic acid. As before, the predominant neutral channel employs three catalytic water molecules. The principal acetic acid catalyzed channels employ one catalytic water molecule and, in approximately equal proportions, one or both oxygens of the carboxyl group. The theoretical rate constant for general acid catalysis is calculated to be 0.49 M–1s–1at 298 K. This compares to an estimated experimental value of 0.30 M–1s–1for acetic acid catalyzed hydration of acetone at 298 K in water solvent, determined by using the18O-isotope shift in the13C NMR spectrum of 2-13C-labelled acetone as a kinetic probe. It is concluded that the notion of co-operativity can be extended to include general acid catalysis of the hydration of a carbonyl group in water solvent. This creates an obvious problem for the generally accepted view that multistep ionic mechanisms are operative in the low dielectric media that exist at the active sites of hydrolytic enzymes. The relevance of this finding to the mechanisms of action of β-lactam antibiotics has been noted.Key words: hydration, reaction mechanism, co-operativity, general acid catalysis, ab initio, SCRF,18O-isotope shift.