Posts Tagged ‘Pseudorotation’

An alternative mechanism for nucleophilic substitution at silicon using a tetra-alkyl ammonium fluoride.

Friday, May 27th, 2016

In the previous post, I explored the mechanism for nucleophilic substitution at a silicon centre proceeding via retention of configuration involving a Berry-like pseudorotation. Here I probe an alternative route involving inversion of configuration at the Si centre. Both stereochemical modes are known to occur, depending on the leaving group, solvent and other factors.[cite]10.1016/S0040-4020(01)89077-3[/cite],[cite]10.1021/ja01006a024[/cite],[cite]10.1021/ja00784a081[/cite]

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The mechanism of silylether deprotection using a tetra-alkyl ammonium fluoride.

Wednesday, May 25th, 2016

The substitution of a nucleofuge (a good leaving group) by a nucleophile at a carbon centre occurs with inversion of configuration at the carbon, the mechanism being known by the term SN2 (a story I have also told in this post). Such displacement at silicon famously proceeds by a quite different mechanism, which I here quantify with some calculations.

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