A Demonstration of the Reactivity—Selectivity Principle for the Thiol—Disulfide Interchange Reaction

Equilibrium constants for the reaction of aryl thiol anions with hydroxyethyl disulfide have been measured which, along with literature data, demonstrate a slope of 1.21 for a plot of log K^S− (R'S‐ + RSSR ⇌ R'SSR + ‐SR) vs pKa. Rate constants were measured also for these endothermic reactions of aryl thiol anions with hydroxyethyl disulfide and also for the exothermic reactions of alkyl thiol anions with the mixed disulfide of mercaptoethanol and 4‐nitro‐2,3,5,6‐tetrafluorothiophenol. These kinetic data, obtained over a range of K^S− of 10²¹, show the gradual curvature expected for Hammond postulate type behavior. A quantitative measure of this curvature in terms of the Marcus formalism was carried out for these two data sets along with four others having more moderate values of ΔG. The data were fit with a value for the intrinsic barrier, λ/4 = 11.6 kcal, and a value for the work term W_r = 4.0 kcal. A comparison is made of these values with the similar values found for alkyl, proton and acyl transfer reactions. The importance of using a variety of substrates with a series of bases or nucleophiles, rather than a single substrate, is discussed, as are the cause for curvature other than Hammond postulate behavior.