OH--induced β-elimination reactions with 1-(2-Xethyl)-4-nitrobenzene substrates in solvent mixture H2O/CH3CN and H2O/DMSO: reactivity and mechanism.

The behaviour of 1-(2-bromoethyl) 4-nitrobenzene (1), N,N,N-triethyl-2-(4-nitrophenyl)ethanaminium bromide (2) and N,N-diethyl-N-[2-(4-nitrophenyl)ethyl]octan-1-aminium bromide (3) in the OH^--induced elimination reactions with formation of 1-nitro-4-vinylbenzene in mixtures of DMSO/H₂O or CH₃CN/H₂O has been investigated. With all three substrates an increase in dipolar aprotic solvent content implies a limited increase of the second-order rate constant k_OH up to ≅60%, and then an exponential increase is observed. The variation of activation parameters ΔH^# and ΔS^#, measured in DMSO/H₂O mixtures, is parallel for 1 and 2. This similar behaviour of 1 and 2 with respect to variation in solvent composition is evidence that it is not possible to use this technique of solvent effect for the mechanistic diagnosis of elimination reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]