Kinetics and mechanism of the aminolysis of O-ethyl S-aryl dithiocarbonates in acetonitrile

The aminolysis reactions of O-ethyl S-(Z-phenyl) dithiocarbonates (Z=p-CH3, H, p-Cl, and p-NO2) with anilines (AN) and N,N-dimethylanilines (DMA) in acetonitrile at 30.0°C are investigated. Relatively small values of βX (βnuc,0.4 ca. 0.7) and βZ (βlg −0.1 ca. −0.4) for both ANs and DMAs, significantly large kH/kD values (1.1 ca. 1.9) involving deuterated anilines, and large negative ρXZ values for ANs (−0.56) are interpreted to indicate a concerted mechanism for both ANs and DMAs but with a hydrogen bonded four-center type transition state (TS) for ANs. The relative leaving ability, k(Z=p-NO2)/k(Z=p-CH3), is smaller for ANs than for DMAs, especially for a weaker nucleophile (1.9 and 4.7 for AN and DMA, respectively, with X=p-Cl). This suggests that the rate enhancement by the hydrogen-bond formation in the four-center type TS for AN is greater for a weaker nucleofuge (Z=p-CH3), especially when the nucleophile (X=p-Cl) is weaker.