Micellar catalysis of organic reactions .37. A comparison of the catalysis of ester and amide hydrolysis by copper containing micelles

The hydrolysis of a number of nitroactivated esters and amides has been studied in the presence of copper-containing metallomicelles at neutral pH. The relative rates of hydrolysis in the pure metallomicelle and in co-micelles with either cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (ctab) or Triton X-100 depends on the hydrophobicity of the substrate and whether it is completely solubilized by the copper micelle. Thus it depends on the concentration of the copper micelle. At low concentrations of copper micelle (0.2 mM) where the substrate is incompletely solubilized, the reaction is faster when 2 mM ctab is added. At higher concentrations (>0.6 mM) where the substrate may be almost completely solubilized by the copper micelle, the reaction is slower when 2 mM ctab is added. For ester hydrolysis the presence of either a carboxylic acid group or a heterocyclic nitrogen atom close to the reaction centre resulted in much larger catalysis by the metallomicelle than for model compounds without these additional groups. It is postulated that these groups coordinate with the metal ion and thus present the reaction centre close to a metal-bound hydroxyl resulting in a significant increase in the rate of bond formation, which is the rate-determining step for ester hydrolysis. For amide hydrolysis the presence of a carboxyl group ortho to the reaction centre did not lead to larger catalysis by the copper micelle than for the compound without this group. This difference is attributed to the different rate-determining steps for amide and for ester hydrolysis.