Correlation analysis of reactivity in the oxidation of substituted benzyl alcohols by morpholinium chlorochromate

Indian Journal of Chemistry Vol. 47A, May 2008, pp. 669-676 Correlation analysis of reactivity in the oxidation of substituted benzyl alcohols by morpholinium chlorochromate Neelam Soni, Vandana Tiwari & Vinita Sharma* Department of Chemistry, J.NV University, Jodhpur 342 005, India Email: pkvs27@yahoo.com Received 30 November 2007; revised 28 March 2008 xidation of benzyl alcohol and some ortho-, meta- and para-monosubstituted derivatives by morpholinium chlorochromate in dimethyl sulphoxide leads to the formation of corresponding benzaldehydes. The reaction is first order each in both morpholinium chlorochromate and the alcohol. The reaction is promoted by hydrogen ions; the hydrogen-ion dependence has the form k obs = a + b [ + ]. xidation of α,α-dideuteriobenzyl alcohol exhibits a substantial primary kinetic isotope effect (k /k D = 5.86 at 298 K). The reaction has been studied in nineteen organic solvents and the effect of solvent analysed using Taft's and Swain's multi-parametric equations. The rates of oxidation of para- and meta-substituted benzyl alcohols have been correlated in terms of Charton s triparametric LDR equation whereas the oxidation of ortho-substituted benzyl alcohols with tetraperametric LDRS equation. The oxidation of para-substituted benzyl alcohols is more susceptible to the delocalization effect than that of ortho- and meta- substituted compounds, which display a greater dependence on the field effect. The positive value of η suggests the presence of an electron-deficient reaction centre in the rate-determining step. The reaction is subjected to steric acceleration by the ortho-substituents. A suitable mechanism is also proposed. IPC Code: Int.. 8 C07B33/00 alochromates have been used as mild and selective oxidizing reagents in synthetic organic chemistry 1-5. Morpholinium chlorochromate (MCC) is also one of such compounds used for the oxidation of primary aliphatic alcohols 6. nly a few reports on the oxidation aspects of MCC are available in the literature 7-8. We have been interested in the kinetic and mechanistic studies of the reactions of chromium (VI) species 9-12. In continuation of our earlier work, we report herein the kinetics of oxidation of some monosubstituted benzyl alcohols by MCC in dimethyl sulphoxide (DMS) as solvent. Attempts have been made to correlate rate and structure in this reaction. Materials and Methods MCC was prepared by the known method 6 and its purity was checked by an iodometric method. The procedure used for the purification of alcohols has been described earlier 13. α,α-dideuteriobenzyl alcohol (PhC 2 ) was prepared as reported already 14. Its isotopic purity, as ascertained by its NMR spectrum, was 95±4%. Due to non-aqueous nature of the solvent, toluene-p-sulphonic acid (Ts) was used as a source of hydrogen ions. Solvents were purified by the usual methods 15. The product analysis was carried out under kinetic conditions. In a typical experiment, benzyl alcohol (5.4 g, 0.05 mol) and MCC (3.10 g, 0.01 mol) were made up to 50 cm 3 in DMS and kept in the dark for ca. 15 h to ensure completion of the reaction. The solution was then treated with an excess (200 cm 3 ) of a saturated solution of 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine in 2 mol dm -3 and kept overnight in a refrigerator. The precipitated 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazone (DNP) was filtered off, dried, weighed, recrystallized from ethanol, and weighed again. The yields of DNP before and after recrystallization were 2.65 g (93%) and 2.20 g (77%) respectively. The DNP was found identical (m.pt. and mixed m.pt.) with the DNP of benzaldehyde. Similar experiments were performed with other alcohols also. The oxidation state of chromium in completely reduced reaction mixtures, determined by an iodometric method was 3.96±0.10. The pseudo-first order conditions were attained by maintaining a large excess ( 15 or more) of the alcohol over MCC. The solvent was DMS, unless specified otherwise. The reactions were followed, at constant temperatures (±0.1 K), by monitoring the decrease in [MCC] spectrophotometrically at 365 nm. No other

670 INDIAN J CEM, SEC A, MAY 2008 reactant or product has any significant absorption at this wavelength. The pseudo-first order rate constant, k obs, was evaluated from the linear (r = 0.990-0.999) plots of log [MCC] against time for up to 80% reaction. Duplicate kinetic runs showed that the rate constants were reproducible to within ±3%. The second order rate constant, k 2, was obtained from the relation: k 2 = k obs /[alcohol]. All experiments, other than those for studying the effect of hydrogen ions, were carried out in the absence of Ts. Results and Discussion The rates and other experimental data were obtained for all the alcohols. Since the results are similar, only representative data are reproduced here. Stoichiometry xidation of benzyl alcohols by MCC results in the oxidation of corresponding benzaldehydes. Analysis of products and the stoichiometric determinations indicate the following overall reaction: ArC 2 + Cr 2 M ArC + () 2 CrM (1) Thus MCC undergoes a two-electron change. This is in accord with the earlier observations with MCC 7,8 and other halochromates 9-12 also. It has already been shown that both PFC 16 and PCC 17 act as two-electron oxidants and are reduced to chromium (IV) species, by determining the oxidation state of chromium by magnetic susceptibility, ESR and IR studies. Rate laws The reactions were found to be first order with respect to MCC. The individual kinetic runs were strictly first order to MCC. Further, the pseudo-first order rate constant, k obs, was independent of initial concentration of MCC. The reaction rate increases linearly with an increase in the concentration of benzyl alcohols (Table 1). Induced polymerisation of acrylonitrile The oxidation of benzyl alcohol by MCC, in an atmosphere of nitrogen failed to induce the polymerisation of acrylonitrile. Further, an addition of a radical scavenger, acrylonitrile, had no effect on the rate (Table 1). Effect of acidity The reaction is catalysed by hydrogen ions. The hydrogen-ion dependence taking the form: k obs = a + b[ + ] (Table 1). The values for a and b for p-methoxy benzyl alcohol are 7.91±0.02 10 4 s 1 and 12.7±0.03 10 4 mol 1 dm 3 s 1 respectively (r 2 = 0.9976) Table 1 Rate constants for the oxidation of p-methoxy benzyl alcohol by MCC at 298 K 10 3 [MCC] (mol dm 3 ) [Alcohol] (mol dm 3 ) [Ts] (mol dm 3 ) 10 4 k obs (s 1 ) 1.0 0.10 0.0 7.65 1.0 0.20 0.0 15.1 1.0 0.40 0.0 30.4 1.0 0.60 0.0 45.6 1.0 0.80 0.0 60.3 1.0 1.00 0.0 75.5 2.0 0.40 0.0 15.2 4.0 0.40 0.0 14.7 6.0 0.40 0.0 15.5 8.0 0.40 0.0 16.0 1.0 1.00 0.1 8.98 1.0 1.00 0.2 10.8 1.0 1.00 0.4 13.0 1.0 1.00 0.6 15.3 1.0 1.00 0.8 18.2 1.0 1.00 1.0 20.7 1.0 0.40 0.0 16.2 * * contained 0.001 mol dm -3 acrylonitrile Effect of substituents The rates of oxidation of substituted benzyl alcohols by MCC were determined at different temperatures and activation parameters were calculated (Table 2). Kinetic isotope effect To ascertain the importance of the cleavage of the α C bond in the rate-determining step, oxidation of α,α-dideuteriobenzyl alcohol was studied. Results showed the presence of a substantial primary kinetic isotope effect (Table 2). Effect of solvents The oxidation of benzyl alcohol was studied in 19 different organic solvents. The choice of solvents was limited by the solubility of MCC and its reaction with primary and secondary alcohols. There was no reaction with the solvents chosen. Kinetics results were similar in all the solvents. The values of k 2 are recorded in Table 3. The correlation between activation enthalpies and entropies of oxidation of the thirty three alcohols is not very good (r 2 = 0.9255). The value of the isokinetic

SNI et al.: CRRELATIN ANALYSIS F REACTIVITY IN TE XIDATIN F BENZYL ALCLS 671 Table 2 Rate constants and activation parameters of oxidation of substituted benzyl alcohols by MCC 10 4 k 2 (dm 3 mol -1 s -1 ) Substituent 288 298 308 318 K * (kj mol -1 ) S * (J mol -1 K -1 ) G * (kj mol -1 ) 8.19 19.1 46.4 108 63.1±0.9 85 ± 3 88.4±0.7 p-me 17.1 39.2 91.1 198 59.8±0.8 91 ± 2 86.7±0.4 p-me 34.2 75.5 171 369 58.0±0.8 91 ± 2 85.0±0.5 p-f 6.84 16.2 40.3 95.4 64.6±0.9 82 ± 3 88.8±0.8 p- 4.50 11.0 27.6 66.6 65.9±0.9 80 ± 3 89.8±0.7 p-n 2 0.34 0.96 2.72 7.38 75.7±0.8 68 ± 2 95.8±0.6 p-cf 3 1.04 2.73 7.38 18.9 71.2±0.9 74 ± 3 93.3±0.7 p-cme 1.44 3.75 9.90 25.2 70.2±0.8 75 ± 3 92.5±0.7 p-br 4.41 10.7 27.1 65.5 66.1±0.9 80 ± 3 89.9±0.8 p-nac 17.0 38.2 90.0 191 59.2±0.7 93 ± 2 86.7±0.6 p-cn 0.63 1.66 4.61 11.7 71.9±0.9 76 ± 3 94.5±0.7 p-sme 20.7 46.2 108 234 59.3±0.8 91 ± 2 86.2±0.6 p-nme 2 171 342 720 1410 52.0±0.5 99 ± 2 81.3±0.4 m-me 14.3 32.2 75.6 168 60.2±0.8 91 ± 3 87.1±0.7 m-me 13.5 31.3 72.9 161 60.5±0.5 90 ± 2 87.2±0.6 m- 2.43 6.03 15.8 38.7 67.9±0.9 79 ± 3 91.3±0.8 m-br 2.32 5.94 15.3 37.8 68.4±0.7 78 ± 2 91.3±0.6 m-f 2.91 7.29 18.9 45.9 67.7±0.8 78 ± 3 90.8±0.6 m-n 2 0.24 0.72 2.21 6.21 80.3±0.7 55 ± 2 96.6±0.6 m-c 2 Me 1.35 3.51 9.54 24.3 71.1±0.9 73 ± 3 92.6±0.7 m-cf 3 0.92 2.47 6.93 18.0 73.7±0.7 67 ± 2 93.5±0.6 m-cn 0.47 1.33 3.78 9.90 75.0±0.5 68 ± 2 95.1±0.4 m-sme 9.50 21.6 51.3 117 61.4±0.9 90 ± 3 88.1±0.8 m-nac 8.53 19.8 47.7 108 62.1±0.8 89 ± 3 88.4±0.6 o-me 62.1 126 270 531 52.3±0.7 106± 2 83.8±0.6 o-me 54.0 108 234 468 52.6±0.9 106± 3 84.1±0.8 o-n 2 0.72 1.88 4.95 12.5 70.0±0.7 82± 2 94.2±0.6 o-cme 5.31 12.3 29.0 66.3 61.6±0.8 94 ± 3 89.5±0.7 o-nac 79.2 153 315 609 49.8±0.6 113± 2 83.3±0.5 o- 13.5 29.5 66.6 142 57.4±0.7 101± 2 87.4±0.6 o-br 17.1 37.1 82.1 162 54.8±0.5 108± 2 86.8±0.4 o-i 29.6 60.3 126 261 52.8±0.9 111± 3 85.6±0.7 o-cn 1.44 3.71 9.54 21.6 66.5±0.5 88± 2 92.5±0.4 o-sme 74.7 144 306 583 50.1±0.9 112± 3 83.4±0.5 o-f 8.55 19.1 45.0 99.0 59.9±0.9 96± 3 88.4±0.7 o-cf 3 10.8 22.7 52.1 108 57.9±0.5 102 ± 2 88.0±0.4 α,α -BA 1.34 3.26 8.26 19.8 66.0±0.9 90± 3 92.8±0.7 k /k D 6.11 5.86 5.62 5.45

672 INDIAN J CEM, SEC A, MAY 2008 Table 3 Solvent effect on the oxidation of benzyl alcohol by MCC at 298 K Solvent 10 5 k 2 (dm 3 mol -1 s -1 ) temperature is 634±26 K. owever, according to Exner 18, an isokinetic relationship between the calculated values of activation enthalpies and entropies is often vitiated by random experimental errors. Exner suggested an alternative method for establishing the isokinetic relationship. Exner's plot between log k 2 at 288 K and at 318 K was linear (r 2 = 0.9984). The value of isokinetic temperature evaluated from the Exner's plot is 601±28 K. The linear isokinetic correlation implies that all the alcohols are oxidized by the same mechanism and the changes in the rate are governed by changes in both the enthalpy and entropy of activation. The observed hydrogen ion dependence suggests that the reaction follows two mechanistic pathways, one acidindependent and another acid-dependent. The acidcatalysis may well be attributed to a protonation of MCC as (Eq. 2) to yield a protonated Cr(VI) species which is a stronger oxidant and electrophile. Formation of a protonated Cr(VI) species has earlier been postulated in the reactions of structurally similar PCC 12. + MCr 2 + + MCr()cl (2) The rate constants, k 2, in seventeen solvents (CS 2 was not considered as the complete range of solvent parameters was not available) were correlated in terms of linear solvation energy relationship (Eq. 3) of Kamlet et al. 19 log k 2 = A 0 + pπ * + bβ + aα Solvent 10 5 k 2 (dm 3 mol -1 (3) In Eq. (3), π * represents the solvent polarity, β the hydrogen bond acceptor basicities and α is the hydrogen s -1 ) Chloroform 51.3 Toluene 18.2 1,2-Dichloroethane 70.8 Acetophenone 75.8 Dichloromethane 57.5 Tetrahydrofuran 33.9 Dimethyl sulfoxide 191 t-butyl alcohol 21.4 Acetone 63.1 1,4-Dioxane 29.5 DMF 108 1,2-Dimethoxyethane 16.6 Butanone 41.7 Ethyl acetate 25.7 Nitrobenzene 79.4 Carbon disulfide 8.32 Benzene 20.4 Acetic acid 9.77 Cyclohexane 2.29 bond donor acidity. A 0 is the intercept term. It may be mentioned here that out of the 18 solvents, 13 have a value of zero for α. The results of correlation analyses terms of Eq. (3), a biparametric equation involving π * and β, and separately with π * and β are: log k 2 = 3.54 + 1.56 (±0.19) π * + 0.20 (±0.16) β + 0.19 (±0.15) α (4) R 2 = 0.8679; sd = 0.17; n = 18; ψ = 0.39 log k 2 = 3.59+1.65(±0.19)π * +0.14(±0.15)β R 2 = 0.8517; sd = 0.18; n = 18; ψ = 0.41 log k 2 = 3.56 + 1.69 (±0.18) π * r 2 = 0.8438; sd = 0.18 n = 18; ψ = 0.41 log k 2 = 2.62 + 0.43 (±0.36) β r 2 = 0.0826; sd = 0.43; n = 18; ψ = 0.98 (5) (6) (7) ere n is the number of data points and ψ is Exner's statistical parameter 20. Kamlet s 19 triparametric equation explains ca. 87% of the effect of solvent on the oxidation. owever, by Exner's criterion the correlation is not even satisfactory (cf. Eq. 4). The major contribution is of solvent polarity. It alone accounted for ca. 84 % of the data. Both β and α play relatively minor roles. The data on the solvent effect were also analysed in terms of Swain's equation 21 of cation- and anionsolvating concept of the solvents Eq. 8). log k 2 = a A + b B + C (8) ere A represents the anion-solvating power of the solvent and B the cation-solvating power of the solvent. C is the intercept term. (A + B) is postulated to represent the solvent polarity. The rates in different solvents were analysed in terms of Eq. (8), separately with A and B and with (A + B). log k 2 = 0.56 (±0.04) A + 1.72 (±0.03) B 4.24 (9) R 2 = 0.9963; sd = 0.03; n = 19; ψ = 0.06 log k 2 = 0.31 (±0.57) A 2.58 r 2 = 0.0175; sd = 0.46; n = 19; ψ = 1.02 (10)

SNI et al.: CRRELATIN ANALYSIS F REACTIVITY IN TE XIDATIN F BENZYL ALCLS 673 log k 2 = 1.68 (±0.10) B 4.42 r 2 = 0.9413; sd = 0.11; n = 19; ψ = 0.25 log k 2 = 1.33±0.15 (A + B) 4.28 r 2 = 0.8228; sd = 0.19; n = 19; ψ = 0.43 (11) (12) The rates of oxidation of benzyl alcohol in different solvents show an excellent correlation in Swain's equation (9) with the cation-solvating power playing the major role. In fact, the cation-solvation alone accounts for ca. 99% of the data. The solvent polarity, represented by (A + B), also accounted for ca. 82% of the data. In view of the fact that the solvent polarity is able to account for ca. 82 % of the data, an attempt was made to correlate the rate with the relative permittivity of the solvent. owever, a plot of log (rate) against the inverse of the relative permittivity is not linear (r 2 = 0.5383 sd = 0.31, ψ = 0.70). Correlation analysis of reactivity The effect of structure on reactivity has long been correlated in terms of the ammett equation 22 or with dual substituentparameter equations 23,24. In the late 1980s, Charton 25 introduced a triparametric LDR equation for the quantitative description of structural effects on chemical reactivities. This triparametric equation results from the fact that substituent types differ in their mode of electron delocalization. This difference reflected in a different sensitivity to the electron demand for the phenomenon being studied. It has a advantage of not requiring a choice of parameters as the same three substituents constants are reported to cover the range of electrical effects of the substituents. In this work we have applied the LDR Eq. (13) to the rate constants, k 2. log k 2 = L σ l + D σ d + R σ e + h (13) ere, σ l is a localized (field and/or inductive) effect parameter, σ d is the intrinsic delocalized electrical effect parameter when active site electronic demand is minimal and σ e represents the sensitivity of the substituent to changes in electronic demand by the active site. The latter two substituent parameters are related by Eq. (14). σ D = ησ e + σ d (14) ere η represents the electronic demand of the reaction site and is given by η = R/D, and σ D represents the delocalized electrical parameter of the diparametric LD equation. For ortho-substituted compounds, it is necessary to account for the possibility of steric effects and Charton 25, therefore, modified the LDR equation to generate the LDRS Eq. (15). log k 2 = L σ l + D σ d + R σ e + S υ + h (15) where υ is the well known Charton's steric parameter based on Van der Waals radii 26. The rates of oxidation of ortho-, meta- and parasubstituted benzyl alcohols show an excellent correlation in terms of the LDR/LDRS equations (Table 4). We have used the standard deviation (sd), the coefficient of multiple determination (R 2 ), and Exner's 20 parameter, Ψ, as the measures of goodness of fit. The comparison of the L and D values for the substituted benzyl alcohols showed that the oxidation of para-substituted benzyl alcohols is more susceptible to the delocalization effect than to the localized effect. owever, the oxidation of ortho- and meta-substituted compounds exhibited a greater dependence on the field effect. In all the cases, the magnitude of the reaction constants decreases with an increase in the temperature, pointing to a decrease in selectivity with an increase in temperature. All three regression coefficients, L, D and R, are negative indicating an electron-deficient carbon centre in the activated complex for the rate-determining step. The positive value of η adds a negative increment to σ d, reflecting the electron-donating power of the substituent and its capacity to stabilise a cationic species. The positive value of S indicates that the reaction is subject to steric acceleration by an ortho-substituent. To test the significance of localized, delocalized and steric effects in the ortho-substituted benzyl alcohols, multiple regression analyses were carried out with (i) σ l, σ d and σ e (ii) σ d, σ e and υ and (iii) σ l, σ e and υ. The absence of significant correlations showed that all the four substituent constants are significant. log k 2 = 1.57 (±0.39) σ l 1.59 (±0.39) σ d 3.28 (±1.79) σ e 2.36 (16) R 2 = 0.8445; sd = 0.27; n = 12; ψ = 0.39 log k 2 = 1.65 (±0.54) σ d 1.61 (±0.48) σ e + 0.80 (±0.76) υ 3.70 (17) R 2 = 0.8295; sd = 0.30; n = 12; ψ = 0.47

674 INDIAN J CEM, SEC A, MAY 2008 Table 4 Temperature dependence for the reaction constants for the oxidation of substituted benzyl alcohols by MCC T (K) L D R S η R 2 sd ψ P D P S Para-substituted 288 1.71 1.90 1.51-0.63 0.9998 0.005 0.02 53.0-298 1.61 1.82 1.14-0.62 0.9989 0.026 0.03 53.1-308 1.52 1.73 1.09-0.63 0.9990 0.025 0.04 53.2-318 1.44 1.65 1.02-0.62 0.9990 0.023 0.04 53.4 - Meta-substituted 288 1.84 1.29 0.98-0.70 0.9999 0.005 0.01 41.2-298 1.70 1.25 0.90-0.72 0.9992 0.017 0.03 42.4-308 1.57 1.20 0.83-0.69 0.9993 0.015 0.03 43.3-318 1.47 1.17 0.75-0.64 0.9973 0.028 0.06 44.3 - rtho-substituted 288 1.85 1.38 0.46 1.27 0.33 0.9913 0.19 0.29 42.7 28.2 298 1.74 1.31 0.46 1.21 0.35 0.9927 0.18 0.28 43.0 28.4 308 1.62 1.23 0.35 1.12 0.28 0.9939 0.16 0.28 43.2 28.2 318 1.53 1.17 0.47 1.02 0.30 0.9926 0.16 0.29 43.5 27.4 log k 2 = 1.81 (±0.08) σ l 1.50 (±0.07) σ e + 1.16 (±0.07) υ 2.70 (18) R 2 = 0.5919; sd = 0.44; n = 12; ψ = 0.73 Similarly in the cases of oxidation of para- and metasubsituted benzyl alcohols, multiple regression analyses indicated that both localization and delocalization effects are significant. There is no significant collinearity between the various substituents constants for the three series. The percent contribution 26 of the delocalized effect, P D, is given by Eq. (19). P D = ( D 100) / ( L + D ) (19) Similarly, the percent contribution of the steric parameter 26 to the total effect of the substituent, P S, was determined by using Eq. (20). P S = ( S 100) / ( L + D + S ) (20) The values of P D and P S are also recorded in Table 4. The value of P D for the oxidation of para-substituted benzyl alcohols is ca. 53% whereas the corresponding values for the meta- and ortho-sobstituted alcohols are ca. 41 and 46% respectively. This shows that the balance of localization and delocalization effects is different for differently substituted benzyl alcohols. The less pronounced resonance effect from the ortho-position than from the para-position may be due to the twisting away of the alcoholic group from the plane of the benzene ring. The magnitude of the P S value shows that the steric effect is significant in this reaction. The positive value of S showed a steric acceleration of the reaction. This may be explained on the basis high ground state energy of the sterically crowded alcohols. Since the crowding is relieved in the in the product aldehyde as well as the transition state leading to it, the transition state energy of the crowded and uncrowded alcohols do not differ much and steric acceleration, therefore results. Mechanism A hydrogen abstraction mechanism leading to the formation of the free radicals is unlikely in view of the failure to induce polymerization of acrylonitrile and no effect of the radical scavenger on the reaction rate. The presence of a substantial kinetic isotope effect confirms the cleavage of a α-c- bond in the rate-determining step. The negative values of the localization and delocalization electrical effects, i.e. of L, D and R points to an electron-deficient reaction centre in the ratedetermining step. It is further supported by the positive value of η, which indicates that the substituent is better able to stabilize a cationic or electron-deficient reactive site. Therefore, a hydride-ion transfer in the ratedetermining step is suggested. The hydride-ion transfer mechanism is also supported by the major role of cation-

δ SNI et al.: CRRELATIN ANALYSIS F REACTIVITY IN TE XIDATIN F BENZYL ALCLS 675 Acid-independent Path Acid-dependent Path ArC 2 + Cr M K 2 Cr Ar k 1 M slow K 1 2 CrM + + ()Cr + M M K 3 ArC 2 + Cr + Cr + Ar M ArC + () 2 CrM Scheme 1 Ar Cr M # + ArC + CrM + 2 Ar C k 2 slow M Cr # solvating power of the solvents. The hydride ion transfer may take place either by a cyclic process via an ester intermediate or by an acyclic one-step bimolecular process. Kwart and Nickle 27 have shown that a dependence of kinetic isotope effect on temperature can be gainfully employed to determine whether the loss of hydrogen proceeds through a concerted cyclic process or by an acyclic one. The data for protio- and deuteriobenzyl alcohols, fitted to the familier expression: k /k D = A /A D ( * /RT) 28,29 show a direct correspondence with the properties of a symmetrical transition state in which activation energy difference for protio and deuterio compounds is equal to the difference in the zero-point energy for the respective C and C D bonds ( 4.5 kj mol 1 ) and the entropies of activation of the respective reactions are almost equal. Similar phenomena were also observed earlier in the oxidation of benzhydrol by BTEACC 12 and of hydroxy acids by QFC 10. Bordwell 30 has documented a very cogent evidence against the occurrence of concerted one-step bimolecular processes by hydrogen transfer and it is evident that in the present studies also the hydrogen transfer does not occur by an acyclic biomolecular process. It is well-established that intrinsically concerted sigmatropic reactions, characterised by transfer of hydrogen in a cyclic transition state, are the only truly symmetrical processes involving a linear hydrogen transfer 31. Littler 32 has also shown that a cyclic hydride transfer, in the oxidation of alcohols by Cr(VI), involves six electrons and, being a uckel-type system, is an allowed process. Thus, a transition state having a planar, cyclic and symmetrical structure can be envisaged for the decomposition of the ester intermediate. ence, the Scheme 2 overall mechanism is proposed to involve the formation of a chromate ester in a fast pre-equilibrium step and then a decomposition of the ester in a subsequent slow step via a cyclic concerted symmetrical transition state leading to the product (Schemes 1 and 2). The observed negative value of entropy of activation also supports the proposed mechanism. As the charge separation takes place in the transition state, the charged ends become highly solvated. This results in an immobilization of a large number of solvent molecules, reflected in the loss of entropy 33. Acknowledgement Thanks are due to University Grants Commission, New Delhi for financial support in the form of Major Research Project No. F. 32 207/2006 (SR) dated 22.02.2007, and to Professor K.K. Banerji for critical suggestions. References 1 Corey E J & Suggs W J, Tetrahedron Lett, (1975) 2647. 2 Guziec F S & Luzio F A, Synthesis (1980) 691. 3 Bhattacharjee M N, Choudhuri M K, Dasgupta S, Roy N & Khathing D T, Synthesis, (1982) 588. 4 Balasubramanian K & Prathiba V, Indian J Chem, 25B (1986) 326. 5 Pandurangan A, Murugesan V & Palanichamy M, J Indian Chem Soc, 72 (1995) 479. 6 Shiekh N, Sharma M, ussain M & Kalsotra B L, xid Commun, 28 (2005) 887.

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