Kinetics and reaction mechanisms: Selected examples from the experience of forty years

Abstract

Kinetics of parallel reactions contribute to the elucidation of poly-step mechanisms. Competing pathways in the reaction of benzenediazonium ion with azide anion helped to establish the occurrence of phenylpentazole. Steady state kinetics clarified the competition between the interception of an intermediate and its return to the starting material. The Diels- Alder reactions of cyclooctatetraene and of diphenylbenzocyclobutenes, and the thermal equilibration of aziridines with azomethine ylides serve as examples. Kinetics and trapping experiments revealed a four-step sequence for the conversion of bromocyclooctatetraene to trans-β-bromostyrene. © 1989 IUPAC