Polar Effects in Organic Reactions

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Abstract
Attempts to gauge the effect of polar substituents on organic reaction rates by means of “inductive substituent constants” are based on the assumption that these effects are independent of the type of reaction observed. The measured rate constants of nucleophilic substitution reactions show, however, that this assumption is only partly justified even for saturated molecules. It is invalid if the substituent and the reaction center are an electron donor and an electron acceptor, respectively, which are hyperconjugated by way of σ‐bonds. In extreme cases the resulting polarization can lead to heterolytic fragmentation.