{"id":8452,"date":"2012-12-01T22:26:07","date_gmt":"2012-12-01T22:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=8452"},"modified":"2013-01-03T16:41:39","modified_gmt":"2013-01-03T16:41:39","slug":"the-mechanism-of-the-birch-reduction-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=8452","title":{"rendered":"The mechanism of the Birch reduction. Part 1: reduction of anisole."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"kcite-section\" kcite-section-id=\"8452\">\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Birch_reduction#Experimental_testing_and_computational_verification\" target=\"_blank\">Birch reduction<\/a> is a classic method for partially reducing <em>e.g.<\/em> aryl ethers using <strong>electrons<\/strong> (from sodium dissolved in ammonia) as the reductant rather than <em>e.g.<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=8375\" target=\"_blank\">dihydrogen<\/a>. As happens occasionally in chemistry, a long debate broke out over the two alternative mechanisms labelled <strong><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">O<\/span><\/strong> (for ortho protonation of the initial radical anion intermediate) or <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">M<\/span><\/strong> (for meta protonation). Text books seem to have settled down of late in favour of <span style=\"color: #00ccff;\"><strong>O<\/strong><\/span>. Here I take a look at the issue myself.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8454\" title=\"birch\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/birch.svg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Readers of my blog will note that I promote the use of models which are as reasonably complete as one can make them. In this case, if the intermediate is an anion, then I argue that the model should include the positive counter-ion. This is very often simply <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=7100\" target=\"_blank\">not included<\/a>, on the grounds that it &#8220;probably does not influence things&#8221;. Well, not on this blog! My model is methoxybenzene, a sodium atom solvated by 3NH<sub>3<\/sub> (the reaction itself is done in liquid ammonia with some added t-butanol) and continuum solvent (not ammonia itself, but acetonitrile which has a similar dielectric to liquid ammonia with some added butanol).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The start point is a solvated sodium atom (loosely) coordinated to anisole (methoxybenzene). The <a href=\"http:\/\/hdl.handle.net\/10.6084\/m9.figshare.100562\" target=\"_blank\">calculation<\/a> (\u03c9B97XD\/6-311+G(d,p)\/SCRF=acetonitrile) on this neutral system shows the spin density arising from the single unpaired electron is mostly (0.851) on the sodium, although a little spin density has crept onto the anisole. The dipole moment (12.0D) shows that solvation cannot just be ignored.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8459\" style=\"width: 202px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8459\" class=\" wp-image-8459 \" title=\"birch1\" onclick=\"jmolInitialize('..\/Jmol\/');jmolSetAppletColor('white');jmolApplet([450,450],'load wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/birch-678.552983.log;frame 12;connect (atomno=17) (atomno=18) PARTIAL;connect (atomno=17) (atomno=24) PARTIAL;connect (atomno=17) (atomno=21) PARTIAL;vectors on;vectors 4;measure 1 2;measure 4 5;vectors scale 5.0; color vectors orange; vibration 20;animation mode loop;');\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/birch1.jpg\" width=\"192\" height=\"235\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8459\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Start point, with select spin densities. Click for 3D<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The next stage involves an electron transfer from the sodium to the anisole ring, and indeed the spin densities transfer from the Na to the two <span style=\"color: #33cccc;\">ortho-<\/span> and two <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">meta-<\/span>positions on the ring (the residual value on Na is -0.02). This suggests that the valence bond representations in the diagram above are incomplete (they imply spin density on only two rather than four carbon atoms). The <a href=\"http:\/\/hdl.handle.net\/10.6084\/m9.figshare.100636\" target=\"_blank\">geometry of the anisole ring<\/a> now shows bond alternation, with two long bonds (1.45 &#8211; 1.46\u00c5) and four short bonds (1.39-1.41\u00c5). This could be viewed as the result of a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=485\" target=\"_blank\">pseudo-Jahn-Teller distortion<\/a> resulting from placing an electron into one of the degenerate LUMO molecular orbitals of the benzene-like set.\u00a0The free energy \u0394G<sub>298\u00a0<\/sub>of this charge-transferred product is 11.1 kcal\/mol exothermic compared to the reactant and it has a dipole moment of 11.6D, similar to the precursor despite being an ion pair!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8464\" style=\"width: 220px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8464\" class=\" wp-image-8464 \" title=\"birch2\" onclick=\"jmolInitialize('..\/Jmol\/');jmolSetAppletColor('white');jmolApplet([450,450],'load wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/birch-ion-pair-678.570679.log;frame 60;connect (atomno=17) (atomno=18) PARTIAL;connect (atomno=17) (atomno=24) PARTIAL;connect (atomno=17) (atomno=21) PARTIAL;measure 1 2;measure 4 5;vectors on;vectors 4;vectors scale 5.0; color vectors orange; vibration 20;animation mode loop;');\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/birch2.jpg\" width=\"210\" height=\"219\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8464\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The contact ion-pair resulting from electron transfer. Click for 3D.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I start the analysis of how this species will protonate by inspecting the four highest energy NBOs (natural bond orbitals). Their energies are -0.144, -0.152, -0.167 and -0.167 au. The first of these with the highest energy might be expected to be the most basic. It corresponds to <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>M<\/strong><\/span> in the above scheme (below). The next however is <span style=\"color: #00ffff;\"><strong>O<\/strong><\/span> and the last two are the remaining O\/M positions.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_8476\" style=\"width: 287px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8476\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8476\" title=\"50\" onclick=\"jmolInitialize('..\/Jmol\/');jmolSetAppletColor('white');jmolApplet([450,450],'load wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/birch-ionpair_mo50.cub.xyz;isosurface color orange purple wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/birch-ionpair_mo50.cub.jvxl translucent;zoom 80;');\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/50.jpg\" width=\"277\" height=\"300\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8476\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Highest energy (-0.144) NBO orbital on M. Click for 3D.<\/p><\/div><br \/>\n<div id=\"attachment_8486\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8486\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8486\" title=\"49\" onclick=\"jmolInitialize('..\/Jmol\/');jmolSetAppletColor('white');jmolApplet([450,450],'load wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/birch-ionpair_mo50.cub.xyz;isosurface color yellow blue wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/birch-ionpair_mo49.cub.jvxl translucent;zoom 80;');\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/491.jpg\" width=\"240\" height=\"280\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8486\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Next highest energy (-0.152) \u00a0NBO on O. Click for 3D.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<p>Another measure of basicity is the molecular electrostatic potential (a measure of how attractive any point in space is towards a proton). It is shown below (as a green surface) only as the -ve potential (that part that is attractive to a proton). On the face bearing the proton donors (the ammonia groups attached to the Na) there is a clear preference for <span style=\"color: #33cccc;\"><strong>O<\/strong><\/span> (marked with a magenta arrow, but not the same O as predicted by the NBO), but with a slightly smaller basin corresponding to <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>M <\/strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">(again, not the M from the NBO analysis and marked with an orange arrow).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8479\" style=\"width: 190px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8479\" class=\" wp-image-8479 \" title=\"ESP\" onclick=\"jmolInitialize('..\/Jmol\/');jmolSetAppletColor('white');jmolApplet([450,450],'load wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/birch-ionpair_esp.cub.xyz;isosurface color green wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/birch-ionpair_esp.cub.jvxl translucent;zoom 80;');\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/ESP.jpg\" width=\"180\" height=\"202\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8479\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Molecular electrostatic potential (-ve phase). Click for 3D<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Viewed from the other side of the anisole ring (and rendered at a higher threshold), the electrostatic potential seems to favour <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>O<\/strong><\/span>, but only very slightly over\u00a0<strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">M<\/span><\/strong>. There really is not much in it.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8494\" style=\"width: 189px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8494\" class=\" wp-image-8494 \" title=\"ESP1\" onclick=\"jmolInitialize('..\/Jmol\/');jmolSetAppletColor('white');jmolApplet([450,450],'load wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/birch-ionpair_esp.cub.xyz;isosurface color yellow wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/birch-ionpair_esp.119.jvxl translucent;zoom 80;');\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/ESP1.jpg\" width=\"179\" height=\"237\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8494\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Molecular electrostatic potential (-ve phase, other face).\u00a0Click for 3D.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>All these properties are measures of the radical-anion-ion-pair. It is clear these different measures do not agree with one another! What we really need is the transition state for the proton transfer. I will go off and hunt for these. If I find them, I will report back here.\u00a0And beyond the transition state are the dynamic trajectories for the protonation, which ultimately may be the only way of finally resolving this conundrum.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- kcite active, but no citations found -->\n<\/div> <!-- kcite-section 8452 -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Birch reduction is a classic method for partially reducing e.g. aryl ethers using electrons (from sodium dissolved in ammonia) as the reductant rather than e.g. dihydrogen. As happens occasionally in chemistry, a long debate broke out over the two alternative mechanisms labelled O (for ortho protonation of the initial radical anion intermediate) or M [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":5,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[431,24,40,843,373],"ppma_author":[2661],"class_list":["post-8452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-dielectric","tag-energy","tag-free-energy","tag-reaction-mechanism","tag-tutorial-material"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The mechanism of the Birch reduction. Part 1: reduction of anisole. - Henry Rzepa&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=8452\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The mechanism of the Birch reduction. Part 1: reduction of anisole. - Henry Rzepa&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Birch reduction is a classic method for partially reducing e.g. aryl ethers using electrons (from sodium dissolved in ammonia) as the reductant rather than e.g. dihydrogen. 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Part 3: reduction of benzene","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"December 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Birch reduction of benzene itself results in 1,4-cyclohexadiene rather than the more stable (conjugated) 1,3-cyclohexadiene. Why is this? The mechanism, as elaborated in the previous two posts, involves a one-electron transfer from a sodium atom to form the radical anion, which is then protonated in a second step, and this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Birch reduction\"","block_context":{"text":"Birch reduction","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?tag=birch-reduction"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/birch-ip.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8570,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=8570","url_meta":{"origin":8452,"position":1},"title":"The mechanism of the  Birch reduction. Sequel to benzene reduction.","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"December 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I noted briefly in discussing why Birch reduction of benzene gives 1,4-cyclohexadiene (diagram below) that the geometry of the end-stage pentadienyl anion was distorted in the presence of the sodium cation to favour this product. This distortion actually has some pedagogic value, and so I elaborate this here. The starting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"antiaromaticity\"","block_context":{"text":"antiaromaticity","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?tag=antiaromaticity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/benzene-22.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8508,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=8508","url_meta":{"origin":8452,"position":2},"title":"The mechanism of the Birch reduction. Part 2: a transition state model.","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"December 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I promised that the follow-up to on the topic of Birch reduction would focus on the proton transfer reaction between the radical anion of anisole and a proton source, as part of analysing whether the mechanistic pathway proceeds O or M. To add some context, Hammond's postulate\u00a0\u00a0states that \"the structure\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Birch reduction\"","block_context":{"text":"Birch reduction","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?tag=birch-reduction"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/birch-mts.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10237,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=10237","url_meta":{"origin":8452,"position":3},"title":"How to predict the regioselectivity of epoxide ring opening.","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"April 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently got an email from a student asking about the best way of rationalising epoxide ring opening using some form of molecule orbitals. This reminded me of the famous experiment involving propene epoxide. In the presence of 0.3% NaOH, propene epoxide reacts with ethanol at the unsubstituted carbon (~82%\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Interesting chemistry&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Interesting chemistry","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21982,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=21982","url_meta":{"origin":8452,"position":4},"title":"The mechanism of  Michael 1,4-Nucleophilic addition: a computationally derived reaction  pathway.","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"March 25, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"In 2013, I created an iTunesU library of 115\u00a0mechanistic types in organic and organometallic chemistry, illustrated using video animations of the intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC) computed using a high level quantum mechanical procedure. Many of those examples first derived from posts here. That collection\u00a0 is still available and is viewable\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;reaction mechanism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"reaction mechanism","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=1086"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23522,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=23522","url_meta":{"origin":8452,"position":5},"title":"A computational mechanism for the aqueous hydrolysis of a ketal to a ketone and alcohol.","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"April 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The previous post was about an insecticide and made a point that the persistence of both insecticides and herbicides is an important aspect of their environmental properties. Water hydrolysis will degrade them, a typical residency time being in the order of a few days. I noted in passing a dioxepin-based\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;reaction mechanism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"reaction mechanism","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=1086"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/R-1024x699.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"authors":[{"term_id":2661,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"admin","display_name":"Henry Rzepa","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/897b6740f7f599bca7942cdf7d7914af5988937ae0e3869ab09aebb87f26a731?s=96&d=blank&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8452"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8861,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8452\/revisions\/8861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8452"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=8452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}