Dear wonderful helpers at CF. I have a question about nucleophilicity. I want to compare these two reactions with respect to rate:
CH
3-I +
-OH
CH
3-OH + I
--and
CH
3-I + Cl
- CH
3-Cl + I
-.
The solvent could be either a protic or aprotic one, I am interested in both cases. Sadly enough, I must say I am completely lost here. There are so many aspects of this problem which makes me really confused. So I hope you can help me sort this out.
This is what I know about the advantages of the respective nucleophiles:
Hydroxide ionLess polarizable (i.e. worse stablilization of its negative charge)
Better size of the HOMO for σ*(C-I) interactions.
Chloride ionHigher and thus more accessible HOMO
I also know that chloride ions are softer than hydroxide ions, and that CH3-I is a rather soft acid. Does that matter?
As for the solvent, I suppose that the chloride ions should be favored by protic solvents and disfavoured by aprotic ones (compared to hydroxide ions).