I guess the ester is a weaker nucleophile because it does have an additional oxygen atom, unlike the ketone, that is pulling electrons from the C-O double bond towards the carbon atom (this happens vice versa too of course with the ester oxygen). This lowers the ionic character of the C-O double bond (smaller $\delta^{+}$ and $\delta^{-}$ charge on the carbon and oxygen atoms) and thus increases the energy of the C-O $\pi^{*}$ bond, making it less nucleophilic. Is this correct?
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