Resumen de Kinetic Demonstration of Intermolecular General Acid (GA) Catalysis in Thiolysis of 9-Anilinoacridine
All acids other than hydronium ion (known as specific acid) are called general acids (GA) and all bases other than hydroxide ion (known as specific base) are defined as general bases (GB). If a reaction is sensitive to acid catalysis, it may involve both specific acid and GA catalysis. It is now generally believed that most enzyme-catalyzed reactions involve the occurrence of intramolecular and intermolecular general acid-base (GA–GB) catalysis (1). Since this fact was realized a huge amount of work has been carried out using simpler nonenzymatic reactions with the purpose of developing an understanding of the mechanistic aspects of such catalysis (2). After nearly five decades of active research and numerous publications on GA–GB catalysis, introduction of an experiment on GA for students majoring in enzymology/physical organic chemistry at advanced undergraduate/postgraduate level is appropriate. A kinetic experiment involving the reaction of 2-mercaptoethanol (2-ME) with 9-anilinoacridine (9-ANA) is designed to demonstrate intermolecular GA catalysis.
