• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.2769-2772
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• 2012

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.2260-2264
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• 2012

The kinetics and mechanism of the pyridinolysis ($XC_5H_4N$) of dimethyl isothiocyanophosphate are investigated in acetonitrile at $55.0^{\circ}C$. The Hammett and Br$\ddot{o}$nsted plots for substituent X variations in the nucleophiles exhibit two discrete slopes with a break region between X = 3-Ac and 4-Ac. These are interpreted to indicate a mechanistic change at the break region from a concerted to a stepwise mechanism with a rate-limiting expulsion of the isothiocyanate leaving group from the intermediate. The relatively large ${\beta}x$ values imply much greater fraction of frontside nucleophilic attack TSf than that of backside attack TSb. The steric effects of the two ligands play an important role to determine the pyridinolysis rates of isothiocyanophosphates.