Revisiting the Mechanism of Neutral Hydrolysis of Esters: Water Autoionization Mechanisms with Acid or Base Initiation Pathways

The mechanism of neutral hydrolysis of ester has long been explored by theoretical studies. However, reliable theoretical calculations show that the usual bifunctional catalysis mechanism reported by different authors cannot explain the experimental kinetics. An important advance was recently reported by Gunaydin and Houk, suggesting that ions are involved in the mechanism and the process initiates by water autoionization followed by protonation of the ester (W_AIA mechanism). However, this mechanism does not explain the hydrolysis of activated esters. In this work, we have used <i>ab initio</i> calculations, continuum solvation models, and intrinsic reaction coordinate method to support the W_AIA mechanism for normal ester. In the case of activated esters, the process can also be viewed as water autoionization with formation of hydroxide ion aided by a second water molecule acting as a general base (W_AIB mechanism). This is the mechanism that was proposed by Jencks and Carriuolo 50 years ago. Our analysis point out that the usual method for exploring mechanisms, searching for saddle points, may not work for problems like the present one, since there are no saddle points on the reaction pathway. Rather, the formation of a pair of ions from a neutral species may have an asymptotic barrier. The approach used in this paper allows the calculation of the free energy profile and enable us to explain the mechanism and kinetics of the neutral hydrolysis of normal (methyl acetate) and activated (methyl trifluoroacetate) esters. In addition, the present study suggests that formation of a pair of ions should always be considered in reactions in aqueous solution