Mechanism of Solvation in Solvent Alcohols

Abstract

Differential solvation of the different species in reactions are treated in two parts: primary differential solvation involving the functional group of the solvent and secondary differential solvation representing substituent effect on the solvation bond. Aliphatic

alcohols of α-series (with changing methyl substitution at α-position),

as solvents for a number of solvation-based reactions, are

studied.

Quantitative correlation, between reactivity parameters in the

solvents and the polar and ponderal substituent parameters of the

alkyl substituents in the solvents, has been shown to be leading to

the identification of solvation bonds of two modes—one of electrostatic,

and the other of orbital, interactions between the solute and

the solvent. Such detailed study of the "mechanism of solvation"

is shown to lead to a few interesting mechanistic inferences.