Solvent Effect on the Kinetics of the Basic Hydrolysis of Isatin

Abstract

The kinetics of the basic hydrolysis of isatin in the presence of ehanol and ethylene glycol has been investigated spectrophotometrically. The rate of the reaction decreases with increasing ethanol content and it passes through a minimum at about 30% ethylene glycol. The effects of dielectric constant of the solvent mixture and the solvent composition on the reaction rate were studied, and the thermodynamic activation parameters were calculated and discussed. A mechanism for the base hydrolysis of isatin was proposed.