Abstract
The diethylaminoethyl esters of ortho-, para- and di-substituted benzoic acid were synthesized and the effect of a substituent on the rate of hydrolysis in an aqueous buffer was examined. The hydrolysis rate constants were lower in the case of electron-releasing substituents and greater in the case of electron-attracting substituents in relatively higher pH solutions. There was a straight linear relationship between the Hammett substituent constant (σ) with the log (kOH/kOHo) values for the specific base-catalyzed hydrolysis of 2-diethylaminoethyl para-substituted benzoates (Fig. 4).
