Which is more acidic

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

failedmagician

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2009
Messages
149
Reaction score
0
By this information:
actch2pka.gif



This looks like a diketone is MORE ACIDIC than a diester...

BUT, the charge can be stabilized over 2 oxygens in the diester (4 total). Why is the diketone more acidic?

Why are ketones more acidic than esters in general? Again, esters have that additional oxygen to stabilize the charge right? This seems counterintuitive.
 
The negative charge isn't distributed over the ester O's. If anything the esters are stronger e- donating groups than methyls, which lowers the overall acidity of the molecule. Same concept as the fact that ether functional groups are stronger electron donating groups than alkyls in electrophilic aromatic substitutions. except in this case, it's a bad thing.
 
Top