Abstract: Primary deuterium isotope effects have been measured for the loss of an a proton from 4-(4-nitrophenoxy)-2-butanone. The isotope effect data showed that no significant change in transition-state structure occurred in the same region of oxyanion catalyst pK, range that does exhibit a large change in p value. This confirms the previous assertion that the dramatic curvature in the Brernsted plot for proton abstraction by oxyanions from ...
