The gas-phase acidity of nine carbon acids of the form CH3Z (nitromethane, acetophenone, dimethylsulfone, acetaldehyde, butanone, acetone, methyl acetate, acetonitrile and dimethylsulfoxide) was investigated, in the search of correlations with global and local HSAB properties, calculated at the 3-21G, 6-31G* and 6-31+G(3df,2p) levels. A reasonable correlation was obtained with the calculated ionization energies. Based on the obtained correlation, the gas-phase acidity of methyl thioacetate was estimated (deltaG°= 1476 kJ mol-1) as close to that of the most acidic member of the series, nitromethane. The nucleophilic Fukui functions of the hard and soft anionic centers in each base - CH2Z stabilized by direct conjugation were calculated, following two different approaches, and their ratios utilized to interpret the shifts in acidity when the acids are transferred from gas-phase to aqueous solution.
acidity; carbon acids; HSAB theory; Fukui functions
