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Amides and Polymers

The basicity of amides

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit A2 2

Overview

Recall questions on why an amide would be expected to be basic and why it is not, what delocalisation of the nitrogen lone pair means, the bond length and planarity evidence for it, ranking ammonia, ethylamine and ethanamide, why the planarity matters to proteins, and the order of reactivity of acyl chloride, ester and amide.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Why is an amide much less basic than an amine?

Key term

Give one piece of structural evidence that the nitrogen lone pair in an amide is delocalised

Key term

Besides the bond length, give one piece of structural evidence that the amide lone pair is delocalised.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Are amides basic?

    Model answer

    They are far less basic than amines and in practice are effectively neutral.

  2. 2

    Why would an amide be expected to be basic?

    Model answer

    Its nitrogen atom carries a lone pair, which could accept a proton as an amine's does.

  3. 3

    Why is an amide much less basic than an amine?

    Model answer

    The nitrogen lone pair is delocalised into the adjacent carbonyl group, so it is much less available to accept a proton.

  4. 4

    What does delocalisation of the lone pair mean here?

    Model answer

    The lone pair overlaps with the π system of the carbon–oxygen double bond and is spread over the nitrogen, the carbon and the oxygen.

  5. 5

    Give one piece of structural evidence for that delocalisation.

    Model answer

    The carbon–nitrogen bond in an amide is shorter than an ordinary single bond, which shows it has partial double bond character.

  6. 6

    Besides the bond length, give one piece of structural evidence that the amide lone pair is delocalised.

    Model answer

    The amide group is planar, with the nitrogen and its substituents in the same plane as the carbonyl, which a fully single-bonded nitrogen would not require.

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