E1cB-elimination reaction

The E1cB elimination reaction is a type of elimination reaction which occurs under basic conditions, where the hydrogen to be removed is relatively acidic, while the leaving group (such as -OH or -OR) is a relatively poor one. Usually a moderate to strong base is present. E1cB is a two-step process, the first step of which may or may not be reversible. First, a base abstracts the relatively acidic proton to generate a stabilized anion. The lone pair of electrons on the anion then moves to the neighboring atom, thus expelling the leaving group and forming a double or triple bond.^[1] The name of the mechanism - E1cB - stands for Elimination Unimolecular conjugate Base. Elimination refers to the fact that the mechanism is an elimination reaction and will lose two substituents. Unimolecular refers to the fact that the rate-determining step of this reaction only involves one molecular entity. Finally, conjugate base refers to the formation of the carbanion intermediate, which is the conjugate base of the starting material.

E1cB should be thought of as being on one end of a continuous spectrum, which includes the E1 mechanism at the opposite end and the E2 mechanism in the middle. The E1 mechanism usually has the opposite characteristics: the leaving group is a good one (like -OTs or -Br), while the hydrogen is not particularly acidic and a strong base is absent. Thus, in the E1 mechanism, the leaving group leaves first to generate a carbocation. Due to the presence of an empty p orbital after departure of the leaving group, the hydrogen on the neighboring carbon becomes much more acidic, allowing it to then be removed by the weak base in the second step. In an E2 reaction, the presence of a strong base and a good leaving group allows proton abstraction by the base and the departure of the leaving group to occur simultaneously, leading to a concerted transition state in a one-step process.