Correction: Elucidation of the mechanism of the esterification of boric acid with aliphatic diols: a computational study to help set the record straight

Abstract

Correction for ‘Elucidation of the mechanism of the esterification of boric acid with aliphatic diols: a computational study to help set the record straight’ by Corrado Bacchiocchi et al., Chem. Commun., 2024, 60, 13239–13242, https://doi.org/10.1039/d4cc02999b.

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The authors missed a reference¹ relevant to their conclusions and as a consequence, an incorrect statement was reported in the conclusions:

“Our mechanism also predicts a second-order reaction with respect to boron species, promoting more detailed kinetic studies in this direction. To the best of our knowledge, kinetic studies, currently reported on closely related systems, did not address this important point.”

A JACS paper published in 2021 by Hayes et al.¹ experimentally reported a second-order dependency on the boronic acid/ester in the specific pH region of the pK_a, obtained by a kinetic study of the hydrolysis process of a series of boronic ester derivatives. In particular, in ref. 26 of the JACS paper, Hayes et al. detailed that the kinetics require that both the tetrahedral boron acid and the tetrahedral boron ester catalyse the hydrolysis of the ester (autocatalysis and self-catalysis, respectively) and the esterification of the acid (self-catalysis and autocatalysis, respectively) with similar propensity.

The Royal Society of Chemistry apologises for these errors and any consequent inconvenience to authors and readers.

References

1. H. L. D. Hayes, R. Wei, M. Assante, K. J. Geogheghan, N. Jin, S. Tomasi, G. Noonan, A. G. Leach and G. C. Lloyd-Jones, Protodeboronation of (Hetero)Arylboronic Esters: Direct versus Prehydrolytic Pathways and Self-/Auto-Catalysis, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2021, 143(36), 14814–14826.

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