The effects of ortho- (R = H and CH3) and Y-substituents (Y = OCH3, CH3H and CN), which are directly attached to the carbonyl carbon, on the protonation equilibria of the para-X-substituted benzoyl derivatives, 4-X-2, 6-di-R-C6H2-C(=O)-Y, are investigated theoretically using the B3LYP method with 6-31+G* basis set. Structurally, both of the (B) and (BH+ ) forms in the species with R = H are nearly coplanar regardless of the Y-substituents implying that the steric repulsion between Y-substituent and R = H is relatively small. In the species with R = CH3 , the tortional angle (ト) between the carbonyl moiety and aryl ring varies from zero to near right angle depending on the degree of steric repulsion between Y and R = CH3 and the resonance demand. However the reaction energies, ツG∑, for the protonation processes are more favorable for R = CH3 than for R = H due to stronger electron donating effect of R = CH3 , although the species with R = CH3 are unfavorable sterically. On the other hand, the Hammett type plots are progressively better correlated with + than with values on going from Y = OCH3 to Y = CN for both species with R = H and CH3 indicating that the degree of resonance delocalization between carbonyl moiety and X-substituent is increased for a more electron accepting Y-substituent. Nevertheless the effects of R = CH3 on the magnitude of Hammett type reaction constants ( or + ) are not much different from those of R = H.
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