Rotational isomerism—XIII

Infrared spectroscopic measurements of the structure of organic thin films; furfural on Pd(111) and Au(111) surfaces

This work demonstrates the use of reflection–adsorption infrared spectroscopy for continually monitoring the structure of organic thin films as a function of thickness and temperature to complement diffraction methods.

Quantum mechanical study of the syn-anti isomerisation of 2-tellurophenecarboaldehyde: vive la différence

The syn- and anti-conformers of 2-tellurophenecarboaldehyde are studied in the gas phase. A transition state is also modelled for the syn-anti isomerisation. Computations are done using different methods namely HF, DFT/B3LYP, MP2 and CCSD(T). The basis set used for all atoms is 6-311++G(d,p) except that LanL2DZ ECP is used for tellurium atom only. The optimised molecular structures and related structural parameters of these conformers are reported. The energy differences between the syn- and anti-conformers, associated rotational barriers and thermodynamic parameters are derived from the computations. The infrared frequencies of these conformers are also reported with appropriate assignments. This study is extended to include solvent effect and the conformers are fully optimised (DFT/B3LYP) using the integral equation formalism in the Polarisable Continuum model. In the gas phase, the theoretical rate constant for the unimolecular conversion, anti conformer to transition state, is reported for the first time; DFT/B3LYP (4.82×10(30) s(-1)) and MP2 (7.81×10(30) s(-1)). It is found that the structures are not much affected by the solvents but energy difference increases and rotational barrier decreases. The results indicate that there is a close agreement with the predictions from the different theoretical methods. The results obtained are critically analysed and compared with the furan, thiophene and selenophene analogues. A major factor affecting conformational preference and the mole fraction is the charge on the chalcogen heteroatom in the ring. An interesting outcome of this work is that in both the gas phase and solutions, the syn conformer is more stable and exists almost exclusively.

NMR spectra, GIAO and charge density calculations of five-membered aromatic heterocycles

The B3LYP/6-31+G(d) molecular geometry optimized structures of 17 five-membered heterocycles were employed together with the gauge including atomic orbitals (GIAO) density functional theory (DFT) method at the B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p), B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) and B3LYP/6-311+G(2d,p) levels of theory for the calculation of proton and carbon chemicals shifts and coupling constants. The method of geometry optimization for pyrrole (1), N-methylpyrrole (2) and thiophene (7) using the larger 6-311++G(d,p) basis sets at the B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p), B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p), B3LYP/6-31+G(2d,p) and B3LYP/cc-pVTZ levels of theory gave little difference between calculated and experimental values of coupling constants. In general, the (1)H and 13C chemical shifts for all compounds are in good agreement with theoretical calculations using the smaller 6-31 basis set. The values of nJHH(n=3, 4, 5) and rmnJ(CH)(n=1, 2, 3, 4) were predicted well using the larger 6-31+G(d,p) and 6-311++G(d,p) basis sets and at the B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p), B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p), B3LYP/6-31+G(2d,2p) levels of theory. The computed atomic charges [Mülliken; Natural Bond Orbital Analysis (NBO); Merz-Kollman (MK); CHELP and CHELPG] for the B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) geometry optimized structures of 1-17 were used to explore correlations with the experimental proton and carbon chemical shifts.