Solvent effects on 13C and 1H NMR shielding of cyclic ketones: An experimental and theoretical study

(1)H NMR spectra of alcohols in hydrogen bonding solvents: DFT/GIAO calculations of chemical shifts

Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) shifts of aliphatic alcohols in hydrogen bonding solvents have been computed on the basis of density functional theory by applying the gauge-including atomic orbital method to geometry-optimized alcohol/solvent complexes. The OH proton shifts and hydrogen bond distances for methanol or ethanol complexed with pyridine depend very much on the functional employed and very little on the basis set, provided it is sufficiently large to give the correct quasi-linear hydrogen bond geometry. The CH proton shifts are insensitive to both the functional and the basis set. NMR shifts for all protons in several alcohol/pyridine complexes are calculated at the Perdew, Burke and Ernzerhof PBE0/cc-pVTZ//PBE0/6-311 + G(d,p) level in the gas phase. The results correlate with the shifts for the pyridine-complexed alcohols, determined by analysing data from the NMR titration of alcohols against pyridine. More pragmatically, computed shifts for a wider range of alcohols correlate with experimental shifts in neat pyridine. Shifts for alcohols in dimethylsulfoxide, based on the corresponding complexes in the gas phase, correlate well with the experimental values, but the overall root mean square difference is high (0.23 ppm), shifts for the OH, CHOH and other CH protons being systematically overestimated, by averages of 0.42, 0.21 and 0.06 ppm, respectively. If the computed shifts are corrected accordingly, a very good correlation is obtained with a gradient of 1.00 ± 0.01, an intercept of 0.00 ± 0.02 ppm and a root mean square difference of 0.09 ppm. This is a modest improvement on the result of applying the CHARGE programme to a slightly different set of alcohols. Some alcohol complexes with acetone and acetonitrile were investigated both in the gas phase and in a continuum of the relevant solvent.

Infrared and theoretical calculations in 2-halocycloheptanones conformational analysis

2-Halocycloheptanones (Halo=F, Cl, Br and I) were synthesized and their conformational analysis was performed through infrared spectroscopy data. The corresponding conformers geometries and energies were obtained by theoretical calculations at B3LYP/aug-cc-pVDZ level of theory in the isolated state and in solution. It was observed, by both approaches, that the conformational preferences were very sensitive to the solvent polarity, since its increase led to an increase in the population of the more polar conformer. An analysis of these conformational equilibria showed they suffer also the influence of stereoelectronic effects, like hyperconjugation and steric effects. These results were interpreted using natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis, which indicated that the electronic delocalization to the orbital π*(C=O) is directly involved in the stability increase of conformers I and II. The relative effect of the period of the halogen can also be noted, with changes in the conformational preferences and in the energies involved in the interactions of NBO.