Structure and Fluxional Behavior of Phenylmercury Derivatives of N,N'-Diarylform(benz)amidines

Activation barriers for fast 1,3-N,N' migrations of phenylmercury groups in the corresponding derivatives of N,N'-di(p-tolyl)form(benz)amidines have been calculated by density functional theory B3LYP/Gen, 6-311++G(d,p)/SDD to be ΔE _ZPE ^≠ = 4.5 and 3.0 kcal/mol. The results correspond to the data of dynamic NMR, which have shown the upper limit of activation barriers of these rearrangements (ΔG^≠) to be below 8 kcal/mol. The calculations have shown that the most stable is the E-syn form of N-phenylmercury-N,N'-di(p-tolyl)form(benz)amidines stabilized by supplementary intramolecular coordination of mercury atom with imine nitrogen atom of the amidine triad.