Nonempirical calculations of NMR indirect spin-spin coupling constants. Part 14: azomethines of the alpha, beta-unsaturated aldehydes

Configurational assignment of seven azomethines obtained from the alpha-functionally substituted and nonsubstituted alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehydes has been performed on the basis of experimental measurements and the high-level ab initio calculations of their 1J(C,C) and 1J(C,H), involving the alpha-imino carbon that demonstrated the marked stereochemical dependence of both coupling constants upon the orientation of the nitrogen lone pair in the diverse isomers of the title azomethines.     

Nonempirical calculations of NMR indirect spin-spin coupling constants. Part 15: pyrrolylpyridines

Conformational study of 2-(2-pyrrolyl)pyridine and 2,6-di(2-pyrrolyl)pyridine was performed on the basis of the experimental measurements and high-level ab initio calculations of the one-bond 13C-13C, 13C-1H and 15N-1H spin-spin coupling constants showing marked stereochemical behavior upon the internal rotation around the pyrrole-pyridine interheterocyclic bonds. Both compounds were established to adopt predominant s-cis conformations with no noticeable out-of-plane deviations.     

Non-empirical calculations of NMR indirect carbon-carbon coupling constants. Part 8--monocycloalkanes

Carbon-carbon and carbon-hydrogen spin-spin coupling constants were calculated in the series of the first six monocycloalkanes using SOPPA and SOPPA(CCSD) methods, and very good agreement with the available experimental data was achieved, with the latter method showing slightly better results in most cases, at least in those involving calculations of J(C,C). Benchmark calculations of all possible 21 coupling constants J(C,C), J(C,H) and J(H,H) in chair cyclohexane revealed the importance of using the appropriate level of theory and adequate quality of the basis sets. Many unknown couplings in this series were predicted with high confidence and several interesting structural trends (hybridization effects, multipath coupling transmission mechanisms, hyperconjugative interactions) were elucidated and are discussed based on the present calculations of spin-spin couplings.     

Non-empirical calculations of NMR indirect carbon-carbon coupling constants. Part 7--spiroalkanes

Carbon-carbon spin-spin coupling constants were calculated at the SOPPA level for a series of seven classical spiroalkanes, spiro[2.2]pentane, spiro[2.3]hexane, spiro[2.4]heptane, spiro[2.5]octane, spiro[3.3]heptane, spiro[4.4]nonane and spiro[5.5]undecane, with special focus upon couplings involving and/or across spiro carbons. Many interesting structural trends were investigated originating in specific geometries and unusual bonding environments at the spiro carbon.     

Non-empirical calculations of NMR indirect carbon-carbon coupling constants. Part 10--carbocages

A comprehensive theoretical study of nine classical caged polycycloalkanes (tetrahedrane, prismane, homoprismane, quadricyclane, cubane, pentaprismane, hexaprismane, adamantane and diamantane) was carried out with special focus on the structural behavior of their J(C,C) values calculated at the SOPPA level. The structural behavior of J(C,C) in small carbocages is dominated by steric strain whereas in medium-sized polycycloalkanes the J(C,C) values show no marked peculiarities and follow several well-defined structural trends typical of other alicyclic compounds.     

Non-empirical calculations of NMR indirect carbon-carbon coupling constants. Part 6: propellanes

A full set of carbon-carbon coupling constants have been calculated at the SOPPA level in the series of six most representative propellanes. Special attention was focused on spin-spin couplings involving both bridgehead carbons, and these data were rationalized in terms of the multipath coupling mechanism and hybridization effects. Many unknown couplings in the propellane frameworks were predicted with high reliability.     

Stereochemical study of iminodihydrofurans based on experimental measurements and SOPPA calculations of (13)C-(13)C spin-spin coupling constants

Configurational assignment and conformational analysis of a series of iminodihydrofurans obtained from cyanoacetylenic alcohols were performed on the basis of experimental measurements and high-level ab initio calculations of their (13)C-(13)C spin-spin coupling constants. The title compounds were shown to form and exist in solution as the individual Z isomers, adopting the orthogonal orientation of the amino, alkylamino and dialkylamino groups and the s-trans orientation of the CONH(2) group at the C(4) position of the 2,5-dihydro-2-iminofuran moiety.     

Configurational assignment of carbon, silicon and germanium containing propynal oximes by means of 13C-1H, 13C-13C and 15N-1H spin-spin coupling constants

Configurational assignment of five carbon, silicon and germanium containing propynal oximes has been carried out by means of experimental measurements and high-level ab initio calculations of their 13C-1H, 13C-13C and 15N-1H spin-spin coupling constants. The title compounds were shown to exist in the nonequilibrium mixture of E and Z isomers with the energy difference of less than 0.3 kcal/mol calculated at the MP2/6-311G** level.     

Non‐empirical calculations of NMR indirect carbon–carbon coupling constants. Part 4: Bicycloalkanes

A systematic study of the one‐bond and long‐range J(C,C), J(C,H) and J(H,H) in the series of nine bicycloalkanes was performed at the SOPPA level with special emphasis on the coupling transmission mechanisms at bridgeheads. Many unknown couplings were predicted with high reliability. Further refinement of SOPPA computational scheme adjusted for better performance was carried out using bicyclo[1.1.1]pentane as a benchmark to investigate the influence of geometry, basis set and electronic correlation. The calculations performed demonstrated that classical ab initio SOPPA applied with the locally dense Dunning's sets augmented with inner core s‐functions used for coupled carbons and Sauer's sets augmented with tight s‐functions used for coupled hydrogens performs perfectly well in reproducing experimental values of different types of coupling constants (the estimated reliability is ca 1–2 Hz) in relatively large organic molecules of up to 11 carbon atoms. Additive coupling increments were derived for J(C,C), J(C,H) and J(H,H) based on the calculated values of coupling constants within SOPPA in the model bicycloalkanes, in reasonably good agreement with the known values obtained earlier on pure empirical grounds. Most of the bridgehead couplings in all but one bicycloalkane appeared to be essentially additive within ca 2–3 Hz while bicyclo[1.1.1]pentane demonstrated dramatic non‐additivity of ?14.5 Hz for J(C,C), +16.6 Hz for J(H,H) and ?5.5 Hz for J(C,H), in line with previous findings. Non‐additivity effects in the latter compound established at the SOPPA level should be attributed to the through‐space non‐bonded interactions at bridgeheads due to the essential overlapping of the bridgehead rear lobes which provides an additional and effective non‐bonding coupling path for the bridgehead carbons and their protons in the bicyclopentane framework. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Non‐empirical calculations of NMR indirect carbon–carbon coupling constants: 2. Strained polycarbocycles

High‐level non‐empirical calculations of carbon–carbon spin–spin coupling constants in a series of strained polycarbocycles have been carried out, in excellent agreement with available experimental data. The utmost importance of electronic correlation effects in this case has been demonstrated and it has been shown that the Second‐Order Polarization Propagator Approach (SOPPA) is an adequate method to account for those effects. It has been demonstrated that the most reliable basis sets to calculate J(C,C) at the SOPPA level are the correlation‐consistent basis sets of Dunning and co‐workers augmented with inner core s‐functions or decontracted in their s‐parts. The nature of the unusual bridgehead–bridgehead bonds in bicyclobutane and propellane in terms of s‐characters of bonding hybrids and also the hybridization effects in spiropentane are discussed based on the arguments derived from the current calculations of J(C,C) in the title compounds. The values of the unknown J(C,C) in propellane and spiropentane are predicted with high reliability. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Non‐empirical calculations of NMR indirect carbon–carbon coupling constants: 3. Polyhedranes

High‐level ab initio calculations of carbon–carbon coupling constants were carried out in tetrahedrane, prismane and cubane using the SOPPA (Second‐Order Polarization Propagator Approach) computational scheme, in good agreement with available experimental data. It was found that SOPPA performs perfectly well in combination with Dunning's correlation‐consistent basis sets augmented with inner core functions; however, no improvement was observed on adding tight s‐functions. The utmost importance of electronic correlation effects decreasing the total values of computed J(C,C) in the title compounds by a factor of ～2.0–2.5 was found. Unknown values of J(C,C) in the title polyhedranes were predicted with high reliability and the latter were treated in terms of s‐characters of carbon–carbon bonds based on the additive scheme of coupling pathways. All three compounds under study showed decreased s‐characters of their carbon–carbon bonds, which is the result of their remarkable steric strain. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Non‐empirical calculations of NMR indirect carbon‐carbon coupling constants. Part 5: Bridged bicycloalkanes

All possible J(C,C) of the bicarbocyclic frameworks together with J(C,H) and J(H,H) at bridgeheads in the series of six bridged bicycloalkanes, bicyclo[1.1.0]butane, bicyclo[2.1.0]pentane, bicyclo[3.1.0]hexane, bicyclo[2.2.0]hexane, bicyclo[3.2.0]heptane and bicyclo[3.3.0]octane, were calculated at the SOPPA level with correlation consistent Dunning sets cc‐pVTZ‐Cs augmented with inner core s‐functions and locally dense Sauer sets aug‐cc‐pVTZ‐J augmented with tight s‐functions and rationalized in terms of the multipath coupling mechanism and hybridization effects explaining many interesting structural trends. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Configurational assignment of N-arylsulfonylimines of alpha-polychloroaldehydes

Configurational assignment of seven synthesized N-arylsulfonylimines of alpha-polychloroaldehydes has been carried out by means of experimental measurements and high-level ab initio calculations of their (13)C--(13)C, (13)C--(1)H and (15)N--(1)H spin-spin coupling constants. The title compounds were shown to exist in solution solely in the form of E isomers, in line with thermodynamic reasoning.     

Non‐empirical calculations of NMR indirect carbon–carbon coupling constants: 1. Three‐membered rings

The carbon–carbon indirect nuclear spin–spin coupling constants in cyclopropane, aziridine and oxirane were investigated by means of ab initio calculations at the RPA, SOPPA and DFT/B3LYP levels. We found that the carbon–carbon couplings are by far dominated by the Fermi contact term. Our best SOPPA and DFT results are in a very good agreement with each other and with the experimental values, whereas calculations at the RPA level of theory strongly overestimate the carbon–carbon couplings. Significant differences in the basis set dependence of the calculated carbon–carbon coupling constants obtained with either wavefunction method, RPA or SOPPA, or the density functional method, DFT/B3LYP, are observed. The SOPPA results depend much more strongly on the quality of the basis set than the results of DFT/B3LYP calculations. The medium‐sized core‐valence basis sets cc‐pCVTZ and even cc‐pCVDZ were found to perform fairly well at the SOPPA level for the one‐bond carbon–carbon couplings investigated here. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The calculation of indirect nuclear spin-spin coupling constants in large molecules

We present calculations of indirect nuclear spin-spin coupling constants in large molecular systems, performed using density functional theory. Such calculations, which have become possible because of the use of linear-scaling techniques in the evaluation of the Coulomb and exchange-correlation contributions to the electronic energy, allow us to study indirect spin-spin couplings in molecules of biological interest, without having to construct artificial model systems. In addition to presenting a statistical analysis of the large number of short-range coupling constants in large molecular systems, we analyse the asymptotic dependence of the indirect nuclear spin-spin coupling constants on the internuclear separation. In particular, we demonstrate that, in a sufficiently large one-electron basis set, the indirect spin-spin coupling constants become proportional to the inverse cube of the internuclear separation, even though the diamagnetic and paramagnetic spin-orbit contributions to the spin-spin coupling constants separately decay as the inverse square of this separation. By contrast, the triplet Fermi contact and spin-dipole contributions to the indirect spin-spin coupling constants decay exponentially and as the inverse cube of the internuclear separation, respectively. Thus, whereas short-range indirect spin-spin coupling constants are usually dominated by the Fermi contact contribution, long-range coupling constants are always dominated by the negative diamagnetic spin-orbit contribution and by the positive paramagnetic spin-orbit contribution, with small spin-dipole and negligible Fermi contact contributions.     

Resolving an apparent discrepancy between theory and experiment: spin-spin coupling constants for FCCF

Ab initio equation of motion coupled cluster singles and doubles (EOM-CCSD) and second-order polarization propagator approximation (SOPPA) calculations have been performed to evaluate spin-spin coupling constants for FCCF (difluoroethyne). The computed EOM-CCSD value of (3)J(F-F) obtained at the experimental geometry of this molecule supports the previously reported experimental value of 2.1 Hz, thereby resolving an apparent discrepancy between theory and experiment. This coupling constant exhibits a strong dependence on the C-C and C-F distances, and its small positive value results from a sensitive balance of paramagnetic spin-orbit (PSO) and spin-dipole (SD) terms. The three other unique FCCF coupling constants (1)J(C-C), (1)J(C-F), and (2)J(C-F) have also been reported and compared with experimental data. While (1)J(C-F) is in agreement with experiment, the computed value of (2)J(C-F) is larger than our estimate of the experimental coupling constant.     

Stereochemical dependence of NMR geminal spin-spin coupling constants

In this work it was sought to explore the versatility of geminal spin-spin coupling constants, (2)J(XY) SSCCs, as probes for stereochemical studies. A set of compounds, where their experimental (2)J(XY) SSCCs through the X-C-Y molecular fragment are predicted to be sensitive to hyperconjugative interactions involving either bonding or antibonding orbitals containing the C carbon atom ('coupling pathway'), were analyzed. SSCC calculations were performed for some selected examples using the second order polarization propagator approximation (SOPPA) method or within the DFT-B3LYP framework. Hyperconjugative interactions were calculated within the Natural Bond Orbital (NBO) approach. Results are condensed in two qualitative rules: Rule I(M)-hyperconjugative interactions transferring charge into the coupling pathway yield a positive increase to the Fermi contact (FC), contribution to (2)K(XY) reduced spin-spin coupling constants (RSSCC), and Rule II(M)-hyperconjugative interactions transferring charge from the coupling pathway yield a negative increase to the FC contribution to (2)K(XY) RSSCC.     

MBOHO calculations of phosphorus-carbon nuclear spin-spin coupling constants

Summary The novel generalized correlation of the nuclear spin-spin coupling constants with the atomic hybrids and net charges is employed to give a new relationship for calculating the directly bonded phosphorus-carbon coupling constants by use of the maximum bond order hybrid orbital procedure together with the extended Hückel molecular orbital calculation. The calculated coupling constants of phosphorus-carbon are all in good agreement with the experimental data, which shows that the new relationship obtained in the present paper is quite satisfactory for calculation of the phosphorus-carbon coupling constants.The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Excellent University Teacher's Foundation of State Education Commission of China