The influence of basis set on the ab initio prediction of internal rotation barrier heights in ethene thiol

In this report the effects of basis set size and electron correlation on the internal rotation barrier heights in ethene thiol are investigated and compared with experimental data. At all levels of theory reasonable agreement is obtained for the barrier tosyn/anti rotation (experimental value: 9.6 kJ/mol), however, theanti barrier (experimental value: 0.14 kJ/mol) is consistently overestimated by approximately a factor of 10. A comparison of ab initio predictions of torsional energy distributions and rotational constant variations as a function of torsional state with the corresponding experimental quantities is presented.     

The Structure and Torsional Dynamics of Two Methyl Groups in 2‐Acetyl‐5‐methylfuran as Observed by Microwave Spectroscopy

The molecular‐beam Fourier transform microwave spectrum of 2‐acetyl‐5‐methylfuran is recorded in the frequency range 2–26.5 GHz. Quantum chemical calculations calculate two conformers with trans or cis configuration of the acetyl group, both of which are assigned in the experimental spectrum. All rotational transitions split into quintets due to the internal rotations of two nonequivalent methyl groups. By using the program XIAM, the experimental spectra can be simulated with standard deviations within the measurement accuracy, and yield well‐determined rotational and internal rotation parameters, inter alia the V₃ potentials. Whereas the V₃ barrier height of the ring‐methyl rotor does not change for the two conformers, that of the acetyl‐methyl rotor differs by about 100 cm^?1. The predicted values from quantum chemistry are only on the correct order of magnitude.     

Cis-trans isomerizations of beta-carotene and lycopene: a theoretical study

The all-trans to mono-cis isomerizations of polyenes and two C40H56 carotenes, beta-carotene and lycopene, at the ground singlet (S0) and triplet (T1) states are studied by means of quantum chemistry computations. At the S0 state of polyenes containing n acetylene units (Pn), we find that the energy barrier of the central C=C rotation decreases with n. In contrast, however, at the T 1 state, the rotational barrier increases with n. For the C40H56 carotenes, the rotational barriers of lycopene are lower than those of their beta-carotene counterparts. This difference renders the rotational rates of lycopene to be 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than those of beta-carotene at room temperature. For both these carotenes, the barrier is lowest for the rotation toward the 13-cis isomer. The relative abundances are in the following order: all-trans > 9-cis > 13-cis > 15-cis. Although the 5-cis isomer of lycopene has the lowest energy among the cis isomers, its formation from the all-trans form is restricted, owing to a very large rotational barrier. The possible physiological implications of this study are discussed.     

Double Bonds? Studies on the Barrier to Rotation about the Cumulenic C=C Bonds of Tetraaryl[n]cumulenes (n=3, 5, 7, 9)

Bonding is a fundamental aspect of organic chemistry, yet the magnitude of C=C bonding in [n]cumulenes as a function of increasing chain length has yet to be experimentally verified for derivatives longer than n=5. The synthesis of a series of apolar and unsymmetrically substituted tetraaryl[n]cumulenes (n=3, 5, 7, 9) was developed and rotational barriers for Z/E isomerization were measured using dynamic VTNMR spectroscopy. Both experiment and theory confirm a dramatic reduction in the rotational barrier (through estimation of ΔG^≠_rot for the isomerization) across the series, from >24 to 19 to 15 to 11 kcal^?1 in [n]cumulenes with n=3, 5, 7, 9, respectively. The reduction in cumulenic bonding in longer cumulenes thus affords bond rotational barriers that are more characteristic of a sterically hindered single bond than that of a double bond.     

Thiophenol and thiophenol radical and their complexes with gold clusters Au5 and Au6

The longstanding controversy between experiment and theory regarding which conformer of thiophenol, planar or perpendicular, is the most stable and what is the magnitude of the corresponding rotational barrier of the S–H group is discussed. We propose a variety of rather modest high-level computational methods within the density theory, which corroborate the experimental data. These methods demonstrate that the planar structure of thiophenol is the most stable and the magnitude of the rotational barrier falls within the experimental range of 3.35±0.84 kJ mol⁻¹. However, the barrier is of the order of RT at room temperature, which might prevent to clearly identify the most stable conformer of thiophenol in experiments and leads to a large-amplitude motion of the thiolic hydrogen. On the other hand, such low value of the barrier may lead to some error in evaluating the thermodynamic properties of thiophenol within the rigid-rotor-harmonic oscillator model, in particular for the bond dissociation enthalpy. We also show the existence of a large entropy contribution to the Gibbs free energy difference between the planar and perpendicular conformers which is the order of the rotational barrier (≈4 kJ mol⁻¹). This might be of interest for experimental study. The most stable complexes of thiophenol with the gold clusters Au₅ and Au₆ are also investigated. It is shown that the sulfur atom prefers to anchor to two- and three-coordinated atoms of gold in these clusters to form a strongly directional gold–sulfur bond. The hydrogen abstraction from the S–H group of thiophenol bonded to the two-coordinated gold atom in Au₅ yields the bridging Au–S dibond and results in a spectacular reduction of the bond dissociation energy of thiophenol by nearly a factor of three.     

Internal Rotation of the Methyl Group in Cations of Toluene Derivatives

The potential of the internal rotation of the methyl group was determined for o-, m-, and p-fluorotoluene cations by pulsed field ionization spectroscopy. The potential of the internal rotational motion was also surveyed for other toluene derivative cations. It was found that the barrier height generally increases by ionization. The increase in the barrier height has been discussed in connection with the reduction of the internal rotational constant B by ionization. The geometrical distortion of the methyl group during the internal rotation has been suggested.     

An ab initio study of the geometry and rotational barrier of 4-phenylimidazole

The molecular design of several synthetic artificial enzymes, which mimic the action of the serine protease-chymotrypsin, incorporates the phenylimidazole molecular fragment to play the role of the His-57 residue in the native enzyme active site. Study of these artificial enzymes by molecular modeling techniques requires accurate torsional force field parameters for the phenylimidazole interring bond. This, in turn, requires accurate characterization of the barrier to rotation around this bond. Previous semiempirical calculations of this rotational barrier have neglected geometry optimization of the molecule at the points along the rotational pathway. The 4-phenylimidazole rotational barrier (5.6 kcal mol^–1] presented here was obtained by full ab initio geometry optimization at the 3–21G level at each of the points along the rotational pathway.     

A theoretical investigation of the rotational barriers of peroxyformic acid

The internal rotational barriers in peroxyformic acid have been studied employing ab initio MO calculations. The C-O and O-O rotational barriers were calculated to be 7.68 and 1.04 $\text{kcal}\text{mol}$, respectively. The relatively low O-O rotational barrier is attributed to a balance between electron repulsion and hydrogen bonding in the syn chelated conformer.     

Fluorine Substitution Effects on Flexibility and Tunneling Pathways: The Rotational Spectrum of 2‐Fluorobenzylamine

The effect of ring fluorination on the structural and dynamical properties of the flexible model molecule 2‐fluorobenzylamine has been studied by rotational spectroscopy in free‐jet expansion and quantum chemical methods. The complete potential energy surface originating from the flexibility of the aminic side chain has been calculated at the B3LYP/6‐311++G** level of theory and the stable geometries were also characterized with MP2/6‐311++G**. The rotational spectra show the presence of two of the predicted four stable conformers: the global minimum (I), in which the side chain’s dihedral angle with the phenyl plane is almost perpendicular, is stabilized by an intramolecular hydrogen bond between the fluorine atom and one hydrogen of the aminic group; and a second conformer II (E_II?E_I≈5 kJ mol^?1) in which the dihedral angle is smaller and the amino group points towards the aromatic ortho hydrogen atom. This conformation is characterized by a tunneling motion between two equivalent positions of the amino group with respect to the phenyl plane, which splits the rotational transition. The ortho fluorination increases, with respect to benzylamine, the tunneling splitting of this motion by four orders of magnitude. The motion is analyzed with a one‐dimensional flexible model, which allows estimation of the energy barrier for the transition state as approximately 8.0 kJ mol^?1.     

Theoretical studies on electron delocalisation in selenourea

Ab initio and density functional calculations have been performed on the different possible structures of selenourea(su), urea(u) and thiourea(tu) to understand the extent of delocalisation in selenourea in comparison to urea and thiourea. Selenourea(su-1) withC ₂ symmetry has the minima on the potential energy surface at MP2(fu)/6-31+G* level. The C-N rotational barrier in selenourea is 8.69 kcal/mol, which is 0.29 and 0.11 kcal/mol more than that of urea and thiourea respectively at MP2(fu)/6-31+G* level. N-inversion barrier is 0.55 kcal/mol at MP2(fu)6-31+G* level. NBO analysis has been carried out to understand the nature of different interactions responsible for the electron delocalisation.     

Hindered rotation in five-membered cyclic nitrosamines: A 13C NMR study

The equilibrium rotamer populations and N? N rotational barriers of N-nitrosopyrrolidine (1), N-nitrosothiazolidine (2), N-nitrosooxazolidine (3) and their 2-methyl derivatives, 4, 5 and 6, were determined by ¹³C NMR spectroscopy. While equal rotamer populations occur in 1 and 2, the E rotamers predominate in the other four compounds, with the highest percentage (92%) of E rotamer occurring in N-nitroso-2-methyloxazolidine (6). The average barrier to N? N bond rotation varies over a range of 4.1 kcal mol^?1in these compounds, decreasing in the order N-nitrosopyrrolidine > N-nitrosothiazolidine > N-nitrosooxazolidine. The compounds which contain an exocyclic 2-methyl group have average rotational barriers which are 0.1–0.9 kcal mol^?1 higher than those of the corresponding unmethylated derivatives. The results are interpreted in terms of the relative effects of steric hindrance by the 2-methyl substituents and electron induction by the heterocyclic sulfur and oxygen atoms on both the rotamer populations and the N? N rotational barriers.     

Conformational preference in heteroatomic analogues of ethane, H3X-YH3 (X = B, Al; Y = N, P): implications of charge transfer

Quantum chemical conformational analysis for electron donor-acceptor (EDA) systems, H3B-NH3, H3B-PH3, H3Al-NH3 and H3Al-PH3, has been performed. For H3B-NH3 and H3B-PH3, the rotational barrier is found to be invariant with an increase in the central bond (X-Y) length. For H3Al-NH3 and H3Al-PH3, however, the rotational barrier increases with an increase in the central bond length. Decomposition of the total energy into various components and their contributions to the frontier orbitals (HOMO, HOMO-1, HOMO-2 and HOMO-3) have been analyzed in detail to explain the origin of such anomalous changes in the rotational barrier. Charge transfer and favorable "back bonding" are found to be the crucial factors governing the variations in the rotational barrier for such systems.     

Force field parameters for sulfates and sulfamates based on ab initio calculations: Extensions of AMBER and CHARMm fields

Ab initio self-consistent field (SCF) Hartree-Fock calculations of sulfates R? O? SO₃(?1) (R = Me, Et, i-Pr) and sulfamates R? NHSO₃(?1) (R = H, Me, Et, i-Pr) were performed at the 4-31G(*S*N) //3-21G(*S*N) basis set levels, where asterisks indicate d functions on sulfur and nitrogen atoms. These standard levels were determined by comparing calculation results with several basis sets up to MP2/6-31G*//6-31G*. Several conformations per compound were studied to obtain molecular geometries, rotational barriers, and potential derived point charges. In methyl sulfate, the rotational barrier around the C? O bond is 1.6 kcal/mol at the MP2 level and 1.4 kcal/mol at the standard level. Its ground state has one of three HCOS torsion angles trans and one of three COSO torsion angles trans. Rotation over 60° around the single O? S bond in the sulfate group costs 2.5 kcal/mol at the MP2 and 2.1 kcal/mol at the standard level. For ethyl sulfate, the calculated rotational barrier in going from the ground state, which has its CCOS torsion angle trans, to the syn-periplanar conformation (CCOS torsion angle cis) is 4.8 kcal/mol. However, a much lower barrier of 0.7 kcal/mol leads to a secondary gauchelike conformation about 0.4 kcal/mol above the ground state, with the CCOS torsion angle at 87.6°. Again, one of the COSO torsion angles is trans in the ground state, and the rotational barrier for a 60° rotation of the sulfate group amounts to 1.8 kcal/mol. For methyl sulfamate, the rotational barriers are 2.5 kcal/mol around the C? N bond and 3.3 kcal/mol around the N? S bond. This is noteworthy because sulfamate itself has a calculated rotational barrier around the N? S bond of only 1.7 kcal/mol. These and other data were used to parameterize the well-known empirical force fields AMBER and CHARMm. When the new fields were tested by means of vibrational frequency calculations at the 6-31G*//6-31G* level for methyl sulfate, sulfamate, and methyl sulfamate ground states, the frequencies compared favorably with the AMBER and CHARMm calculated frequencies. The transferability of the force parameters to β-D -glucose-6-sulfate and isopropyl sulfate appears to be better than to isopropyl sulfamate. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Unexpected substituent effects in offset pi-pi stacked interactions in water

We have measured the rotational barriers of meta- and para-substituted N-benzyl-2-(2-fluorophenyl)pyridinium bromides in aqueous solution by dynamic NMR as a model system for offset-stacking interactions in proteins. Because the benzyl ring can stack with the 2-fluorophenyl ring in the offset conformation in the ground state, but not the transition state, the rotational barrier reflects the magnitude of the stacking interaction. Only a small (0.1 kcal/mol) change in rotational barrier was found for para substituents relative to hydrogen. A much larger energy difference was found for electronegative meta substituents (up to 0.66 kcal/mol for CF3). Evidence suggests that this is due at least in part to an electrostatic interaction between electron-poor hydrogens on one ring with the electronegative substituents on the other ring.     

A classical trajectory study of the effect of reaction barrier height on the vibrational energy transfer efficiency in the Cl + HCl system

The effects of reaction barrier height and initial rotational excitation of the reactants on the overall rate of H atom exchange between atomic chlorine and HCl (v = 0) and on the 0 → 1 vibrational excitation of HCl via reactive and nonreactive collisions have been investigated using quasiclassical trajectory techniques. Two empirical LEPS potential energy surfaces were employed in the calculations having reaction barrier heights of 9.84 and 7.05 kcal mol^?1. Trajectory studies of planar collisions were carried out on each surface over a range of relative translational energies with the ground-state HCI collision partner given initial rotational excitation corresponding J = 0, 3, and 7. Initial molecular rotation was found to be relatively inefficient in promoting the H atom exchange; the computed rate coefficient for H atom exchange between Cl + HCl (v = 0, J = 7) was only 4 times larger than that for CI + HCI (v = 0, J = 0). The vibrational excitation rate coefficient exhibited a stronger dependence on initial molecular rotational excitation. The observed increase in the vibrational excitation rate coefficient with increasing initial molecular rotational excitation was due primarily to nonreactive intermolecular R → V energy transfer. The vibrational excitation rate coefficients increase with decreasing reaction barrier height.     

Rotation-Inversion Isomerization of Tertiary Carbamates: Potential Energy Surface Analysis of Multi-Paths Isomerization Using Boltzmann Statistics

Potential energy surface (PES) analyses at the SMD[MP2/6–311++G(d,p)] level and higher-level energies up to MP4(fc,SDTQ) are reported for the fluorinated tertiary carbamate N-ethyl-N-(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl) methyl carbamate ( VII ) and its parent system N,N-dimethyl methyl carbamate ( VI ). Emphasis is placed on the analysis of the rotational barrier about the CN carbamate bond and its interplay with the hybridization of the N-lone pair (NLP). All rotational transition state (TS) structures were found by computation of 1D relaxed rotational profiles but only 2D PES scans revealed the rotation-inversion paths in a compelling fashion. We found four unique chiral minima of VII , one pair each of E- and Z-rotamers, and we determined the eight unique rotational TS structures associated with every possible E/Z-isomerization path. It is a significant finding that all TS structures feature N-pyramidalization whereas the minima essentially contain sp²-hybridized nitrogen. We will show that the TS stabilities are affected by the synergetic interplay between NLP/CO₂ repulsion minimization, NLP→σ^*(CO) negative hyperconjugation, and two modes of intramolecular through-space electrostatic stabilization. We demonstrate how Boltzmann statistics must be applied to determine the predicted experimental rotational barrier based on the energetics of all eight rotamerization pathways. The computed barrier for VII is in complete agreement with the experimentally measured barrier of the very similar fluorinated carbamate N-Boc-N-(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl)-4-aminobutan-1-ol II . NMR properties of VII were calculated with a variety of density functional/basis set combinations and Boltzmann averaging over the E- and Z-rotamers at our best theoretical level results in good agreement with experimental chemical shifts δ(¹³C) and J(¹³C,¹⁹F) coupling constants of II (within 6 %).     

Pure through‐bond state in organic molecules for analysis of the relationship between intramolecular interactions and total energy

Ab initio configuration interaction through‐space/bond interaction analysis was proposed for the examination of specific intramolecular interactions including the effect of electron correlations. To test the effectiveness of our method, we applied it to rotational barrier in ethane. The results of our test suggest that the insensitivity of the ethane barrier to geometric relaxations is intimately connected with the cancellation of interactions through orbital overlaps and other factors. The orbital overlaps include exchange repulsion and hyperconjugation; other factors include classic Coulomb interaction and changes in bond orbital energy. The rotational state without the barrier (pure through‐bond state) can be achieved by deleting not only the “vicinal” interactions between the C? H bonds that belong to different methyl groups but also the “geminal” interactions within the methyl groups. Our mixing analysis of molecular orbitals supports the superiority of the staggered conformer by hyperconjugation. Moreover, it was demonstrated that our treatment could be applied to excited states as well as to the ground state, including electron correlation effects. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2003     

2H NMR characterization of phenylene ring flip motion in poly(p-phenylene vinylene) films

Solid-state ²H quadrupole echo nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra and measurements of ²H spin lattice relaxation times have been obtained for films of poly(p-phenylene vinylene) deuterated in phenylene ring positions (PPV-d₄). NMR line shapes show that all the phenylene rings of PPV undergo 180° rotational jumps about the 1,4 ring axis (“ring flips”) at 225°C. The temperature dependence of the ²H line shapes show that the jump motion is thermally activated, with a median activation energy, E_a = 15 kcal/mol, and a distribution of activation energies of less than ±2 kcal/mol. The jump rate was also determined from the magnitude of the anisotropic T₂ relaxation associated with ²H line shapes and from the curvature of inversion recovery intensity data. The experimental activation energy for jumps is comparable to the intramolecular potential barrier for rotation about phenylene vinylene bonds. ²H NMR provides a method for determining the phenylene-vinylene rotational barrier in pristine PPV, and may potentially be used to study conjugation in conducting films.     

Rotational barrier for 1-acetyl-2-(p-methoxy benzyl)-3-pyrroline

Calculation of the rotational barriers for the trans- and cis-forms of 2-(p-methoxy)-1-acetyl-pyrroline are presented in this paper. It is found that thetrans-isomer is slightly more favourable energetically, while the rotations of the cis-form are highly impeded. Hence the relevant rotations are in thetrans-form which stabilizes its energy by forming a weak inner proton bond between the carbonyl oxygen and the pyrroline ring. The acetyl rotational barrier is of the order of 8 kcal, which is well in accord with experimental data reported in the literature for other acetyl-amide derivatives.[/p]Work supported in part by Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo.     

Atropisomerism of aromatic carbamates

ortho‐Haloarylcarbamates like 1 – 4 show a high rotational barrier about the N? aryl bond of up to 91.6 kJ mol^?1 as found for 1 , which was determined by 2D exchange NMR spectroscopy (EXSY). It was further demonstrated that the height of the barrier not only depends on the substituents at the axis of chirality, but is also influenced by electronic effects.