Hyperconjugation and the increasing bulk of OCOCX3 substituents in trans-1,4-disubstituted cyclohexanes destabilize the diequatorial conformer

The trans diesters of 1,4-cyclohexanediol with a number of acetic acid analogues, CX3COOH, of varying steric hindrance and polarity (CX3 = Me, Et, iso-Pr, tert-Bu, CF3, CH2Cl, CHCl2, CCl3, CH2Br, CHBr2, CBr3) were synthesized, and the axial,axial/equatorial,equatorial conformational equilibria were studied by low-temperature 1H NMR spectroscopy in CD2Cl2. The structures and relative energies of the axial,axial and equatorial,equatorial conformers were calculated at both the MP2/6-311G* and the MP2/6-311+G* levels of theory, and it was only by including diffuse functions that a good correlation of deltaG(o)calcd vs deltaG(o)exptl could be obtained. Both the structures and the energy differences of the axial,axial and equatorial,equatorial conformers are discussed with respect to the established models of conformational analysis, viz., steric 1,3-diaxial and hyperconjugative interactions. Interestingly, the hyperconjugative interactions sigma(C-C)/sigma(C-H) --> sigma*(C-O), together with a steric effect which also destabilizes the equatorial,equatorial conformers on increasing bulk of the substituents, proved to dominate the position of the conformational equilibria. In addition, the preference of the axial,axial conformers with respect to their equatorial,equatorial analogues was greater than expected from the conformational energies of the corresponding substituents in the monosubstituted cyclohexyl esters. The reason for this very interesting and unexpected result is also discussed.