The conformational composition of 3-buten-1-ol, the importance of intramolecular hydrogen bonding

The conformations of 3-buten-1-ol (1), and its model compounds cis-6-methyl-3-cyclohexen-1-ol (6), 3-cyclopenten-1-ol (7) and epicholesterol (9) have been investigated by FT-IR and ¹H NMR spectroscopy. The energies and geometries of 1, 6 and 7 were also investigated by molecular mechanics, semiempirical molecular orbital and ab initio calculations, while 9 was investigated by molecular mechanics only. The objective of the work was to study the conformational composition and importance of intramolecular OH…π hydrogen bonding for this composition in 1. Only two conformers of 1 have a geometrical possibility for intramolecular hydrogen bonding: Conformers 12 and 13 (Fig. 1). Compounds 6 and 7 were used as models for Conformer 12, while 9 was used as a model for Conformer 13. The investigations showed that Conformer 13 is the only hydrogen-bonded conformer, and that Conformer 12 is not intramolecularly hydrogen bonded. Conformer 13 was the most populated conformer, while Conformer 12 was hardly populated. The combination of experimental and theoretical data, and the use of model compounds was found necessary to obtain this conclusion.