Electronic and Spatial Structure of Piperidine and Its Substituted Derivatives from the Results of ab initio Calculations

The results of non empirical quantum-chemical calculations using the RHF/6-31G(d) and MP2/6-31G(d) methods do not agree with proposals for the axial position of the H atom on the N atom in the piperidine molecule. According to RHF/6-31G(d) calculations for the N-methylpiperidine molecule and its chloro-substituted derivatives an equatorially placed methyl group is energetically more favored than an axial. The axial C-Cl and C-H bonds in these molecules are longer than the equatorial. The ³⁵ Cl NQR frequencies for the axial Cl atoms are lower than the equatorial. The ³⁵ Cl NQR frequency of the axial chlorine atom in 2-chloro-1-methylpiperidine is anomalously low. This is chiefly due to the high population density of its p σ-orbital and this is a result of the polarization of the C-Cl bond via the N atom unshared electron pair directly through the field. The effect of a similar unshared electron pair on the parameters of the C-Cl bond in the ClCH₂NH₂ molecule has been studied by the RHF/6-31(g) method for different angles of rotation of the ClCH₂ group around the C-N bond. __________ Translated from Khimiya Geterotsiklicheskikh Soedinenii, No. 7, pp. 1044–1052, July, 2005.