Structure of N-chloromethyllactams and features of the interaction of atoms in them as a result of ab initio calculations

Quantum-chemical calculations have been carried out by the RHF/6-31G(d) and MP2/6-31+G(d) methods of molecules of N-chloromethylpyrrolidone, N-chloromethylcaprolactam, N-chloromethyl-succinimide, and N-chloromethylphthalimide with full optimization of their geometry, and also N-chloromethylpyrrolidone molecule by the RHF/6-31G(d) method at various angles of rotation of the CH₂Cl group around the C―N bond. It was shown that the lower frequencies of the ³⁵Cl NQR of the first two molecules in comparison with the later are mainly determined by the high populations of the p _σ -orbitals of their Cl atoms. The population of the orbitals of the unshared electron pair of the N atom is practically unchanged on rotating the CH₂Cl group, but the N atom polarizes the C―Cl bond in the indicated molecule. This does not confirm the supposed p,σ*-conjugation in the Cl―C―N grouping. Translated from Khimiya Geterotsiklicheskikh Soedinenii, No. 10, pp. 1537–1544, October, 2008.