Tautomerism in 2,2′-bipyridyl-3,3′-diol

Three stable tautomeric forms, dienol (DE), ketoenol (KE), and diketo (DK), of 2,2′-bipyridyl-3,3′-diol BP(OH)₂ were found in this study, using the semiempirical AM1 and MNDO-PM3 and ab initio (4-31G basis set) methods. All calculations were carried out without any symmetry restrictions. There is a good agreement between the ab initio calculated and experimentally obtained structural parameters for the DE tautomer. Transition structures, corresponding to the DK → KE and KE → DE processes have also been found. On the basis of the results from the present work, an asynchronous (two-step) DK → KE → DE mechanism of the IPT reaction in BP(OH)₂ is proposed. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.