An NMR and computational study of a lithium amide and ethereal ligand exchange

The activation parameters for the exchange of an ethereal ligand in a chiral lithium amide was determined from full bandshape analysis of the dynamic NMR spectra. For diethyl ether, the activation parameters were deltaH++=11.0 kcalmol(-1) and deltaS++=12.0 cal K(-1)mol(-1). The exchange of the tetrahydrofuran ligand proceeds with a similar activation enthalpy deltaH++=11.2 kcalmol(-1); however, the entropy is close to zero. deltaS++=1.6 cal K(-1)mol(-1). The dissociation of the ethereal ligand was also modeled by means of semiempirical (PM3) and density functional (DFT) methods. The experimental 13C NMR chemical shifts for the carbons of uncoordinated and coordinated ethers were calculated with the GIAO-DFT (B3PW91/6-31G(d)) computational method.