| Abstract: | The ground‐state geometries of uracil, 6‐hydroxy‐uracil, and 6‐hydroxy‐, 6‐amino‐, 6‐methyl‐, 6‐trifluoro‐, and 6‐phenyl‐2‐thiouracil were optimized at the Hartree–Fock level. The molecular structures were fully optimized using the 6‐31G and 6‐31G* basis sets. The effect of substituents on the geometry and electronic structural features of 2‐thiouracils were examined. The perturbation effects of the OH and NH2 groups are by far more pronounced on the geometric features and the dipole moment magnitude and direction of 2‐thiouracil. The potential energy per atom criteria was used to compare the relative tightness of binding in the studied series. Proton affinity and deprotonation enthalpy on each of the possible sites in 2‐thiouracil and its derivatives have been calculated at the 6‐31G/MP2 level of theory. The obtained results show that thiouracils behave as bases where they possess a high tendency to abstract protons. Substituents in the 6‐position have the general effect of enhancing the basicity strength of the thiocabonyl site in the order Ph < CH3 ≈ NH2 < OH. The CF3 group has the effect of reducing considerably the basicity strength and enhances the acidity strength at both N1 and N3. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2002 |
