N‐protonated and O‐protonated tautomers of 1‐azabicyclo[3.3.1]nonan‐2‐one: observation of individual 13C‐NMR carbonyl peaks and comparisons with protonated tautomers of planar and other distorted lactams

An earlier study fit calculated dynamic ¹³C‐NMR spectra in trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) (with added sulfuric acid) to slow exchange between N‐protonated and O‐protonated tautomers of 1‐azabicyclo[3.3.1]nonan‐2‐one. The present study reports simultaneous observation of both carbonyl ¹³C peaks in 40% sulfuric acid/60% TFA at ?40 °C. This furnishes the only example in which experimental carbonyl ¹³C chemical shifts may be compared with a neutral lactam (in TFA or CDCl₃) with its N‐protonated and O‐protonated derivatives. The seemingly anomalous upfield chemical shifts (experimental and computational) of the ¹³C carbonyl peaks in this N‐protonated lactam (and other twisted N‐protonated lactams) relative to the free bases are compared with data for unstrained protonated lactams and amides. The results are rationalized through conventional resonance structures. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.