Synthesis and NMR spectroscopic assignment of chlorinated benzimidazole-2-thione derivatives

The benzimidazole-2-thione scaffold is present in many drugs encompassing various therapeutic areas. Due to the broad spectrum of bioactivities it also represents an important starting point in drug discovery campaigns, especially those based on fragment-based design. Despite simple structures the tautomerism and regioisomerism of substituted benzimidazole-2-thiones makes unambiguous structural analysis difficult. Tautomeric duplicates are present in commercial libraries resulting in two tautomers being sold as different products. To showcase an example of appropriate structural determination, we synthesized and characterized a set of benzimidazole-2-thiones with different positions of a chlorine atom on the ring. Using NOESY and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy, we determined that the thione tautomer predominates in the thione-thiol equilibrium. Furthermore, NOESY and HMBC experiments confirmed the position of the substituents on the benzimidazole-2-thione ring.