Conformations molecular orbital effect

Figure 7.13 (a) Schematic representation of molecular orbital effects that stabilize the inactive (upper left) and active (lower left) alkylidene conformations via backbonding. From Ref. [23], (b) The calculated molecular... 

Kikuchi, O., T. Matsuoka, H. Sawahata, and O. Takahashi. 1994. Ab Initio Molecular Orbital Calculations Including Solvent Effects by Generalized Born Formula. Conformation of Zwitterionic Forms of Glycine, Alanine and Serine in Water. J. Mol. Struct. (Theochem) 305, 79-87. 

Group 2 complexes are formally electron deficient and conformationally floppy only small energies (often only 1-2 kcal mol-1) are required to alter their geometries by large amounts (e.g., bond angles by 20° or more). In such cases, the inclusion of electron-correlation effects becomes critical to an accurate description of the molecules structures. Both HF/MP2 and density functional theory (DFT) methods have been applied to organoalkaline earth compounds. DFT approaches, which implicitly incorporate electron correlation in a computationally efficient form, are generally the more widely used. Molecular orbital calculations that successfully reproduce bent... 

These differences reflect the conformations of (+)- and meso-isomers as they sit at the air-water interface. What is much harder to elucidate is the effect of stereochemistry on intermolecular interactions. How does changing the stereochemistry at one chiral center affect interactions between diastereomers Ab initio molecular orbital calculations have been used to address the problem of separating stereochemically dependent inter- and intra-molecular interactions in diastereomeric compounds (Craig et al., 1971). For example, diastereomeric compounds such as 2,3-dicyanobutane exhibit significant energetic dependence on intramolecular configuration about their chiral centers. So far, however, little experimental attention has been focused on this problem. 

Pullman, B., Courriere, P., and Berthod, H. (1974) Molecular orbital studies on the conformation of hallucinogenic indolealkylamines and related compounds. The isolated molecules and the solvent effect. J. Med. Chem.. 17 439-447. 

More advanced semiempirical molecular orbital methods have also been used in this respect in modeling, e.g., the structure of a diphosphonium extractant in the gas phase, and then the percentage extraction of zinc ion-pair complexes was correlated with the calculated energy of association of the ion pairs [29]. Semiempirical SCF calculations, used to study structure, conformational changes and hydration of hydroxyoximes as extractants of copper, appeared helpful in interpreting their interfacial activity and the rate of extraction [30]. Similar (PM3, ZINDO) methods were also used to model the structure of some commercial extractants (pyridine dicarboxylates, pyridyloctanoates, jS-diketones, hydroxyoximes), as well as the effects of their hydration and association with modifiers (alcohols, )S-diketones) on their thermodynamic and interfacial activity [31 33]. In addition, the structure of copper complexes with these extractants was calculated [32]. 

Since ketones are stronger acids than carboxylic esters (Table 8.1), we are not surprised that 8 is a stronger acid than 10. But cyclization of 8 to 9 increases the acidity by only 2.1 p/C units while cyclization of 10 to 11 increases it by 8.6 units. Indeed, it has long been known that 11 (called Meldrum s acid) is an unusually strong acid for a 1,3-diester. In order to account for this very large cyclization effect, molecular orbital calculations were carried out two conformations of methyl acetate and of its enolate ion by two groups.136 Both found... 

Lehn and Wipff (72) and Gorenstein and co-workers (73-80) have proposed on the basis of molecular orbital calculations that stereoelectronic effects similar to those observed in esters and amides play also an important role in the hydrolysis of phosphate esters. For instance, calculations suggest that the axial P — OR bond in the trigonal bipyramid conformation 120 is weaker than that in the conformation 121 because in the former, the oxygen atom of the equatorial OR group has an electron pair anti peri planar to the axial P — OR bond. Experimental results tend to support this interesting proposal but additional experiments are needed before unambiguous conclusions can be reached (81). 

In Figure 126, the tri-0-acetyl-P-D-xylopyranosyl chloride anomeric effect of the single chlorine drives the equilibrium to favor the conformation with the three acetoxy groups in the axial positions. From a molecular orbital viewpoint, the anomeric effect results from an interaction between the lone pair electrons on the pyran oxygen and the d orbital associated with the bond to the C2 substituent. 

RB3LYP calculations indicate that the s-cis conformer of peroxy acids is more stable than the s-trans conformer. Calculations on the reaction of prop-2-enol with some peroxy acids showed that trans-transition states collapse to the epoxide via a 1,2-shift, whereas a 1,4-shift is operable for cis-transition states.195 Quantum mechanical calculations have been performed on the migration step of the Baeyer-Villiger rearrangements of some substituted acetophenones with m-chloroperbenzoic acid (m-CPBA). The energy barriers, charge distributions and frontier molecular orbitals, determined for the aryl migration step, have been used to explain the effects of substituents on the reactivity of the ketones.196... 

Molecular orbital calculations have also provided theoretical justification for these stereoelectronic effects in tetracovalent and pentacovalent phosphorus species (2-7). As has been shown in molecular orbital calculations on the X -P-X2 (X = 0,N) structural fragments, the X.-P bond is strengthened (as indicated by an increase in the Mulliken overlap population) while the P-X3 bond is weakened when the X atom lone pair is app to the P-X3 bond. Thus, in the g,t conformation of dimethyl phosphate (Structure ll the overlap population for the trans P-0 bond is. 017 electron lower than the overlap population for the gauche P-0 bond. As shown for g,t dimethyl phosphate one lone pair (shaded in 1) on the gauche bond oxygen is app to the trans bond, while no lone pairs on the trans bond oxygen are app to the gauche bond. Thus, the weakest X.-P bond has one app lone pair and no lone pairs on X. app to the P=X2 bond. 1... 

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