Hydrogen donors fundamental properties

One of the fundamental properties of compounds containing hydrogen is their ability to act as proton donors, that is, as Br0nsted acids. 

The principal tautomeric properties of the fundamental biological pyrimidines—cytosine, uracil, and thymine—are due to the presence in these N-heteroaromatic compounds of electron-donor substituents such as NH2 and OH and of SH in some important analogs. The labile hydrogen may remain attached at the exocyclic 0, N, or S atom or migrate to one of the ring nitrogens, giving rise to three principal types of tautomerism (Scheme 1) ... 

The clear evaluation of the experimental results is also hindered by the difficulties encountered in the perfect purification of non-aqueous solvents. Several of them are hygroscopic, and even an extremely low water content may cause fundamental changes in the chemical properties of numerous solvents. As an electron-pair donor, the water molecule may behave as a ligand, and as a consequence of the ability of its hydrogen atoms to form hydrogen bonds, it may also act as an acceptor. This may lead to the occurrence of unexpected side reactions. In acidic solvents water behaves as a base, and in basic solvents as an acid, thereby disturbing the courses of the reactions to be investigated. The removal of trace amounts of water and the performance of work under anhydrous conditions is a difficult task. 

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