2-Hydroxypyridine, lactam/lactim tautomerism

Proper treatment of solvation is particularly important in connection with tautomeric equilibria. Huge solvent-induced shifts of Kj have been observed. The classical example is the lactam-lactim tautomerism of hydroxypyridines, for example, lA-lB (Figure 13.3). In the gas phase, a small preference for the hydroxy tautomer lA with A Gy < 1 kcal mol and Ky = [1B]/[1A] = 0.4 at T=428 K has been observed [108]. Polar solvents dramatically increase the amount of the lactam form, Ky = 910 in aqueous solution at room temperature [109]. 

The tautomeric 6-hydroxy-7-azaindole shows a shift to longer wavelength, which is characteristic of 2-hydroxypyridine as the neutral molecule or of l-methyl-2-pyridone. The degree of tauto-merization is solvent-dependent, and Yakhontov et have determined the lactam/lactim R = Me) ratio from the position of... 

IR and UV/Vis [65a], mass spectrometric [65b], photoelectron [65c], microwave [65d], as well as low-temperature matrix-isolation IR spectroscopic measurements [65e] reveal that 2- and 4-hydroxypyridine (as well as 2- and 4-mercaptopyridine [65f]) exist in the gas phase and in inert matrices (N2, Ar) under equilibrium conditions mainly in the lactim (hydroxy or mercapto) form, in contrast to the situation in solution. While in nonpolar solvents such as cyclohexane and chloroform both tautomers exist in comparable amounts, the tautomeric equilibrium is shifted entirely in favour of the lactam (0x0 or thioxo) form in polar solvents such as water, as well as in the crystalUne state [66, 67, 141-145, 251-255], Supercritical-fluid 1,1-difluoroethane can be used to adjust the tautomeric constant Ki = [(llb)]l[(lla)] iso thermally over a continuum from gas-phase values to those measured in polar solvents, simply by increasing the pressure [254]. The gas-phase and solution equilibrium constants of 2- and 4-hydroxypyridine are given in Table 4-4. 

Bensaude, O., Chevrier, M., and Dubois, J. (1978) Lactim-Lactam tautomeric equilibria of 2-hydroxypyridines. 1. Cation binding, dimerization, and interconversion mechanism in apro-... 

The lactim-lactam phototautomerization was studied by means of 2-(6 -hydroxy-2 -pyridyl)benzimidazolium in water [61]. It was found that two pathways exist, namely, a water-assisted proton translocation by probably a double proton transfer, and a two-step process during which the molecule dissodates and forms a zwitteri-onic species which is protonated at the pyridine nitrogen. The disappearance of the lactim tautomer after optical excitation takes less than 1 ns, while the zwitterionic form and the lactam tautomer have an exdted-state Hfetime of a few nanoseconds. Studies on 5-(4-fluorophenyl)-2-hydroxypyridine revealed that, after optical excitation of the lactim form, a tautomeric equiHbrium is established by proton transfer processes, again on a subnanosecond timescale [62]. 

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