Tautomer example

Examples of the remaining potential 3,4-dihydroxy heterocycles are presently restricted to furan and thiophene. Although the parent 3,4-dihydroxyfuran apparently exists as the dioxo tautomer (86), derivatives bearing 2-alkyl or 2,5-dialkyl substituents prefer the keto-enol structure (87) (71T3839, 73HCA1882). The thiophene analogues also prefer the tautomeric structure (87), except in the case of the 2,5-diethoxycarbonyl derivative which has the fully aromatic structure (88) (71T3839). 

Complex tautomerism for azoles with heteroatoms in the 1,2-positions occurs for pyrazoles which are not substituted on nitrogen. Scheme 10 shows the four important tautomeric structures (148)-(151) for 3-methylpyrazolin-5-one, and (152) and (153) as examples of other possible structures. A detailed investigation of this system disclosed that in aqueous solution (polar medium) the importance of the tautomers is (149) > (151) (150) or (148), whereas in cyclohexane solution (non-polar medium) (151) > (148) (149) or (150). 

The last example is somewhat more complicated since four isomers (two tautomers and two conformations) are present at equilibrium (Figure 9) (78BSB189). The experimental value (3.73 D, Table 3) establishes the predominance of the 3-azido tautomer but does not allow the determination of the conformational equilibrium other methods (Section 4.04.2.3.4(v)) are necessary to establish definitely the Z conformation (43b). 

When R = H, in all the known examples, the 3-substituted tautomer (129a) predominates, with the possible exception of 3(5)-methylpyrazole (R = Me, R = H) in which the 5-methyl tautomer slightly predominates in HMPT solution at -17 °C (54%) (77JOC659) (Section 4.04.1.3.4). For the general case when R = or a dependence of the form logjRTT = <2 Za.s cTi + b Xa.s (Tr, with a>0,b <0 and a> b, has been proposed for solutions in dipolar aprotic solvents (790MR( 12)587). The equation predicts that the 5-trimethylsilyl tautomer is more stable than the 3-trimethylsilylpyrazole, since experimental work has to be done to understand the influence of the substituents on the equilibrium constant which is solvent dependent (78T2259). There is no problem with indazole since the IH tautomer is always the more stable (83H(20)1713). 

Hydrogen bonding plays a major role in pyrazolone tautomerism, and the formation of a chelate structure can shift the equilibrium towards the chelated form. Structures (135) and (136) are two representative examples of such stabilized tautomers. Structure (137) is a hypothetical example of stabilization of the NH tautomer. 

All the examples quoted in this section concerning fragmentations or rearrangements involve photochemistry. An interesting thermal reaction has been described (72TL2235) in which the pyrolysis of indazole between 700 and 800 °C leads to a mixture of (197) and (198 Scheme 15). A mechanism involving the 3// tautomer and the carbene seems reasonable. 

In a neutral azole, the apparent rate of formation of an A-substituted derivative depends on the rate of reaction of a given tautomer and on the tautomeric equilibrium constant. For example, with a 3(5)-substituted pyrazole such as (199), which exists as a mixture of two tautomers (199a) and (199b) in equilibrium, the product composition [(200)]/[(201)] is a function of the rate constants Ha and fcs, as well as of the composition of the tautomeric mixture (Scheme 16) <76AHC(Si)l). 

The interaction of diazomethane with 1-azirines was the first example of a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition with this ring system (64JOC3049, 68JOC4316). 1,3-Dipolar addition produces the triazoline adduct (87). This material can exist in equilibrium with its valence tautomer (88), and allylic azides (89) and (90) can be produced from these triazolines by ring cleavage. 

The same arguments can be applied to other energetically facile interconversions of two potential reactants. For example, many organic molecules undergo rapid proton shifts (tautomerism), and the chemical reactivity of the two isomers may be quite different It is not valid, however, to deduce the ratio of two tautomers on the basis of subsequent reactions that have activation energies greater than that of the tautomerism. Just as in the case of conformational isomerism, the ratio of products formed in subsequent reactions will not be controlled by the position of the facile equilibrium. 

Spectroscopic investigation of enamines conjugated with ketone, ester and nitrile groups established the prevalence of enamine rather than imine-enol tautomers in examples of secondary amines (206-212). Similar studies have been made with enamines of acylpyridines and acetophenones (213,214). 

The coupling of enamines with aromatic diazonium salts has been used for the syntheses of monoarylhydrazones of a-diketones (370,488-492) and a-ketoaldehydes (488,493). Cleavage of the initial enamine double bond and formation of the phenylhydrazone of acetone and acetophenone has been reported with the enamines of isobutyraldehyde and 2-phenylpropionalde-hyde. Rearrangement of the initial coupling product to the hydrazone tautomer is not possible in these examples. 

Many heterocyclic compounds exist as mixtures of tautomers. For example, 2-hydroxypyridine exists in equilibrium with 2-pyridone. 

In the Meth-Cohn quinoline synthesis, the acetanilide becomes a nucleophile and provides the framework of the quinoline (nitrogen and the 2,3-carbons) and the 4-carbon is derived from the Vilsmeier reagent. The reaction mechanism involves the initial conversion of an acylanilide 1 into an a-iminochloride 11 by the action of POCI3. The a-chloroenamine tautomer 12 is subsequently C-formylated by the Vilsmeier reagent 13 derived from POCI3 and DMF. In examples where acetanilides 1 (r = H) are employed, a second C-formylation of 14 occurs to afford 15 subsequent cyclisation and... 

Identification of the product(s) resulting from the reaction of heterocyclic compounds with diazomethane has been used in attempts to elucidate their tautomeric composition (for summaries, see references 7 and 41). This work was based on the assumption that if a compound which is capable of existing in both an —NH and an —OH form produced only the =NMe derivative when it w as treated with diazomethane, it existed entirely in the =NH form. On the other hand, formation of the —OMe derivative was interpreted to mean that a finite amount of the compound existed in the —OH form. In some cases the tautomer present in the solid state w as concluded to be different from that present in solution for example, 41 42 gave a higher proportion of the 3,4-dimethoxy derivative when ethereal diaz-... 

The electronic spectrum of a compound arises from its 7r-electron system which, to a first approximation, is unaffected by substitution of an alkyl group for a hydrogen atom. Thus, comparison of the ultraviolet spectrum of a potentially tautomeric compound with the spectra of both alkylated forms often indicates which tautomer predominates. For example, Fig. 1 shows that 4-mercaptopyridine exists predominantly as pyrid-4-thione. In favorable cases, i.e., when the spectra of the two alkylated forms are very different and/or there are appreciable amounts of both forms present at equilibrium, the tautomeric constant can be evaluated. By using this method, it was shown, for example, that 6-hydroxyquinoline exists essentially as such in ethanol but that it is in equilibrium with about 1% of the zwitterion form in aqueous solution (Fig. 2). 

If the refractivity of the pure tautomeric constituents is known, the composition of the equilibrium mixture can be determined. This method has been used to study, for example, the keto and enol tautomers of ethyl acetoacetate. So far it has not been applied to heterocyclic compounds in this series the isolation of the pure... 

Molar refractivity is an additive property, and the predominant tautomer can be found by comparing the experimentally determined value with that calculated for the alternative forms. For example, Auwers used this method to demonstrate that pyrid-2-one exists as such and not as 2-hydroxypyridine. 

The phenomenon of tautomerism comprises many different types of which the prototropic tautomerism that we consider here is only one. Prototropic tautomerism exists when the two tautomers differ only in the position of a proton (this is, of course, an approximation there are other differences between two tautomers, for example, in precise bond lengths). Other important types of tautomerism include the following (1) anioniotropy, where the two tautomers differ only in the position of an anion, which moves from one place to another in the molecule (2) cationiotropy, where the two tautomers differ in the position of a cation (other than a proton), which moves from one place to another in the molecule (3) ring-chain tautomerism and (4) bond-valence tautomerism. 

Examples of dynamic processes involving two, three, or four identical tautomers (degenerate or autotrope annular tautomerism) have been found in pyrazoles (type 2 of Table VII). Thus, 3,5-diphenyl-4-bromopyr-azole and 3,5-di-ferf-butylpyrazole (dimers), 3,5-dimethyl-pyrazole (trimer). 

The conclusions about the influence of azole ring substituents on the tautomeric equilibria are summarized in Table VIII. Although sufficient data are available for pyrazoles and imidazoles, it is difficult to correlate them within any well-defined scheme. The energy differences between pairs of tautomers are generally quite small and attempts to analyze these using, for example, the Taft-Topson model failed [95JCR(S)172]. In the case of mono-substituted compounds, Hammet-type equations... 

A recently documented example of the tautomerism of this type is the equilibrium 269 (Scheme 94) (95ZOB1031). In DMSO, thiazolineisonitro-somethamide contains at equilibrium up to 20% of the nitroso tautomer 269b (95ZOB1031 98MI1). 

Simple examples of diazoalkylideneamine-l,2,3-triazole equilibria have been demonstrated for a series of l,2,3-triazolo[l,5-a]pyrimidines by variable-temperature NMR [74JCS(CC)671]. Tautomers A, B, and C interconvert rapidly at elevated temperatures the energy barrier for these ring-opening-ring closure processes was found to be AG = 76 kJ mol (for = H, Me R = CONH2) (Scheme 111). 

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