The Oretical Study on the Molecular Tautomerism of the 3-Hydroxy-Pyridin-4- One System Publisher



Zborowski KK¹ ; Mohammadpour M² ; Sadeghi A² ; Proniewicza LM^{1, 3} Show Affiliations
Source: Molecular Physics Published:2013

Abstract

3-hydroxy-pyridin-4-one is a parent molecule for the family of hydroxypyridinones that are known in coordination chemistry as efficient metal ions chelators. In this work, relative stabilities of some possible tautomers were investigated using several quantum chemical methods: CBS (complete basis set methods), Gn, DFT (density functional theory), Hartree-Fock and MP2. Performed calculations show that the system under consideration exists as a mixture of two tautomers with comparable energies. Among them, the hydroxypyridinone structure of the studied molecular system seems to be a bit more stable than the o-dihydroxypyridine one, by a few kJ/mol only. Aromaticity and intra-molecular hydrogen bonding are the main effects influencing the stability of the studied tautomeric structures. Consequently, aromatic effects were calculated using several indices of aromaticity: HOMA (harmonic oscillator model of aromaticity), NICS (nucleus independent chemical shift), H, PDI (para delocalisation index), MCI (multi-centre index) and ASE (aromatic stabilisation energy). The strength of possible intra-molecular hydrogen bonds (H-bonds) was determined by means of the AIM (atoms-in-molecules) method and by calculating enthalpies for theoretical reactions that do or do not involve H-bonds. The AIM method was employed to understand how variations in atomic energies influence the stability of different tautomeric structures. © 2013 Taylor & Francis.