Chiroptical properties of cyclic α-diketones

Abstract

The chiroptical properties of dissymmetric cyclopentanedione, 3-methylcyclopentane-1,2-dione, and glyoxal structures are examined on a theoretical model in which the electronic wave functions are obtained from semiempirical all-valence-shell molecular orbital calculations. Excited state wave functions are constructed in the virtual orbital-configuration interaction approximation. The rotatory strengths, dipole strengths, oscillator strengths, and dissymmetry factors of the lower energy singletsinglet transitions in eleven cyclopentanedione and ten glyoxal structures are calculated and reported. The signs and relative magnitudes of the rotatory strengths associated with the two lowest energy singlet transitions are found to be extraordinarily sensitive to ring substituents and ring conformational parameters as well as to inherent chirality within the α-dicarbonyl moiety of the cyclopentanedione structures. Vicinal effects play a significant role in determining the signs and magnitudes of the electronic rotatory strengths. For a given configurational isomer of an inherently dissymmetric α-dicarbonyl group (i.e., P or M), the signs of the electronic rotatory strength of the lowest energy transition in glyoxal and in cyclopentanedione are opposite. This result suggests that cisoid glyoxal structures may not be useful models for the chiroptical properties of cyclic α-diketone systems with cisoid dicarbonyl moieties.