Comparison of synthetic, spectroscopic, computational and electrochemical aspects of ferrocenyl-containing β-diketones, β-ketoesters and β-ketoamides

Abstract

Three different classes of ferrocenyl-containing β-keto compounds Fc-CO-CH2-CO-R were synthesised to obtain two β-diketones with R = CH3,3, and R = Fc (ferrocenyl = FeII(C5H5)(C5H4)), 4, a β-ketoester, 5, with R = OEt and a β-ketoamide, 6, with R = NH2. The β-diketones exhibited keto ⇌ enol tautomerization with the enol form Fc-CO-CH=C(OH)-R as the dominant isomer. Both the β-ketoester and β-ketoamide primarily existed in the keto form. FTIR and 1H NMR measurements could distinguish between keto and enol isomers. Dilute CHCl3 solutions of 3 and 4 exhibited FTIR ѵC=O keto vibrations between 1627 and 1712 cm−1 and ѵC=O enol vibrations between 1590 and 1660 cm−1. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) measurements showed keto isomer Fe 2p3/2 photoelectron lines at smaller binding energies than enol isomers. Significantly lower calculated molecular energies of the keto form of the β-ketoester 5 and β-ketoamide 6 utilising the Gaussian09 suite of programs at the B3LYP (uB3LYP for open-shell species), confirmed that 5 and 6 almost exclusively exists in the keto conformation. Cyclic voltammetry also distinguished between keto and enol isomers, and it was found that the electrochemical reversible ferrocenyl formal oxidation potential, E°ꞌ, of keto isomers of compounds can be estimated with the equation E°ꞌketo = 170.99χR–57.57 where χR is the group electronegativities of R in FcCOCH2COR. This result complements earlier research that enables calculation of the ferrocenyl formal oxidation potentials of enol isomers of β-diketones. Computational studies further showed that the HOMO orbitals of 3–6 is exclusively on the Fe centre and computed Mulliken spin densities on the dxy orbital of the oxidised iron species approached 1 e−.