Gas-phase reactivity of lactones: structure and stability of their Cu+ complexes

Abstract

The structure and relative stability of different lactone-Cu+ complexes, including cycles changing from four to six-membered rings, have been investigated through the use of density functional theory methods. The geometries and vibrational frequencies were calculated at the B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) level. Final energies were obtained in single point calculations carried out at the B3LYP/6-311+G(2df,2p) level of theory. Upon interaction with Cu+ in the gas phase, lactones behave in a rather similar way as they do in protonation processes. Systematically the global minimum of the potential energy surface corresponds to the attachment of the metal cation to the carbonyl oxygen cis with respect to the ether-like oxygen. Also, similarly to proton affinities, the calculated Cu+ binding energies increase with the size of the system. The unsaturated compounds are found to be only slightly more basic than the saturated counterparts. Cu+ attachment leads to significant bond activation and bond reinforcement effects, reflected in redshiftings and blueshiftings of the stretching frequencies, respectively. Cu+ is able to form agostic bonds with some of the CH2 groups of the lactone moiety. These agostic complexes can be good precursors for the unimolecular loss of H2, which very likely should be observed in the mass spectra.