High-Level ab Initio Calculations of Torsional Potential of Phenol, Anisole, and o-Hydroxyanisole: Effects of Intramolecular Hydrogen Bond

Abstract

The internal rotational barrier heights of phenol and anisole were calculated using several basis sets up to cc-pVQZ with MP2-level electron correlation correction to evaluate the basis set effects. The calculations showed that the effects of the further improvement of the basis set beyond the cc-pVTZ were very small. Although the electron correlation substantially increased the barrier heights of the two molecules, the effects of the electron correlation beyond the MP2 method were not large. The barrier heights calculated with the CCSD(T) method were close to those with the MP2 method. The internal rotational potentials of methoxy and hydroxyl groups of o-hydroxyanisole were calculated at the MP2/cc-pVTZ//HF/6-311G** level. The calculated potentials were compared with those of phenol and anisole. o-Hydroxyanisole preferred planar structure in which the hydroxyl group had an intramolecular hydrogen bond with the oxygen atom of the methoxy group. The calculated torsional potential of the methoxy group had the maximum (7.30 kcal/mol) when the methoxy group rotated 180° from the minimum energy structure, in which the hydroxyl group did not have the hydrogen bond. The barrier height of the methoxy group of o-hydroxyanisole was considerably larger than that of anisole (2.99 kcal/mol). The large internal rotational barrier height of o-hydroxyanisole showed that the intramolecular hydrogen bond greatly stabilized the energy minimum structure and that the hydrogen bond strictly restricted the conformational flexibility of the methoxy group.