Solvent Dependence of 7-Azaindole Dimerization

Abstract

We have investigated 7-azaindole (AI) in a variety of solvents including CCl4, CHCl3, CH2Cl2, acetone, CH3CN, and DMSO by femtosecond Raman-induced Kerr effect spectroscopy. In differential low-frequency Kerr spectra between the solutions and the respective neat solvents, vibrational bands of the AI hydrogen-bonding (HB) dimer have been observed at ca. 90 and 105 cm(-1) in CHCl3 and CH2Cl2, as well as CCl4: the standard solvent for the AI dimer. In contrast, a broad monomodal band at ca. 80 cm(-1) characterizes an HB mode between the AI monomer and solvent in acetone, CH3CN, and DMSO. The overdamped Kerr transients in the picosecond region show evidence of both the AI monomer and dimer reorientations in CHCl3, CH2Cl2, acetone, and CH3CN, but only the monomer reorientation has been confirmed in DMSO. The clear intermolecular HB bands have not been observed in acetone, CH3CN, and DMSO because these solvents are sufficiently strong HB acceptors, which form HB AI-solvent complexes, thus preventing quantitative AI dimerization. In addition, it is plausible that the HB band of between AI and solvent obscures the intermolecular bands of the AI dimer when the concentration of the AI dimer is much lower than the AI monomer. For comparison, we have employed NMR to study the concentration-dependent chemical shift of the proton attached to the N at the 7-position of AI and to estimate the dimerization constant: 356, 13.3, 14.7, 0.727, and 0.910 M(-1) in CCl4, CHCl3, CH2Cl2, acetone, and CH3CN, respectively. The femtosecond Raman-induced Kerr effect spectroscopy and NMR results are in good agreement.