Studies of structure and dynamics in a nominally symmetric twisted amide by NMR and electronic structure calculations

Abstract

Amides that are twisted around the C—N bond show unusual spectroscopy and reactivity when compared with planar amides. The diacyl derivatives of 3,4,7,8-tetramethyl-2,5-dithioglycoluril are intriguing examples of this class, since the crystal structures show that the two acyl groups are twisted by different amounts on either side of the molecule owing to a combination of steric and electronic effects. However, the 1H NMR spectra in solution at room temperature exhibit only one acyl resonance, so there must be fast interconversion among pairs of equivalent structures of each compound. We have prepared a number of derivatives with different acyl groups, both on the glycoluril framework as well as on its dithio analogue. The chemical exchange in solution was slowed down sufficiently by cooling to see individual sites for only two compounds: the dithiodipivaloyl and the dithiodiadamantyl derivatives. The barriers were estimated at 41 kJ mol–1 for the dipivaloyl derivative and 45 kJ mol–1 for diadamantyl derivative. The results show that rotation around the twisted amide bond is slowed by both the steric size of the acyl group and the presence of the thioureido group vs. the ureido group in the glycoluril core. In the solid-state 13C NMR spectra, there is no evidence for any dynamics, even for the diacetyl derivative at ambient temperature. Electronic structure calculations predict a geometry for the dipivaloyl derivative very close to that observed in the crystal structure. These results indicate that the crystal confines, but does not distort the molecule. A mechanism for the exchange is proposed. The relevance of these results to the mechanism of Claisen-like condensations in diacylglycolurils is also discussed.Key words: 1H and 13C NMR, exchange, dynamics, CP/MAS, solids, line shape analysis, amides, twisted amides, atropisomers, glycoluril.