Theoretical density functional study of gas-phase tautomerization and acidity of 5-methylhydantoin and its thio derivatives

Abstract

Tautomerization and acidities of various 5-methylhydantoins and their thio derivatives were predicted using Density Functional Theory (DFT). The functional used was B3LYP and the basis set for all atoms was 6-311+(d,p). Single point energy computations were performed at the 6-311+G(2df,2p) basis set. The relative stabilities of the different tautomers of the 2,4-dioxo, 2-thio-4-oxo, 4-thio-2-oxo and 2,4-dithio derivatives of the deprotonated 5-methylhydantoin have been studied. In all cases, the most stable deprotonated conformers are the oxo-thione, the dioxo or the dithio. As for the neutral and the protonated 5-methylhydantoin-thio derivatives, the tautomerization activation barriers are high enough as to conclude that the oxo-thione structures should be found in the gas phase. It was revealed that the ring-nitrogen atom at position 3 (N3) is more acidic than that at position 1 (N1), hence 5-methylhydantoin thio derivatives in the gas phase are an N3-acid. It has been found that the 2,4-dithio species is the most acidic compound among all the investigated compounds. The acidity values were found to be 343 ( 2O4O ), 337 ( 2S4O ), 336 ( 2O4S ) and 332 kcal/mol ( 2S4S ).