Theoretical study on the reaction mechanism of proton transfer in formamide

Abstract

We present detailed theoretical studies of the proton transfer in the isolated, mono, dehydrated forms and dimers of formamide and the effect of hydratation or self-assistance on the transition state structures corresponding to proton transfer from the keto form to the enol form, employing MP2 and B3LYP methods at varied basis sets. The barrier heights for both H 2O-assisted and self-assisted reactions are significantly lower than that of the bare tautomerization reaction from formamide to formamidic acid, implying the importance of the superior catalytic effect of H 2O, (H 2O) 2 and important role of NH 2CHO for the intramolecular proton transfer.