Towards the synthesis of prenylated phloroglucinol derivatives: An X-ray crystallographic and DFT study of unexpected reaction products

Abstract

Owing to their bioactivity and prevalence in medicinal plant extracts, prenylated phloroglucinols have garnered significant interest. Towards the synthesis of prenylated phloroglucinol derivatives, 2,4,6-trihydroxy-3-(3-methylbut-2-enyl)acetophenone is required as an intermediate. Herein, this was synthesised by a tandem Claisen-Cope rearrangement reaction on 2,4-bis(methoxymethoxy)-6-(3-methylbut-2-enyloxy)acetophenone and a subsequent hydrolysis to remove protecting groups. This reaction yielded the desired product as well as three by-products. Two of these by-products were isomeric chromane derivatives (2 and 3) and the third was a methoxy derivative (4). These compounds have been studied by single crystal X-ray crystallography and DFT methods. Compound (2) crystallised in the P21/c space group with two hydrogen-bonded molecules in the asymmetric unit (Z = 8). Compound (4) crystallised in the Pbca space group with a single molecule in the asymmetric unit (Z = 8). Both compounds formed extensive supramolecular structures supported by hydrogen bonds in the solid state. Compound (2) forms a simple one-dimensional hydrogen-bonded chain co-linear with the a-axis. Compound (4) forms a two-dimensional supramolecular structure comprising “pentameric” hydrogen-bonded motifs linked by additional H-bonds to form the supramolecular structure. Both structures showed intramolecular hydrogen bonds between the acetyl oxygen and adjacent OH group. DFT simulations were used to probe the relative energies of the molecules and hydrogen bonds. These simulations showed that the intramolecular hydrogen bond has a substantial stabilising effect with an interaction strength of 70.64 kJ mol−1. The formation of the hydrogen-bonded dimer of (2) from which the supramolecular structure is formed has a ΔHassoc constant of −42.32 kJ mol−1, illustrating that the formation of the hydrogen-bonded structure is energetically favourable.