title: Prevalence of the alkyl/phenyl-folded conformation in benzylic compounds C6H5CH2-X-R (X=O, CH2, CO, S, SO, SO2): significance of the CH/pi interaction as evidenced by high-level ab initio MO calculations.
abstract: Ab initio MO calculations were carried out to examine the conformational energies of various benzylic compounds C(6)H(5)CH(2)XR (X=O, CH(2), CO, S, SO, SO(2); R=CH(3), C(2)H(5), iC(3)H(7), tC(4)H(9)) at the MP2/6-311G(d,p)//MP2/6-31G(d) level. Rotamers with R/Ph in gauche relationship are generally more stable than the R/Ph anti rotamers. In these stable geometries, the interatomic distance in the interaction of alpha- or beta-CH in the alkyl group and the ipso-carbon atom of the phenyl ring is short. The computational results are consistent with experimental data from supersonic molecular jet spectroscopy on 3-n-propyltoluene and NMR and crystallographic data on structurally related ketones, sulfoxides, and sulfones. In view of this, the alkyl/phenyl-congested conformation of these compounds has been suggested to be a general phenomenon, rather than an exception. The attractive CH/pi interaction has been suggested to be a dominant factor in determining the conformation of simple aralkyl compounds.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science Hiroshima University, Kagamiyama, Higashi Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan.
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kohno
authors.forename: Ko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: Motohiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nishio