Lithiated tertiary carbanions display variable coordination modes: evidence from DFT and NMR studies

Density functional calculations reveal that, whereas the reaction of 2-propyl-N,N-diisopropylbenzamide (6) with tBuLi in the presence of potentially tridentate donor ligands may result in lateral deprotonation of 6, the behavior of the Lewis base is non-trivial. The ability of N and O donor centers in the co-solvent to resist Li(+) coordination is found to be synonymous with interaction of lithium with the formally deprotonated carbanion center. Low-energy structures have been identified whose predicted (1)H and (13)C NMR spectroscopic shifts are in excellent agreement with experiment. Reaction of 2-isopropyl-N,N-diisopropylbenzamide (5) with tBuLi in the presence of bidentate Lewis base N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA) yields material that is suggested by NMR spectroscopy to be laterally deprotonated and to have the formulation 5-Li(l)·TMEDA. In spite of the tertiary aliphatic group at the 2-position in 5, X-ray crystallography reveals that the crystalline material isolated from the treatment of 5/(-)-sparteine with tBuLi is a lateral lithiate in which amide coordination and solvation by bidentate Lewis base results in the Li(+) ion interacting with the deprotonated α-C of the 2-iPr group (2.483(8) Å). The tertiary carbanion center remains essentially flat and the adjacent aromatic system is highly distorted. The use of a chiral co-solvent results in two diastereomeric conformers, and their direct observation in solution suggests that interconversion is slow on the NMR timescale.