Conformational Transformations in Aromatic Nitroso Oxides

A systematic theoretical study on conformational transformations of monosubstituted (ortho- and para-) aromatic nitroso oxides R-C6H4NOO was performed. The existence of two rotation axes enables two types of conformational transitions in substituted arylnitroso oxides: trans/cis (rotation around the N-O bond) and syn/anti (rotation around the C-N bond, which is important in ortho isomers). The complete set of conformers was localized for R-C6H4NOO using four selected density functional (M06-L, mPWPW91, OLYP, and HCTH) and augmented polarization basis set of triple splitting. It was found that the activation enthalpy of the trans-cis conformational transition is nearly insensitive to the nature of R and ranges within 58-60 kJ/mol for para isomers. The ortho substituent has an insignificant effect on ΔH(≠)trans→cis: it increases this value by ∼5 kJ/mol in syn isomers and decreases it by ∼3 kJ/mol in anti isomers. On the contrary, the syn-anti conformational barrier is considerably affected by the substituent R; an increase in the electron-withdrawing properties of R decreases ΔH(≠)syn→anti. The activation enthalpies grow with increasing polarity of the solvent, as it was found using IEFPCM calculation. The values of relaxation time for all conformational equilibria were calculated and compared with known lifetimes of aromatic nitroso oxides. Our results suggest that syn/anti transitions occur fast enough in the scale of the experimental lifetime. However, trans/cis transformations proceed more slowly. And under certain conditions discussed in the paper, the rate of this conformational transition limits that of irreversible decay of nitroso oxide.