Chiral Thiophene Sulfonamide-A Challenge for VOA Calculations

Two enantiomers of 2-methyl-N-(1-thien-2-ylethyl)propane-2-sulfonamide (TSA) were synthesized, and their VCD, ROA, IR, and Raman spectra were registered. The solved (S)-TSA X-ray structure shows a disorder connected to the presence of two TSA conformers differing by a slight rotation of the thiophene ring. Two molecules in the unit cell of the monoclinic P2₁ crystal form a net of NH···OS and C*H···OS hydrogen bonds. Out of a series of computational levels tested to interpret the spectra, the B3LYP functional combined with the def2TZVP basis set satisfactorily reproduces the experimental VCD and ROA spectra. To simulate the VCD spectra of TSA enantiomers in KBr pellets, dimers and tetramers, with two different positions of the thiophene ring, were considered. The VCD spectra measured in CDCl₃ are completely different from those taken in KBr due to the conformational freedom of TSA in chloroform. Seven TSA conformers fall into two groups of opposite configurations at the pyramidal N atom forming the additional stereogenic center. However, the barriers between conformers in each group are lower than the energy of thermal motions at 300 K. Thus, all conformers, but the most stable in each group, are likely to be metastable states. The calculated IR, VCD, Raman, and ROA spectra of the conformers depend not only on the type of stereogenic N atom but also on the thiophene ring rotation. Yet, they are likely to coexist because of low barriers between them. Three approaches were tested to reproduce the chiroptical spectra in solution using PCM and hybrid solvation models. As a consequence, it was found that a model in which all conformers contribute to the spectra with equal population factors seems to best reproduce the experimental data. Such a result suggests that in a dissolved state in 300 K TSA occurs in a very shallow potential well and all of its conformers coexist.