The energy of the intramolecular hydrogen bond in chloro-substituted N-methyl-salicylidene imines

The energetic effects of the conformational rearrangement of eight Schiff bases, differently chloro-substituted, are discussed on the basis of the results of B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) calculations. The proton transfer tautomers as well as “open”-non-hydrogen-bonded forms were considered. It was found, that the hydrogen-bonded forms have the lowest energy, but the second most stable were the proton transfer states with an O…HN intramolecular hydrogen bond. The proton transfer in Schiff bases dominates in comparison to other conformational rearrangements. This is important for the understanding of thermochromic and photochromic properties of these molecules. ng a thermodynamic cycle, the steric effects connected with chelate ring formation are estimated to be up to 5 kcal/mol, much higher than in related Mannich bases (∼1 kcal/mol) which do not form resonance assisted hydrogen bonds. Accounting these effects the “real” value of the energy of hydrogen bond formation was estimated to be 15 kcal/mol which increases with growing number of chlorine atoms up to 16.5 kcal/mol for 4,5,6-trichloro substitution.