TY - JOUR A1 - Neuvonen, Helmi A1 - Neuvonen, Kari A1 - Koch, Andreas A1 - Kleinpeter, Erich T1 - Ab initio study of the substituent effects on the relative stability of the E and Z conformers of phenyl esters : Stereoelectronic effects on the reactivity of the carbonyl group N2 - Equilibria between the Z (tau(1) = 0 degrees) and E (tau(1) = 180 degrees) conformers of p-substituted phenyl acetates 4 and trifluoroacetates 5 (X = OMe, Me, H, Cl, CN, NO2) were studied by ab initio calculations at the HF/6-31G* and MP2/6-31G* levels of theory. The preference for the Z conformer, Delta E(HF), was calculated to be 5.36 kcal mol(-1) and 7.50 kcal mot(-1) for phenyl acetate and phenyl trifluoroacetate (i.e., with X = H), respectively. The increasing electron-withdrawing ability of the phenyl substituent X increases the preference of the Z conformer. An excellent correlation with a negative slope was observed for both series between Delta E of the E-Z equilibrium and the Hammett sigma constant. By using an appropriate isodesmic reaction, it was shown that electron-withdrawing substituents decrease the stability of both conformers, but the effect is higher with the E conformer. Electron-withdrawing phenyl substituents decrease the delocalization of the lone pair of the ether oxygen to the C=O antibonding orbital (n(O) -> pi*(C=O)) in both the E and Z forms and in both series studied; this effect is higher in the E conformer than in the Z conformer. The n(O) -> pi*(C=O) electron donation has a minimum value with tau(1) = 90 degrees and a maximum value with tau(1) = 90 degrees (the Z conformer), the value with tau(1) = 180 degrees (the E conformer) being between these two values, obviously due to steric hindrance. The effects of the phenyl substituents on the reactivity of the esters studied are discussed in terms of molecular orbital interactions. ED/EW substituents adjust the availability of the pi*(C=O) antibonding orbital to interact with the lone pair orbital of the attacking nucleophile and therefore affect the reactivity: EW substituents increase and ED substituents decrease it. Excellent correlations were observed between the rate coefficients of nucleophilic acyl substitutions and pi*(C=O) occupancies of the ester series 4 and Y1 - 2005 SN - 1089-5639 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Neuvonen, Kari A1 - Fulop, Ferenc A1 - Neuvonen, Helmi A1 - Koch, Andreas A1 - Kleinpeter, Erich A1 - Pihlaja, Kalevi T1 - Propagation of polar substituent effects in 1-(substituted phenyl)-6,7-dimethoxy-3,4-dihydro- and -1,2,3,4- tetrahydroisoquinolines as explained by resonance polarization concept N2 - Propagation of inductive and resonance effects of phenyl substituents within 1-(substituted phenyl)-6,7- dimethoxy-3,4-dihydro- and -1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinolines were studied with the aid of C-13 and N-15 NMR chemical shifts and ab initio calculations. The substituent-induced changes in the chemical shift (SCS) were correlated with a dual substituent parameter equation. The contributions of conjugative (rho(R)) and nonconjugative effects (rho(F)) were analyzed, and mapping of the substituent-induced changes is given over the entire isoquinoline moiety for both series. The experimental results can be rationalized with the aid of the resonance polarization concept. This means the consideration of the substituent-sensitive balance of different resonance structures, i.e., electron delocalization, and the effect of the aromatic ring substituents on their relative contributions. With tetrahydroisoquinolines, the delocalization of the nitrogen lone pair (stereoelectronic effect) particularly contributes. Correlation analysis of the Mulliken atomic charges for the dihydroisoquinoline derivatives was also performed. The results support the concept of the substituent-sensitive polarization of the isoquinoline moiety even if the polarization pattern achieved via the NMR approach is not quite the same as that predicted by the computational charges. Previously the concepts of localized pi- polarization and extended polarization have been used to explain polar substituent effects within aromatic side-chain derivatives. We consider that the resonance polarization model effectively contributes to the understanding of the polar substituent effects Y1 - 2005 ER -