Theoretical insight to intermolecular hydrogen bond interactions between methyl N-(2-pyridyl) carbamate and acetic acid: substituent effects, cooperativity and energy decomposition analysis

Abstract

In the present work, the hydrogen bond (HB) interactions between substituted syn and anti rotamers of methyl N-(2-pyridyl) carbamate and acetic acid were investigated using quantum mechanical (QM) calculations. The rotamers have two typical active sites to form hydrogen bonds with acetic acid, such that four stable complexes are found on the potential energy surface. The complexes in which the oxygen atom of carbamate acts as proton acceptor are stabilized by EWSs and are destabilized by EDSs. The trend in the effects of substituents is reversed in the other two complexes, in which the nitrogen atom of ring is involved in the interaction. According to energy data, the substituent effects on the interaction energy can be expressed by Hammett constants. The natural resonance theory (NRT) model was used to investigate the charge distribution on the carbamate group and to discuss the interaction energies. The individual HB energies were estimated to evaluate their cooperative contributions on the interaction energies of the complexes. In addition, the localized molecular orbital energy decomposition analyses (LMO-EDA) demonstrate that the electrostatic interactions are the most important stabilizing components of interactions.