1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance and molecular orbital studies of the internal rotational potential and of spin–spin coupling transmission in phenylallene

Abstract

The 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of phenylallene, diluted in acetone-d6 and benzene-d6, yield long-range coupling constants over as many as eight formal bonds between the ring and side-chain protons. These are discussed in terms of σ- and π-electron spin–spin coupling mechanisms, which are sensitive to the torsion angle between the allenyl and phenyl fragments. The torsion angle is assessed by means of molecular orbital computations of the internal rotational potential, whose height is calculated as 16.0 kJ/mol at the MP2/6-31G* level of correlation-gradient theory. Comparison with experimental and theoretical internal rotational potentials for styrene suggests that steric repulsions in the planar form of styrene amount to about 4 kJ/mol. In a field of 7.0 T, phenylallene is partially aligned, entailing a positive dipolar coupling constant between the methylene protons, from which absolute signs of the spin–spin coupling constants involving these protons can be inferred. Such coupling constants over seven and eight bonds, to the meta and para protons, are taken as being mediated by the extended π-electron system, providing a measure of π-electron contributions to coupling constants between meta protons and those in side chains (spin correlation). Some coupling constants between protons and 13C nuclei in the side chain, as well as between ring protons and these 13C nuclei, are also discussed in terms of spin coupling mechanisms. Solvent perturbations of one-bond proton–carbon coupling constants in the allenyl group do not follow the usual pattern in which an increase in polarity of the solvent is associated with an increase in the magnitude of the coupling constant. Keywords: 1H NMR, phenylallene; 1H NMR, long-range spin–spin coupling constants in phenylallene; phenylallene, internal rotational potential, molecular orbital computations; molecular orbital calculations, an internal rotational potential in phenylallene.