129Xe NMR chemical shift in Xe@C60 calculated at experimental conditions: essential role of the relativity, dynamics, and explicit solvent.

The isotropic (129)Xe nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) chemical shift (CS) in Xe@C60 dissolved in liquid benzene was calculated by piecewise approximation to faithfully simulate the experimental conditions and to evaluate the role of different physical factors influencing the (129)Xe NMR CS. The (129)Xe shielding constant was obtained by averaging the (129)Xe nuclear magnetic shieldings calculated for snapshots obtained from the molecular dynamics trajectory of the Xe@C60 system embedded in a periodic box of benzene molecules. Relativistic corrections were added at the Breit-Pauli perturbation theory (BPPT) level, included the solvent, and were dynamically averaged. It is demonstrated that the contribution of internal dynamics of the Xe@C60 system represents about 8% of the total nonrelativistic NMR CS, whereas the effects of dynamical solvent add another 8%. The dynamically averaged relativistic effects contribute by 9% to the total calculated (129)Xe NMR CS. The final theoretical value of 172.7 ppm corresponds well to the experimental (129)Xe CS of 179.2 ppm and lies within the estimated errors of the model. The presented computational protocol serves as a prototype for calculations of (129)Xe NMR parameters in different Xe atom guest-host systems.

Exploring new 129Xe chemical shift ranges in HXeY compounds: hydrogen more relativistic than xenon.

Among rare gases, xenon features an unusually broad nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) chemical shift range in its compounds and as a non-bonded Xe atom introduced into different environments. In this work we show that (129)Xe NMR chemical shifts in the recently prepared, matrix-isolated xenon compounds appear in new, so far unexplored (129)Xe chemical shift ranges. State-of-the-art theoretical predictions of NMR chemical shifts in compounds of general formula HXeY (Y = H, F, Cl, Br, I, -CN, -NC, -CCH, -CCCCH, -CCCN, -CCXeH, -OXeH, -OH, -SH) as well as in the recently prepared ClXeCN and ClXeNC species are reported. The bonding situation of Xe in the studied compounds is rather different from the previously characterized cases as Xe appears in the electronic state corresponding to a situation with a low formal oxidation state, between I and II in these compounds. Accordingly, the predicted (129)Xe chemical shifts occur in new NMR ranges for this nucleus: ca. 500-1000 ppm (wrt Xe gas) for HXeY species and ca. 1100-1600 ppm for ClXeCN and ClXeNC. These new ranges fall between those corresponding to the weakly-bonded Xe(0) atom in guest-host systems (δ < 300 ppm) and in the hitherto characterized Xe molecules (δ > 2000 ppm). The importance of relativistic effects is discussed. Relativistic effects only slightly modulate the (129)Xe chemical shift that is obtained already at the nonrelativistic CCSD(T) level. In contrast, spin-orbit-induced shielding effects on the (1)H chemical shifts of the H1 atom directly bonded to the Xe center largely overwhelm the nonrelativistic deshielding effects. This leads to an overall negative (1)H chemical shift in the range between -5 and -25 ppm (wrt CH(4)). Thus, the relativistic effects induced by the heavy Xe atom appear considerably more important for the chemical shift of the neighbouring, light hydrogen atom than that of the Xe nucleus itself. The predicted NMR parameters facilitate an unambiguous experimental identification of these novel compounds.

Interpretation of substituent effects on 13C and 15N NMR chemical shifts in 6-substituted purines.

A range of purine derivatives modified at position 6 of the basic purine skeleton exhibit a variety of biological activities. Several derivatives are used or tested nowadays for pharmacological treatments. The present work aims to analyze the effects of substituents on the electron distribution in the purine core as reflected by NMR chemical shifts. We collected a comprehensive set of experimental NMR data for a variety of 6-substituted purines (-NH(2), -NHMe, -NMe(2), -OMe, -Me, -CCH, and -CN) and determined the molecular and crystal structures of three derivatives (-NHMe, -CCH, and -CN) by X-ray diffraction. The density-functional methods calibrated in our recent study (Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2010, 12, 5126) have been employed to enable understanding of the substituent-induced changes in the NMR chemical shifts of the atoms in the purine skeleton. Analyses of the nuclear shielding using localized molecular orbitals (LMOs), specifically the natural LMOs (NLMOs) and Pipek-Mezey LMOs, were used to break down the values of the isotropic (13)C and (15)N NMR chemical shifts and the chemical shift tensors into the contributions of the individual LMOs. The experimental and calculated trends in the chemical shift of the N-3 atom correlate nicely with the Hammett constants (σ(para)) and the calculated natural charges on N-3, whereas the contributions of the LMOs to the N-1 and C-6 chemical shifts are found to be more complex.

Understanding the NMR chemical shifts for 6-halopurines: role of structure, solvent and relativistic effects.

A prototypical study of NMR chemical shifts in biologically relevant heteroaromatic compounds containing a heavy halogen atom is presented for two isomers of halogen-substituted purines. Complete sets of (1)H-, (13)C- and (15)N-NMR chemical shifts are determined experimentally in solution. Experimental results are complemented by quantum-chemical calculations that provide understanding of the trends in the chemical shifts for the studied compounds and which show how different physical effects influence the NMR parameters. Chemical shifts for isolated molecules are calculated using density-functional theory methods, the role of solvent effects is studied using polarised continuum models, and relativistic corrections are calculated using the leading-order Breit-Pauli perturbation theory. Calculated values are compared with the experimental data and the effects of structure, solvent and relativity are discussed. Overall, we observe a good agreement of theory and experiment. We find out that relativistic effects cannot be neglected even in the chlorine species when aiming at high precision and a good agreement with the experimental data. Relativity plays a crucial role in the bromine and iodine species. Solvent effects are of smaller importance for (13)C shifts but are shown to be substantial for particular (15)N shifts. The test of method performance shows that the BLYP and B3LYP functionals provide the most reliable computational results after inclusion of the solvent and relativistic effects while BHandHLYP may--depending on atom in question--slightly improve but mostly deteriorate the data. Ab initio Hartree-Fock suffers from triplet instability in the Breit-Pauli relativistic part while MP2 provides no clear improvement over DFT in the nonrelativistic region. This work represents the first full application of the Breit-Pauli perturbation theory to an organic chemistry problem.

Covalent bonding of azoles to quaternary protoberberine alkaloids.

Adducts of the quaternary protoberberine alkaloids (QPA) berberine, palmatine, and coptisine were prepared with nucleophiles derived from pyrrole, pyrazole, imidazole, and 1,2,4-triazole. The products, 8-substituted 7,8-dihydroprotoberberines, were identified by mass spectrometry and 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy, including (1)H--(15)N shift correlations at natural abundance. In addition, two adducts of QPA with chloroform and methanethiolate were characterized by using NMR data. Single-crystal X-ray structures of 8-pyrrolyl-7,8-dihydroberberine, 8-pyrazolyl-7,8-dihydroberberine, and 8-imidazolyl-7,8-dihydroberberine are also presented.