Hydrogen-Bonded Complexes of Methylnitrene

Yanqi Du, Xiaolong Li, Junjie Jiang, Wenbin Fan, Di Mu, Quansong Li, Ruitao Ma, Qi Yu*, Xiaoqing Zeng*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Understanding the microsolvation effects of nitrenes is of vital importance in applied nitrene chemistry. Herein, we report the structures and reactivity of the prototype microsolvated systems consisting of the simplest alkylnitrene CH3N and hydrogen bond donors HX (X = OH, Cl). Specifically, the 1:1 complexes of triplet CH3N with H2O and HCl were generated from photolysis of the corresponding amine precursors CH3NHX in solid Ar-matrices at 6 K. Characterization of the two complexes CH3N···HX with matrix-isolation IR and UV-vis spectroscopy is supported by D-isotope labeling experiments and quantum chemical calculations, and the results confirm that the electron-deficient nitrene center acts as hydrogen bond acceptor. Consistent with the observed absorptions at around 310 nm for the hydrogen-bonded nitrene, photoexcitation of CH3N···HX at 310 nm promotes competing rearrangement of the nitrene to imine via 1,2-H migration and H-X bond insertion reactions, for which the underlying mechanism has been revealed by the CASPT2//CASSCF calculations.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7127-7133
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry Letters
DOIs
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 2025
Externally publishedYes

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