Inter- and intramolecular hydrogen bonds in polyamines: variable-concentration 1H-NMR studies

Inter- and intramolecular hydrogen bonding play an important role in determining the arrangement, physical properties, and reactivity of a great diversity of structures in chemical and biological systems. Several aromatic nucleophilic substitutions (ANS) in nonpolar aprotic, (non-HBD), solvents recently studied in our laboratory have demonstrated the importance of self-association of amines by hydrogen-bond interactions. In this paper, we describe H-1-NMR studies carried out at room temperature on bi- and polyfunctionalized amines, namely: N-(3-amino-1-propyl)morpholine (3-APMo), histamine, 2-guanidinobenzimidazole (2-GB), 1,2-diaminoethane (EDA), 3-dimethylamino-l-propylamine (DMPA), and 1-(2-aminoethyl)piperidine (2-AEPip). By H-1-NMR measurements of amine solutions at variable concentrations we have shown that 3-APMo, histamine and 2-GB are able to form a six-membered ring by intramolecular hydrogen bonding, while EDA, DMPA, and 2-AEPip form dimers by intermolecular hydrogen bonds. Likewise, variable concentration H-1-NMR studies allowed estimation of the corresponding equilibrium constants for the dimerization. These results are correlated with experimental kinetic results of ANS, confirming hereto the relevance of the "dimer mechanism" in reactions involving these amines. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.