A DFT study on the geometry, spectroscopic properties, and tautomerization of the local anaesthetic drug prilocaine

The prilocaine is a significant amino amide local anaesthetic. This drug can exist as three possible tautomers. Herein, by using density functional theory (DFT), and handling the solvent effects with the PCM model, the structure, energetic behavior, kinetics and mechanism of tautomerization, as well as the natural bond orbital analysis (NBO) of the prilocaine are reported. P1 is the most stable tautomer of the prilocaine, which can be tautomerized to two other tautomers via the intramolecular-proton transfer. Good agreement between the calculated NMR chemical shifts and IR vibrational frequencies with the experimental values approves the suitability of the optimized geometry for the prilocaine. A large HOMO-LUMO energy gap implies a high stability of the prilocaine.