A thermodynamic and kinetic characterization of the solvent dependence of the saddle-crown equilibrium of cyclotriveratrylene oxime.

The equilibration of the saddle conformer of cyclotriveratrylene (CTV) oxime to the corresponding crown conformer was followed by (1)H NMR in five separate solvents, and kinetic and thermodynamic parameters were determined from the NMR data. The oxime saddle conformers of 3 are favored in CDCl(3) (K(eq) = [saddle]/[crown] = 1.4), whereas the CTV oxime crown conformer 3a is favored in three more polar solvents studied (DMSO-d(6), acetonitrile-d(3), acetone-d(6)). Surprisingly, the CTV oxime crown conformer is also slightly favored in the nonpolar solvent 1,4-dioxane-d(8). These behaviors are discussed in terms of hydrogen bonding, entropy, and possible host-guest considerations. An X-ray crystal structure was obtained for CTV monoketone, and structures of the different conformers of CTV, CTV ketone, and CTV oxime were calculated with semiempirical AM1 methods for direct comparison of their ground-state energies.