Hannah

Introduction

Tautomers of Acetylacetone (C₅H₈O₂)

• Keto = ketone

• Enol = alcohol

-may also be referred to as an alkenol

• Usually the keto tautomer is favored

Figure 1:Basic reaction of keto- and enol- acetylacetone

Why Tautomerization Matters

• Different solvents may change the equilibrium of the keto- and enol- forms

-Keto/enol equilibrium can be determined using proton NMR, as the spectra are different enough to distinguish between the tautomers

• Tautomers in DNA replication have been hypothesized to contribute to mutagenic mispairings

• "whereas in RNA, minor tautomeric forms have been proposed to enhance the structural and functional diversity of RNA enzymes and aptamers" (https://rnajournal.cshlp.org/content/21/1/1.full.html)

WebMO

• All calculations were done using HF/6-31G(d) for geometry optimization

• The products of the geometry optimizations were used to calculate the NMR spectra using the same basis sets

Keto Acetylacetone

Proton NMR

Proton NMR shifts:File:NMR-Chemical-Shift-PPM-Range-and-Values-Table-.png

Enol Acetylacetone

Proton NMR

Proton NMR shifts:File:NMR-Chemical-Shift-PPM-Range-and-Values-Table-.png

N.B. Hydrogen bonding deshields the proton, further increasing the chemical shift