1,8,1',8'-Tetrakis(dimethylamino)-2,2'-dinaphthylmethanols: double in/out proton sponges with low-barrier hydrogen-bond switching.

Previously unknown bis[1,8-bis(dimethylamino)naphth-2-yl]phenylmethanol (5) and bis[1,8-bis(dimethylamino)naphth-2-yl]methanol (6) have been obtained and studied by combination of X-ray, NMR, and IR techniques at variable temperature. It has been established that both proton sponge units in the solid tertiary alcohol 5 exist in nonconventional in/out form, one of which is fixed by intramolecular O-H..

2-alpha-hydroxyalkyl- and 2,7-di(alpha-hydroxyalkyl)-1,8-bis(dimethylamino)naphthalenes: stabilization of nonconventional in/out conformers of "proton sponges" via N...H-O intramolecular hydrogen bonding. A remarkable kind of tandem nitrogen inversion.

A regular set of 2-(alpha-hydroxymethyl)- and 2,7-di(alpha-hydroxymethyl)-1,8-bis(dimethylamino)naphthalenes has been prepared. Their X-ray, NMR, and IR studies have demonstrated that in tertiary mono-alcohols the orientation of free nitrogen electron pairs in crystals and solution corresponds to nonconventional in/out conformers stabilized by O-H..

Organometallic synthesis, molecular structure, and coloration of 2,7-disubstituted 1,8-bis(dimethylamino)naphthalenes. How significant is the influence of "buttressing effect" on their basicity?

On treatment of 2,7-dilithio- (6a) and 2,7-bis(bromomagnesio)- (6b) naphthalenes with a number of electrophiles, new "proton sponge" derivatives 7a-e,g, containing iodo, methylthio, trimethylsilyl, methyl, n-butyl, and ethoxycarbonyl groups in ortho-positions to dimethylamino groups, have been synthesized. The investigation of their molecular structure, spectral characteristics, and basicity reveals that the latter is mainly determined by two groups of factors: (1) the polar effect of ortho-substituents and (2) the so-called "buttressing effect" representing the complex combination of various sterical interactions of ortho-substituents with dimethylamino groups in corresponding bases and cations. A contradictory directionality of these interactions strongly reduces the importance of the buttressing effect in the case of compounds with bulky ortho-substituents, which is most clearly displayed in the absence of any relationship between the size of ortho-substituents and the basicity.