A Computational Study of the Conformational Behavior of 2,5-Dimethyl-1,4-dithiane-2,5-diol and Analogous S and Se: DFT and NBO Study

Conformational behaviors of 2,5-dimethyl-1,4-dithiane-2,5-diol (compound 1), 2,5- dimethyl-1,4-dithiane-2,5-dithiol (compound 2) and 2,5-dimethyl-1,4-dithiane-2,5-diselenol (compound 3) were investigated by the B3LYP/6-311+G **, the M06-2X/aug-ccpvdz levels of theory and natural bond orbital NBO analysis. The structures and the structural parameters of the mentioned molecules were optimized by the B3LYP and the M06-2X methods. We assessed the roles and contributions of the effective factors in the conformational properties of the mentioned compounds by means of the B3LYP and M06-2X levels of theory and the NBO interpretations. The stereoelectronic effects of the mentioned molecules were studied using the NBO analysis. The results showed that the stereoelectronic effects were in favor of the (ax,ax) conformers (the most stable conformations), from compound 1 to compound 3; therefore, these effects have impacts on the conformational properties of compounds 1-3, and stabilization energies associated with LP2X→ σ*S1-C2 electron delocalization, where [X= O, S, and Se], for 1-ax, ax conformer has the greatest value between all of the other conformers. Therefore, according to the calculated thermodynamic parameters, the stability of the 1-ax, ax compound was justified by the presence of LP2X→σ*S1-C2 electron delocalization. A molecular orbital explanation was conducted to investigate the correlations between the linear combinations of natural bond orbitals in the HOMOs, LUMOs and the molecular reactivity parameters. There is a direct relationship between the stereoelectronic effects, molecular reactivity and thermodynamic parameters of compounds 1 to 3 as the harder ax, ax conformations with the greater stereoelectronic effects and ΔG(eq-ax) values are more stable than their corresponding eq, eq conformers. Besides frontier molecular orbitals (FMOs), mapped molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) surfaces of conformations of compounds 1 to 3 were investigated.