Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Infrared (IR) and Mass Spectrometry (MS) study of keto-enol tautomerism of isobenzofuran-1(3H)-one derivatives

• The keto-enol equilibrium of five phtalides were investigated in different solvents, temperatures and physical states.
• NMR, IR, MS and Molecular Modeling were used to study the keto-enol tautomerism.
• Temperature and solvent did not influence tautomeric equilibrium.
• The physical state influences the tautomeric equilibrium.

The keto-enol tautomerism of 3-(2-hydroxy-4,4-dimethyl-6-oxo-cyclohexen-1-yl)isobenzofuran-1(3H-one (1), 3-(2-hydroxy-6-oxocyclohex-1-enyl)isobenzofuran-1(3H)-one (2), 3-(2-hydroxy-4-methyl-6-oxocyclohex-1-enyl)isobenzofuran-1(3H)-one (3), 3-(2-hydroxy-5-oxocyclopent-1-enyl)isobenzofuran-1(3H)-one (4) and 2-(3-oxo-1,3-dihydroisobenzofuran-1-yl)-1H-indene-1,3(2H)-dione (5) were investigated. We noticed that for compounds 1 to 4 only the enol form is observed in solid, in solution or in the gas phase. Their tautomeric equilibria are not affected by the solvent, temperature or physical state. Compound 5 was observed in its keto form in solution (NMR) and solid state (IR). The enol species of 5 was also observed upon Mass Spectrometry analysis. These findings were supported by NMR, IR, MS/MS and molecular modeling analyses.

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