The synthesis and structural study of two benzothiazolyl azo dyes: X-ray crystallographic and computational study of azo–hydrazone tautomerism

The synthesis, FT-IR, 1H and 13C NMR characterisation, as well as crystal and molecular structure determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction data, of two azo dyes derived from 6-aminobenzothiazole: 6-[(4-N,N-dimethylaminophenyl)diazenyl]benzothiazole and 6-[(2-hydroxy-1-naphthyl)diazenyl]benzothiazole are reported. Both dyes are essentially planar with the exclusion of methyl groups in 6-[(4-N,N-dimethylaminophenyl)diazenyl]benzothiazole, which exibits 100% E-configuration in terms of orientation of the substituents about the central azo linkage. Single-crystal X-ray study of 6-[(2-hydroxy-1-naphthyl)diazenyl]benzothiazole was undertaken to established whether the hydrazone or azo tautomer was present in the solid state as well as any potential shift in tautomeric equilibrium imparted by temperature variation (296 and 100 K). Density functional theory calculations revealed that the hydrazone tautomer was more stable than the azo tautomer and that the tautomeric equilibrium was shifted towards the hydrazone form at lower temperature.