Gas-phase lithium cation basicity of histamine and its agonist 2-(β-aminoethyl)-pyridine: Experimental (FT-ICR-MS) and theoretical studies (DFT) of chelation effect

The gas-phase lithium cation basicities (LCBs) were obtained for histamine (HA) and its agonist 2-(β-aminoethyl)-pyridine (AEP) from collision-induced dissociation of lithium adducts using Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS). For measurements, MeO(CH2)2OMe, Et3PO and (Me2N)3PO (HMPA) were used as the reference compounds. The experimental LCB of AEP was located between those of Et3PO and (Me2N)3PO. The experimental LCB of HA was found to be higher than those of AEP and HMPA by more than 2 kcal mol−1 clearly indicating that the LCB of HA is higher than any LCB for a neutral base yet measured (crown-ethers excepted). The experimental LCBs of the parent bases (pyridine and imidazole) are lower by more than 10 kcal mol−1. In parallel, DFT calculations {B3LYP/6-31G*//B3LYP/6-31G* and B3LYP/6-311+G**//B3LYP/6-31G*} were performed for HA, AEP and their lithium adducts. Among the 22 reasonable conformations of the HA-Li+ adduct, only one appears to be significantly more stable than the others. This is also the case for one structure among seven conformations of the AEP-Li+ adduct. These two stable structures have the ‘scorpion’ conformation, in which the Li+ cation is almost equally chelated by two basic nitrogen atoms, the ring N-aza and the chain N-amino. Other HA-Li+ and AEP-Li+ conformations have noticeably higher energies than the ‘scorpion’ structures. The difference between the DFT calculated LCBs of HA and AEP (about 4 kcal mol−1) is in agreement with that experimentally obtained (>2 kcal mol−1). The high experimental and theoretical values of LCB for HA and AEP militate in favor of a strong chelation of Li+ by both ligands in the gas-phase. This chelation effect was also evidenced previously for the proton gas-phase basicity.