Structure and vibrational spectrum of the hydrogen-bonded system between 4-tert-butylphenol and N-bases: Ab initio and DFT studies

The structural and vibrational characteristics of the hydrogen-bonded system between 1,5,7-triazabicyclo [4.4.0] dec-5-ene (TBD) and 4-tert-butylphenol have been investigated employing ab initio and DFT calculations at different basis sets. The calculations show that the optimized structure of the studied system is cyclic. The corrected values of the dissociation energy for the hydrogen-bonded complex have been calculated in order to estimate its stability. The influence of the hydrogen bonding on the properties of the monomers (TBD and 4-tert-butylphenol) has been investigated. The hydrogen bonding between TBD and 4-tert-butylphenol leads to changes in the structural (bond lengths and angles) and vibrational (vibrational frequencies and infrared intensities) characteristics of the monomers. It was established that the TBD molecule is considerably deformed upon hydrogen bonding, while the deformation of the 4-t-BuPhOH is smaller. In agreement with the experiment, the calculations show that the stretching O-H vibration from 4-tert-butylphenol is shifted to lower frequency upon hydrogen bonding. The predicted frequency shift Δν(O-H) (−338 cm−1) is in very good agreement with the experimentally observed (−351 cm−1). In the same time the IR intensity of the ν(O-H) increases dramatically in the hydrogen-bonded system.