An infrared matrix isolation study of tautomerism in purine and adenine

✍ Scribed by Maciej J. Nowak; Leszek Lapinski; Jozef S. Kwiatkowski

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 443 KB
• Volume: 157
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2614
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-2614(89)87199-4

✦ Synopsis

Contrary to previous interpretations

of the infrared spectra of purine and adenine isolated in low-temperature argon matrices suggesting that the molecules exist as a mixture of two tautomeric forms N (9)H and N (7)H of comparable weights, reinvestigation of the vibrational spectra in inert matrices (neon, argon, nitrogen) suggests that the observed IR absorption is due to one tautomeric form of either purine or adenine. This is in agreement with ab initio quantum-mechanical calculations of the relative internal energies of purine and adenine tautomers which predict the N( 9)H tautomer to be the most stable form in both cases.