Conformational analysis of flephedrone using quantum mechanical models

Flephedrone is an analogue of cathinone - chemically similar to ephedrine, cathine and other amphetamines. Conformations of all isomers of flephedrone have been studied at the quantum-chemical level. Calculations have been performed using DFT and MP2 methods with two basis sets - 6-31G and 6-31G(d,p). Results show that there are low energy conformers for the ortho, meta, and para isomers that are connected by way of low-barrier transition states. Boltzmann distribution of population predicts the highest population for the 1-meta conformer with a 10 % increase in solution. The molecular electrostatic potential surface data for each molecule has been calculated revealing likely reaction sites. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00894-012-1673-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.