Energy of Intramolecular Hydrogen Bonding in ortho-Hydroxybenzaldehydes, Phenones and Quinones. Transfer of Aromaticity from ipso-Benzene Ring to the Enol System(s)

Intramolecular hydrogen bonding (HB) is one of the most studied noncovalent interactions of molecules. Many physical, spectral, and topological properties of compounds are under the influence of HB, and there are many parameters used to notice and to describe these changes. Hitherto, no general method of measurement of the energy of intramolecular hydrogen bond (E(HB)) has been put into effect. We propose the molecular tailoring approach (MTA) for E(HB) calculation, modified to apply it to Ar-O-H∙∙∙O=C systems. The method, based on quantum calculations, was checked earlier for hydroxycarbonyl-saturated compounds, and for structures with resonance-assisted hydrogen bonding (RAHB). For phenolic compounds, the accuracy, repeatability, and applicability of the method is now confirmed for nearly 140 structures. For each structure its aromaticity HOMA indices were calculated for the central (ipso) ring and for the quasiaromatic rings given by intramolecular HB. The comparison of calculated HB energies and values of estimated aromaticity indices allowed us to observe, in some substituted phenols and quinones, the phenomenon of transfer of aromaticity from the ipso-ring to the H-bonded ring via the effect of electron delocalization.