MAGNETIC RESONANCE IN CHEMISTRY
Magn. Reson. Chem. 2006; 44: 90–94
Spectral Assignments and Reference Data
on those of other compounds with analogous chemical shifts and
Dicondensed indolinobenzospiropyrans as
precursors of thermo- and photochromic
coupling constants, they were somewhat ambiguous, especially the
1H assignments of the pyran-ring protons.19 Having confirmed the
X-ray crystal structure of the DC molecule (DC5, R COOH), we are
now able to characterize DC molecules spectroscopically in detail.
We, thus, report herein the detailed 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopic
studies of the dicondensed spiropyran derivatives, DC1–DC5.
1
spiropyrans. Part II†: assignment of H and
13C NMR spectra
Sam-Rok Keum,1∗ Su-Mi Ahn,1 Se-Jung Roh,1
Su-Jin Park,1 Sung-Hoon Kim2 and Kwangnak Koh3
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
1
Department of New Material Chemistry, Korea University, Jochiwon
Synthesis and characterization
339–700, South Korea
2
All dicondensed products (DC1–DC5) described in Scheme 1 are
amorphous solids and are stable at room temperature. The melting
points and yields of compounds DC1–DC5 are listed in Table 1.
Department of Dyeing and Finishing, Kyungpook National University,
Daegu 702–701, South Korea
3
°
When heated slowly to 130 ꢀ140 C, they quantitatively decompose
Department of Pharmacy, Pusan National University, Pusan 609–735,
to the corresponding spiropyran and the FB moiety.10
Structurally, spiropyran dyes consist of two ꢀ heterocyclic sys-
tems linked by a tetrahedral spirocarbon, whereas dicondensed
spiropyrans have three ꢀ components, namely the dihydrobenzopy-
ran ring (A), the indoline ring (B) and the methyleneindoline ring
(C), as shown in Scheme 1. In the solid state,10 the plane formed by
the indoline ring is parallel to the plane formed by the methylenein-
doline ring but orthogonal to the plane of the dihydrobenzopyran
ring.
South Korea
Received 4 July 2005; revised 24 August 2005; accepted 31 August 2005
The 1H and 13C NMR spectra of dicondensed indolino-
benzospiropyrans as precursors of thermo- and photo-
chromic spiropyrans, DC1–DC5, were completely
assigned. Especially, the 1H assignment and coupling
characteristics of the diastereotopic protons at the
carbon-3 position of the benzopyran rings were achieved
by conducting 1H–1H COSY and nOe experiments. The
dihedral angles (q , q and q ) calculated from the exper-
1H NMR assignment of DC1–DC5
The chemical shift values, e.g. H3, H3#, H4 and H200a, of DC1
were previously reported by our research group.19 The dicondensed
molecules DC1–DC5 show N-methyl peaks corresponding to the
indoline and methyleneindoline rings at υ 2.81–2.88 ppm and
3.04–3.08 ppm, respectively. These N-methyl chemical shifts are
comparable with those of 1,2,3,3-tetramethylindoline20 and the FB,
which were reported to be υ 2.70 and 3.15 ppm, respectively. The
excellent separation observed for the geminal dimethyl peaks makes
it possible to assign the resonances using nuclear Overhauser effect
(nOe) experiments.
1
2
3
imental values of the vicinal coupling constants (3J) of
DC5 are in good agreement with the observed values in
the solid state. All of the carbons in the DC dye molecules
were investigated through a combination of heteronu-
clear 2D-shift correlation spectroscopy (HETCOR) and
DEPT135. Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
KEYWORDS: 1H NMR; 13C NMR; 2D NMR; dicondensed
indolinobenzospiropyrans; thermo- and photochromic spiropyrans
C30 is a prochiral center. The geminal 80 and 90-methyl groups
are in pro-S and pro-R positions respectively. Thus, H3 and H3#
are diastereotopic, and these two peaks are well separated at
υ 2.1–2.5 ppm, as reported earlier.19 Trace amounts of stereoisomers
of DC1 were detected without successful isolation. The geminal 80,90-
dimethyl groups of the indolino ring of DC1 appear characteristically
at υ 1.31 and 1.33 ppm, respectively.19 Irradiation of the H3 produced
an observable nOe on the signals at υ 1.33, 3.00 and 4.32 ppm
(90-methyl, H3# and H4, respectively). Irradiation of the 90-methyl
group produced an observable nOe on the signals at υ 2.23 and
4.32 ppm (H3 and H4 in benzopyran ring). H3 is, therefore, likely to
be close in space to the 90-methyl group. This conclusion is supported
by the observed chemical shift of H4 (υ 4.32 ppm), which evidences its
conjugation with both an olefinic bond and an aromatic moiety. The
stereochemistry ofthe enamine double bond canbe established onthe
basis of the observation of a strong nOe between the N-methyl group
of the methyleneindoline ring and the enamine proton H200a. Table 2
summarizes the 300 MHz 1H NMR chemical shifts and coupling
constants for the dicondensed spiropyran compounds examined in
the present study.
INTRODUCTION
Recently, thermo- and photochromic spiropyran dyes have gained
importance because of their potential utility in information record-
ing systems, high-density optical data storage, displays, holographic
devices, optical switches, and so forth.1,2 Spiropyrans are typical
organic photochromic compounds having high extinction coeffi-
cients in the near-infrared region and have been widely studied
from the chemical, physical, and material points of view.3–9
Dicondensed materials [DC, 4-(2-methylene-1,3,3-trimethy-
lindoline-20-yl)-10,30,30-trimethylspiro(3,4-dihydro-2H-1-benzopy-
ran-2,20-indoline)] are formed together with monocondensed materi-
als [SP, 1’,30,30-trimethylspiro(2H-1-benzopyran-2,20-indoline)] from
the condensation reaction of an excess of Fischer base (FB) with
substituted salicylaldehydes, as shown in Scheme 1.
Dicondensed spiropyran molecules are often referred to as
precursors of SP molecules since those DC molecules may transform
to the corresponding SP molecules thermally10 or by acid.11 DC
molecules have thus been used in many practical applications in
various fields, e.g. additives in silver halide emulsion12 and as
components of thermal papers.13,14
The dihedral angles (Â1, Â2 and Â3 in Fig. 1) for DC5 in
CDCl3 were calculated from the experimental values of the vicinal
coupling constants (3J) of DC5 using the Garbisch equation21
which is known as a modified Karplus equation describing the
conformation for vinylic–allylic proton spin couplings. The angles
Â1 and Â2 denote the dihedral angles of H4–C4–C3–H3 and
H4–C4–C3–H3# respectively; Â3 represents the dihedral angles
of H4–C4–C200a–H200a. The Garbisch equation21 is described in
Although these dicondensed products have provoked a consid-
erable amount of discussion in the past,15–18 their structures could
not be assigned unequivocally until our very recent work10 involving
the X-ray crystal analysis of the dicondensed products. Since the pre-
vious NMR assignments of these DC compounds were mainly based
°
Eqn (1) for the cases where  ꢁ 90 and Eqn (2) for the cases where
°
°
90 < Â ꢁ 180 .
ŁCorrespondence to: Sam-Rok Keum, Department of New Material
Chemistry, Korea University, Jochiwon 339–700, South Korea.
E-mail: keum@korea.ac.kr
3
2
2
°
J D 6.6 cos  C 2.6 sin  ꢁ ꢁ 90 ꢂ
ꢁ1ꢂ
ꢁ2ꢂ
3
2
2
°
°
J D 11.6 cos  C 2.6 sin  ꢁ90 <  ꢁ 180 ꢂ
†Part 1: Ref. 10.
Contract/grant sponsor: Basic Research Program of the Korea Science and
Engineering Foundation; Contract/grant number: R01-2003-000-10248-0.
Dihedral angles calculated from the experimental values of the
3
°
°
°
Contract/grant sponsor: Brain Korea 21 project.
vicinal coupling constants ( J) of the DC5 are 51 , 171 and 172 for
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.