The structure, electronic absorption spectra, and chiroptical properties of imides have been a subject of considerable interest in recent years. 2,3 These compounds show two weak n-π* absorption bands followed by a moderately intense π-π* transition in the region of 270-200 nm as predicted by semiempirical MO calculations. 2a,c It is well known that the substitution of sulfur for oxygen in the carbonyl group shifts absorption maxima to much longer wavelengths. 4 This allows observation of the lowest energy excited states of thiocarbonyls at the visible or near-UV region. There are some reports on the electronic and circular dichroism (CD) spectra of dithioimides, 5,6 but much less is known on the spectroscopic properties of monothioimides. 6 In this paper, we describe the electronic and chiroptical spectra of cis-1,2-cyclopropanedicarboxylic monothioimides 1-4. Their bicyclic skeleton is relatively rigid due to steric constraints imposed by the cyclopropane ring, and thus, the influence of conformational effects on the CD spectra should be negligible. By analogy with the parent imides, the geometries of which are known from the X-ray structures, 3,7 the 3-azabicyclo[3.1.0]hexane moiety in 1-4 is expected to adopt a sofa-like (half-boat) conformation with the -carbon atom being out of the plane formed by the remaining ring atoms. For comparison, we prepared and measured the CD of the related monocyclic thioimide 5, for which much more conformational freedom was expected. Its geometry in the solid state was established by X-ray crystallography.
Results and DiscussionThe synthesis of the compound 1 with chirality solely due to the sulfur substitution has been described earlier. 8 Thioimides 2-5 were obtained by thionation of corresponding imides of the known absolute configuration 3 with Lawesson's reagent. 9 Owing to a steric effect of the R-substituent, the reaction occurs at the less hindered carbonyl to give single isomers 3-5. Only in the case of 2 was the reaction product contaminated with a small amount of the second isomer and purified by fractional crystallization. Small quantities of the corresponding dithioimides formed during the thionation can be readily separated by column chromatography in the workup procedure.The UV-vis spectrum of the thioimide 1 in cyclohexane contains two weak absorption bands appearing as a maximum at 408 nm ( 46) and a shoulder at 326 nm (97), in addition to a strong absorption at 274 nm (18 000), shifting in methanol to 400, 320, and 276 nm, respectively. In the six-membered ring compound 5 the analogous UV bands are shifted to slightly longer wavelengths (Table 1). A similar observation concerning the electronic spectra of thiosuccinimide and thioglutarimide has been described by Berg and Sandström. 6 The intensity of the observed absorptions and the solvent effects suggest the n-π* character of two lowest energy transitions and the π-π* nature of the strong absorption at the shorter wavelengths. The shape of the molecular orbitals involved in these transitions was est...