RESUMEN
Hydroxamic acids (HAs) perform tasks in medicine and industry that require bidentate metal binding. The two favored conformations of HAs are related by rotation around the C(=O)-N bond. The conformations are unequal in stability. Recently, we reported that the most stable conformation of a small secondary HA in water places the oxygen atoms anti to one another. The barrier to C-N bond rotation may therefore modulate metal binding by secondary HAs in aqueous media. We have now determined the activation barrier to C-N rotation from major to minor conformation of a small secondary HA in D2O to be 67.3 kJ/mol. The HA rotational barrier scales with solvent polarity, as is observed in amides, although the HA barrier is less than that of a comparable tertiary amide in aqueous solution. Successful design of new secondary HAs to perform specific tasks requires solid understanding of rules governing HA structural behavior. Results from this work provide a more complete foundation for HA design efforts.
RESUMEN
Hydroxamic acids are metal-binding compounds used by micro-organisms and possess applications in medicine and industry. Hydroxamic acids favor two conformations, E and Z; metal binding is limited to the Z conformation. The Z conformation may be identifiable by NOE spectroscopy, but analysis is complicated by the potential for long-range coupling as well as for relayed NOEs due to conformational switching. In this report, we re-examine the reported conformational preference of N-methyl acetohydroxamic acid (NMHA) in D(2)O using NOE spectroscopy. We find that the favored conformation of NMHA in aqueous solution is the E conformation, contrary to an earlier report. NOE build-up curves are proposed as a valuable tool to probe conformational behavior in similar systems.