Energetics, electronic structures and geometries of didehydroazines

When calibrated against the available experimental data for didehydrobenzenes, RB3LYP/cc-pVTZ, QCISD/cc-pVTZ, CCSD(T)/cc-pVTZ, and G3 electronic structure calculations provide reliable predictions of standard enthalpies and singlet-triplet splittings in all possible isomers of didehydroazines that ( with a possible exception of 2,6-didehydropyridine) possess singlet ground states. Singlet didehydroazines with larger numbers of nitrogen atoms turn out to be more prone to ring opening, as indicated by the fact that out of the 6, 11, 6 and 3 possible didehydropyridines, didehydrodiazines, didehydrotriazines, and didehydrotetrazines, respectively, 5, 7, 2 and none are actually found. Immediate proximity of the nitrogen atom to the formally triple carbon-carbon bond confers decreased thermodynamic stabilities and smaller singlet-triplet splittings on the species of the 1,2-didehydro type. Some of the aza analogues of singlet 1,3-didehydrobenzene are as stable as their 1,2-didehydro counterparts. The only existing aza analogue of singlet 1,4-didehydrobenzene is 2,5-didehydropyrazine, which is particularly stable and possesses a large singlet-triplet splitting, making it a feasible synthetic target. The present calculations indicate that the experimental standard enthalpies of formation of pyrimidine and pyrazine are in error.