On the basis of theoretical B3LYP calculations, Yáñez and co-workers (J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2012, 8, 2293) illustrated that beryllium ions are capable of significantly modulating (changing) the electronic structures of imidazole. In this computational organic chemistry study, the interaction of this β-amino acid and five model Lewis acids (BeF1+, Be2+, AlF2(1+), AlF2+, and Al3+) were investigated. Several aspects were addressed: natural bond orbitals, including second order perturbation analysis of intra-molecular charge delocalization and the natural population analysis atomic charges; molecular geometries; selected infrared stretching frequencies (C-N, C-O, and N-H), and selected ¹H-NMR chemical shifts. The data illustrate that this interaction can weaken the H-O bond and goes beyond strengthening the intra-molecular hydrogen bond (N...H-O) to cause a spontaneous transfer of the proton to the nitrogen atom in five cases generating zwitterion structures. Many new features are observed. Most importantly, the zwitterion structures include a stabilizing hydrogen bond (N-H...O) that varies in relative strength according to the Lewis acid. These findings explain the experimental observations of α-amino acids (for example: J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123, 3577) and are the first reported fundamental electronic structure characterization of β-amino acids in zwitterion form.

A large number of theoretical studies have focused on understanding the molecular features of the agostic interaction in various kinds of molecular environments. However, there is a lack of electronic structure information about the agostic interaction in electron-deficient group (VI) ML6 organometallic complexes. In this simulation study, a unique case of an intramolecular stabilizing interaction has been discovered and evaluated. A geometric analysis revealed that beta-(C-H) and alpha-(C-C) can occupy the seventh and eighth coordination sites in the title Fischer carbene complexes as agostic interactions, which allows classifying the carbene as a η3 ligand in these cases. This theory was supported by the relative energies of the conformers and an NBO analysis. Both C2-C1 (σ) and C2-H1 (σ) were found to interact with the antibonding orbital of M-C6 (σ*), therefore these interactions are classified as σ→σ*. These two simultaneous interactions have significant impact on the carbene characteristics; the structure, the atomic charges, infrared stretching vibrations (C-H, C-C, and C-O), and the ¹H and the 13C-NMR chemical shifts. From a fundamental organic-organometallic chemistry point of view, this is a new addition to the orbital interaction theory and to group (VI) chemistry.