Properties of bridgehead-substituted polycycloalkanes. Synthesis and NMR analysis of nitrogen-15-labeled 1-aminobicycloalkanes and their hydrochlorides

NMR analysis of adamantane and four bicycloalkanes substituted at the bridgehead with /sup 15/N-labeled amino and ammonio groups is described. It is found that where most of the one-bond carbon-nitrogen coupling constants are relatively large, those in 1-aminobicyclo (1.1.1)pentane and its hydrochloride are significantly reduced; in fact, in the latter compound one-bond /sup 13/C-/sup 15/N coupling could not even be detected. Values of experimentally determined vicinal couplings were in accord with those expected on the basis of the number of three-bond pathways available for transmission of spin-spin information; INDO calculations, however, suggest that in the more highly strained systems there is a substantial contribution to /sup 3/J(CN) arising from through-space interactions and that these oppose through-bond effects. Large four-bond /sup 15/N-/sup 1/H couplings were found to occur in 1-aminobicyclo(1.1.1)pentane and its hydrochloride; MO calculations indicate that through-space interactions constitute the predominant mechanism contributing to /sup 4/J(/sup 15/N-/sup 1/H), although in this case through-bond and through-space effects reinforce each other. The nitrogen-15 chemical shifts of the amine hydrochlorides were determined, and they appear to occur in random fashion.