Alcohols, ethers, carbohydrates, and related compounds. III. The 1,2-dimethoxyethane system

Ethylene glycol, its dimethyl ether, and some related compounds have been studied using the MM4 molecular mechanics force field. The MM4 calculated structural and energetic results have been brought into satisfactory agreement with a considerable number of experimental data and MP2/6-311++G(2d,2p) ab initio calculations. The heats of formation of these compounds are also well calculated. The MM4 ethylene glycol conformations in particular are in good agreement, both geometrically and in terms of energy, with those from the ab initio calculations. The corresponding dimethyl ether is of special interest, because it has been suggested that the trans-gauche conformation is unusually stable due to the hydrogen bonding of a hydrogen on a methyl group with the more distant oxygen. It is shown in the present work that while this conformation is more stable than might have been expected, the energy is adequately calculated by MM4 without using any hydrogen bonding between the CH bond and the oxygen. If such hydrogen bonding occurs, it amounts to no more than about 0.5 kcal/mol in energy, and is too small to detect with certainty. Additionally, energetic relationships in trans-1,2-dimethoxycyclohexane, 1,3,5,7-tetraoxadecalin, and 3-methoxytetrahydropyran have been studied, and the calculated results are compared with experimental information, which is adequately reproduced. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 24: 1490–1503, 2003