Equilibrium between Hydroxycycloalkanones and Oxabicycloalkanols

Guido Kramer, Annette Oehlhof, and Herbert Meier Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Mainz, Duesbergweg 10 – 14, 55099 Mainz, Germany Reprint requests to Prof. Dr. H. Meier. Fax: +49-(0)6131-3925396. E-mail: hmeier@mail.uni-mainz.de Z. Naturforsch. 2009, 64b, 847 – 850; received April 8, 2009 Hydroxycycloalkanones 1 of medium ring size (8 – 10) exist in a transannular tautomeric equilibrium with the corresponding oxabicycloalkan-1-ols 2, which represent hemiacetals. Normally, the bicyclic structures 2 predominate in solution although their portion decreases with increasing solvent polarity. A correlation of the Gibbs reaction enthalpies ∆G (1→2) with the solvent parameters ET (30)…