Conformational Changes in Thiazole-2-carboxylic Acid Selectively Induced by Excitation with Narrowband Near-IR and UV Light.

Conformers and photoinduced conformational transformations were studied for monomers of thiazole-2-carboxylic acid (TCA). The matrix-isolation technique and excitations with narrowband near-IR and UV light, tuned in an optical parametric oscillator, were used for this purpose. Form I, with the carboxylic moiety in the trans orientation and with the hydrogen atom of the OH group directed toward the nitrogen atom of the ring, was the most abundant in low-temperature argon or nitrogen matrixes. Conformer II, differing from I by 180° rotation of the OH group around the C-O bond, was also trapped in the matrixes, but in much smaller amount. The abundance of form II was experimentally determined as ∼6% of the total amount of TCA molecules. Selective excitation of I with narrowband near-IR laser light resulted in I → II transformation. This near-IR-induced conformational change was photoreversible: form II converted back to I upon selective excitation of II with near-IR light of different wavelength. Conformational conversions of I into II, or vice versa, were also induced in TCA monomers by narrowband UV excitations at 300 nm (for I → II transformation) and at 305 nm (for II → I transformation). A spontaneous conversion of photogenerated II into the most stable form I was observed for the compound trapped in the matrix at 15 K and kept in the dark. This process was very slow; the estimated half-life time of conformer II was longer than 50 h. Finally, TCA was shown to thermally decompose at room temperature, yielding CO2 and thiazole.