What happens to formamide during C—N bond rotation? Atomic and molecular energetics and molecular reactivity as a function of internal rotation

We investigate the energetics of rotation about the C—N bond in formamide at the molecular and atomic levels using the HF/6-31G**//HF/6-31G** level of theory. At the molecular level, the barrier to rotation results from a decrease in overall attractive energies upon rotation away from the planar conformation, primarily due to the lengthening of the C—N bond. At the atomic level, the barrier is due to the loss in interatomic attraction between the nitrogen and its bonded neighbors. We investigate the susceptibility of formamide to electrophilic attack at nitrogen and oxygen as well as nucleophilic attack at carbonyl carbon as a function of C—N bond rotation using the Laplacian model of reactivity. The model predicts the susceptibility to nucleophilic attack at carbonyl carbon to reach a maximum with a O—C—N—H torsional angle of 60°. As a mimic of solvent fields, we investigate the effect of solvation upon these predictions with the application of homogeneous electric fields. This geometry–reactivity relationship is related to proposed models of activation in the enzymatic catalysis of peptides.