Efficient synthesis of 1-Aryl-1H-tetrazols in presence of ZrOCl2.8H2O and quantum chemical study of the products using DFT

A simple, efficient and versatile procedure for the synthesis of the 1-Aryl-1H-tetrazols using reaction between triethyl orthoformate, sodium azid and aryl amines in the presence of the ZrOCl2.8H2O as catalyst is introduced. The reaction is carried out at acetic acid as solvent under low temperature and gets pure products in high yields. In continue the quantum chemical computations were done on products using density functional theory. The M062X/6-31G(d) used as the method and basis set for all calculations. Geometrical structures, thermodynamical properties, frontier molecular orbitals (HOMO and LUMO) and electrostatic potential maps of the products were obtained and analyzed. The results showed that the both of the maximum and minimum electrostatic potential regions are located on the tetrazol ring therefore for both of the nucleophilic and electrophilic reactions the tetrazol ring will be prior to the phenyl one.