In our publication, we assigned the blue-shifted shoulder of N-methylacetamide (NMA) in the infrared (IR) spectrum (∼1645 cm–1) to an iminolate tautomer stabilized in the presence of divalent metal cations (e.g., 5 M Ca2+).(1) Cremer and co-workers comment that this shoulder arises from the dehydration of the amide oxygen upon interaction with the metal cations.(2,3) Their assignment is based on three interesting experimental observations: (1) the IR spectrum of 15N-isotope-labeled NMA does not show any considerable red-shift compared to that of NMA; (2) a new peak appears for NMA at 1680 cm–1 in the presence of 1 M DCl, which shows a 17 cm–1 red-shift for 15N-labeled NMA; and (3) the IR spectrum of acetone C═O stretch also demonstrates a blue-shifted shoulder in the presence of a high concentration of CaCl2.

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