Six 2-Y-substituted oxacyclohexane and thiacyclohexane heterocycles (Y = F, OMe, NHMe) were examined using DFT molecular orbital calculations. Natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis of the total energy behaviour yielded the orbital-interaction factors contributing to the conformational equilibria. The dipole moments of the optimized systems were used to estimate the electrostatic contributions to the anomeric effect. The primary determinant of the X-C-Y anomeric effect was found to be the orbital interaction components associated with the combined endo- and exo-anomeric effects acting in concert in the axial conformers. Electrostatic interactions made a contribution to the observed conformer stabilization in all cases, but did not account for the relative magnitudes of the energy differences among conformers of homologous molecules. In the case of the methylamino substituent, accentuated steric interactions in the axial conformer precluded stabilization by the exo-anomeric interaction and consequently, the net endo/exo anomeric stabilization did not dominate the conformational equilibria.Key words: anomeric effect, component analysis, natural bond orbital analysis, electrostatic, steric, and orbital interaction effects.
