Theoretical study of water-pyridine complexes using intermolecular potentials

Intermolecular potential functions have been used to determine the equilibrium structures of the water-pyridine complexes. The dimer and symmetrical 2:1 water pyridine systems have been studied. Three water models, ST2, TIPS2, and EMPWI have been combined with two different Lennard Jones nonbonded parameters and various charge distributions for the pyridine molecule to describe the systems. For the dimer, results show two distinguishable classes of preferential hydration sites, which are specific sites corresponding to hydrogen-bonded dimer and nonspecific sites located near the hydrophobic regions. Calculations performed on hydrogen-bonded symmetrical complexes show that the planar complex is generally less stable than the complex with water molecules perpendicular to the pyridine plane. For these complexes, the major factor that influences the hydrogen-bonded configurations is the choice of the water model. The importance of atomic charge distributions for the solute over the choice of potential parameters is pointed out. Finally, the effective lone pair representation on the aromatic nitrogen atom is shown to improve the hydrogen bond geometry and the stability of the complexes.