A study of the structure and energy of β-diketonates. XVIII. Molecular structure of chromium and cobalt tris-acetylacetonates according to quantum chemical calculations and gas electron diffraction

The molecular structure of chromium and cobalt tris-acetylacetonates is studied by the synchronous electron diffraction and mass spectrometric experiment and quantum chemically. It is found that molecules have the D ₃ symmetry with internuclear distances r _h1(Cr-O) = 1.960(4) Å r _h1(Co-O) = 1.893(4) Å. Quantum chemical calculations by the DFT methods with different basis sets yield a structure well consistent with that found in the experiment. Changes in the structural parameters of chromium and cobalt β-diketonate complexes whose ligands differ in ?CH₃, ?C(CH₃)₃, ?CF₃ substituents are considered.     

Crystal structure of lithium β-diketonate containing perfluorobutyl and pyridyl substituents

The crystal structure of lithium 4,4,5,5,6,6,7,7,7-nonafluoro-1-(3-pyridyl)heptane-1,3-dionate hydrate was established by X-ray diffraction. Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 3, pp. 561–571, March, 2008.     

Photoelectron spectra and electronic structure of boron difluoride β-diketonates with aromatic substituents

The electronic structure of boron difluoride chelate complexes of the acetyl acetonate type containing 4-biphenylene, 2-fluorene and 4-trans-stilbene as β-substituents is studied by means of photoelectron spectroscopy and quantum chemistry in the DFT approximation. It is established that the substituents affect the nature and sequence of the spectral bands. It is shown that calculation results corrected to the value of the Koopmans defect reproduce quite well the energy intervals between ionized states of complexes.     

A comparative study of the structure and properties of β-galactosidases

A comparative study of β-galactosidase amino acid sequences of E. coli and another four out of 11 microorganisms selected at the first stage was performed. It was shown that the functional amino acid residues in the catalytic domain and the ligand environment of the magnesium cation for all five sequences are identical. The mechanism of the catalytic action of E. coli and K. lactis β-galactosidases was investigated by the method of nucleophilic competition. It was shown that the mechanism of the effects of nucleophilic agents is kinetically identical both enzymes: the presence of methanol or butanediols affects the stage of degalactosylation; the presence of magnesium cations promotes the activity of both β-galactosidases; and the mechanisms of the thermal inactivation of E. coli and K. lactis β-galactosidases are different.     

Electronic and geometric structure of the protonated forms of nickel β-diketonates

The effect of protonation on the electronic and spatial structure of nickel malonodialdehynate Ni(Mal)₂ and acetylacetonate Ni(Acac)₂ were studied by quantum chemical density functional theory (DFT) method. The metal ring geometry, the energies and the composition of molecular orbitals (MO), the effective charges on atoms, and the total overlap populations were determined, and the possible proton location sites were identified. The variation of the MO energy depending on the electron density distribution on the protonated and non-protonated ligands was considered. Proton addition to one of the oxygen atoms was shown to be most likely.     

Thiophene based europium β-diketonate complexes: effect of the ligand structure on the emission quantum yield

The synthesis and the molecular and photophysical characterization, together with solid state and solution structure analysis, of a series of europium complexes based on β-diketonate ligands are reported. The Eu(III) complex emission, specifically its photoluminescence quantum yield (PL-QY), can be tuned by changing ligands which finely modifies the environment of the metal ion. Steady-state and time-resolved emission spectroscopy and overall PL-QY measurements are reported and related to geometrical features observed in crystal structures of some selected compounds. Moreover, paramagnetic NMR, based on the analogous complexes with other lanthanides, are use to demonstrate that there is a significant structural reorganization upon dissolution, which justifies the observed differences in the emission properties between solid and solution states. The energy of the triplet levels of the ligands and the occurrence of nonradiative deactivation processes clearly account for the luminescence efficiencies of the complexes in the series.     

A study of vitamin A radical cation generated by chemical and radiolytic oxidation

Electron transfer reaction between vitamin A (1) and tris(p-bromophenyl)aminium hexachloroautimonate (2) in dichloromethane (DCM) has been investigated by means of UV-VIS absorption and ESR spectroscopy. The title radical cation formed in the reaction was characterized by a new absorption band around 600 nm and a singlet unresolved ESR spectrum with g factor of 2.0038-2.0039 and line width of 20 G. Further studies indicated that ESR pattern and parameters of the radical cation generated by 7-irradiation of 1 in CFCl3 matrix at 77 K are consistent with that resulted in the chemical oxidation in DCM at ambient temperature.     

Molecular structure and barriers to internal rotation of α-naphthalenesulfonyl chloride: a study by gas-phase electron diffraction and quantum chemical calculations

α-Naphthalenesulfonyl chloride, α-NaphSC, was studied by gas-phase electron diffraction (GED) and quantum chemical calculations (HF/6-311 + G**, HF/aug-cc-pVDZ, B3LYP/cc-pVDZ, B3LYP/cc-pVTZ, B3LYP/aug-cc-pVDZ, B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ, MP2/cc-pVDZ, and MP2/cc-pVTZ). The calculations predict the existence of two conformers with C ₁ (I) and C _s (II) symmetries. The most stable conformer I has an enantiomer. The experimental data of α-NaphSC obtained at 370(5) K could be best fitted by a C ₁ symmetry model indicating that only this form exists in the gas-phase. In this model the C_α–S–Cl plane deviates from the perpendicular orientation relative to the plane of the naphthalene skeleton. Under the applied experimental conditions, the mole fraction of a second less stable conformer II of α-NaphSC predicted by calculations is no more than 1 %. The following geometrical parameters of conformer I were obtained from the experiment (Å and °; uncertainties are in parentheses): r _h1(C–H) = 1.082(6), r _h1(C–C)_cp = 1.407(3), r _h1(C–S) = 1.764(5), r _h1(S–O)_av = 1.425(3), r _h1(S–Cl) = 2.051(5), ∠C–C_α–C = 122.5(1), ∠C_α–S–Cl = 101.5(10); C9–C1–S–Cl = 71.4(21). The calculated barriers to internal rotation of the sulfonyl chloride group exceed considerably the thermal energy values corresponding to the temperatures of the GED experiments. Natural bond orbitals analysis of the electron density distribution was carried out to explain the peculiarities of the molecular structure of the studied compound and the deviation from the structures of β-NaphSHal molecules and their benzene analogs.     

A quantum chemical study on the mechanism of the consecutive addition of HCN to propionitrile

MINDO/3 MO method has been used to study the mechanism of the consecutive addition of HCN to propionitrile. The results obtained for the first five steps show that the reaction is exothermic, and step 1 is the rate determining step.     

Host-guest complex of nabumetone: β-cyclodextrin: quantum chemical study and QTAIM analysis

The aim of the present work is the investigation of the inclusion complex of nabumetone (NAB) and β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) using PM3, DFT, DFT-D and ONIOM2 methods. The results indicate that the most energetically favorable structure predicts a preference of the methoxy group to enter the cavity of β-CD from its wide rim. Consequently, the butanone moiety is positioned outside the cavity on the side of the secondary hydroxyls, with a total insertion of naphthalene group. The semi-empirical PM3 results are in good agreement with those obtained by the DFT optimization (with and without dispersion correction). The donor–acceptor interactions between drug and the cavity wall of the host, studied on the basis of natural bonding orbital (NBO) analysis, show the presence of weak intermolecular hydrogen bonds in addition to the most important van der Waals interactions. Furthermore, it is revealed that among the DFT and DFT-D techniques selected to quantify these interactions, WB97X-D functional provides the greatest values of stabilization energies E⁽²⁾. Finally, a detailed topological charge density analysis based on the quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM), developed by Bader and co-workers, has been accomplished using the WB97X-D and B3LYP methods on the most favorable complexes. A good correlation between the structural parameters and the electronic density is found.     

Complexes of α-, β-, and γ-cyclodextrins with nitrophenols: A theoretical study of the structure and energy

Detailed quantum mechanical calculations of the interaction of cyclodextrin (α-, β-, and γ-CD) with 4-nitrophenol (I), 4-nitro-2,6-dimethylphenol (II), 4-nitro-3,5-dimethylphenol (III), and their anions (IVVI) with the formation of intercalation complexes are carried out for the first time. The calculations of the compounds are performed within the density functional theory by the hybrid Becke–Lee–Yang–Parr (B3LYP) method with LanL2DZ basis sets. For the α-CD+III and α-CD+VI complexes it is shown that a nitrophenol molecule of III and a nitrophenolate anion of VI are not contained in the α-CD torus, which agrees with the experimental equilibrium constants. It is found that the calculated equilibrium constants of the formation of guest–host complexes with phenolate anions are much larger than those of neutral molecules. The most stable CD complexes with nitrophenols and their anions should be expected for γ-CD. The β-CD complexes when the guest enters into the host cavity are formed only with compounds I, V, and VI.     

Structure and energy study of β-diketonates. XV. Composition of superheated vapors and structure of monomeric molecules of <Emphasis Type="Italic">tris</Emphasis>-hexafluoroacetylacetonates of dysprosium,holmium, erbium,and ytterbium

The molecular structure of tris-hexafluoroacetylacetonates of dysprosium, holmium, erbium, and ytterbium (M(hfa)₃, M = Dy, Ho, Er, Yb) is studied in the framework of synchronous electron diffraction and massspectrometric experiment and also quantum-chemically. For all M(hfa)₃ complexes structural parameters r _a , r _g , and r _h1 are found. It is established that the coordination polyhedron LnO₆ has a configuration of D ₃ symmetry. In experiments on superheated vapors of Dy(hfa)₃, Ho(hfa)₃, and Yb(hfa)₃ the molecular forms present in the vapor at different degrees of superheat are determined.     

A quantum chemical study of aluminum–nitrogen bonds in three-coordinate aluminum compounds

DFT and HF methods implemented in the PC GAMESS-Firefly program package are employed to calculate the spatial and electronic structures of molecules of three-coordinate aluminum compounds with Al–N bonds. NBO and AIM methods are applied to determine the main characteristics of Al–N and N–C bonds in these molecules. It is shown that Al and N atoms interact with each other as closed shell atoms. The N–C bonds are close to covalent ones.     

Current trends in the development of A. M. Butlerov’s theory of chemical structure

The chemical structure concept developed by A. M. Butlerov supplemented by the views on spatial (J. H. van’t-Hoff and J. A. Le Bel) and electronic (G. Lewis) configurations of molecules constitute the basis of the classical theory of chemical structure. The advent of quantum mechanics and development of the computer chemistry extended and enhanced the conceptual basis of theoretical chemistry, which nevertheless retains its independent value and cannot be reduced to direct physical definitions. The review deals with the evolution of the key concepts of the classical theory of chemical structure and introduction of new notions and approaches to analysis of the structure and reactivity problems, which is associated with the advent of the quantum mechanics and quantum chemistry views and methods.     

A quantum chemical study of aluminum–carbon bonds in three-coordinate aluminum compounds

The spatial and electronic structures of three-coordinate aluminum molecules with Al–C bonds are calculated using the GAMESS-Firefly program package at DFT and HF levels of theory. By NBO and AIM methods the main characteristics of Al–C bonds in these molecules are determined. It is shown that by their topological characteristics the Al–C bonds can be characterized as weakened intermediate bonds close to the bonds between closed shell atoms.     

Spectroscopic studies of the Ã-X̃ electronic spectrum of the β-hydroxyethylperoxy radical: structure and dynamics

The jet-cooled A?-X? near IR origin band spectra of the G(1)G(2)G(3) conformer of four β-hydroxyethylperoxy isotopologues, β-HEP (HOCH(2)CH(2)OO), β-DHEP (DOCH(2)CH(2)OO), β-HEP-d(4) (HOCD(2)CD(2)OO), and β-DHEP-d(4) (DOCD(2)CD(2)OO), have been recorded by a cavity ringdown spectrometer with a laser source linewidth of ~70 MHz. The spectra of all four isotopologues have been analyzed and successfully simulated with an evolutionary algorithm, confirming the cyclic structure of the molecule responsible for the observed origin band. The analysis also provides experimental A? and X? state rotational constants and the orientation of the transition dipole moment in the inertial axis system; these quantities are compared to results from electronic structure calculations. The observed, broad linewidth (Δν > 2 GHz) is attributed to a shortened lifetime of the A? state associated with dynamics along the reaction path for hydrogen transfer from the OH to OO group.     

Polyelectrolyte microcapsules containing molecules of sulfated β-cyclodextrin in the structure of nanosized shell

Alternate adsorption of the molecules of poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAA) and sulfated β-cyclodextrin (sulfo-β-CD) is studied by piezoelectric microweighing upon the formation of coatings of nanosized thicknesses by the polyionic assembly procedure. The thickness of planar coatings on the surface of single-crystalline silicon is determined by ellipsometry. The layer-by-layer character of the formation of planar nanosized coating is revealed and assumptions about the structure of the PAA and sulfo-β-CD bilayers are stated. A comparison of the spherical microparticles of polystyrene, as well as manganese and calcium carbonates, demonstrated that it is feasible to use microparticles of calcium carbonate as a template for producing microcapsules. Microcapsules with shells containing five (PAA/sulfo-β-CD) layers are prepared and studied by confocal fluorescent microscopy.     

A DFT study on the structure–property relationship of amino-, nitro- and nitrosotetrazoles, and their N-oxides: new high energy density molecules

We explore herein the structure, stability, heat of explosion, density, and the performance properties of amino, nitro, and nitroso substituted tetrazoles and their N-oxides using the density functional theory calculations at the B3LYP/aug-cc-pVDZ level. N-Nitro compounds have lower densities compared with those of C-nitrotetrazoles. Kamlet-Jacob semi-empirical equations were used to calculate the performance properties of designed compounds. The higher performance of tetrazole-N-oxides is due to their higher densities (2.110–2.287 g/cm³). Heat of explosion, stability, density and performance properties are related to the number and relative positions of NO₂, NH₂, and NO groups of the tetrazole ring. The designed molecules satisfy the criteria of high energy materials.     

NMR and luminescence spectroscopy study of the formation of mixed europium β-diketonate complexes with trifluoroacetic acid in nonaqueous solutions

The ligand substitution in Eu(AA)₃ · Phen-CDCl₃-TFA systems, where AA is acetylacetone, Phen is 1,10-phenanthroline, and TFA is trifluoroacetic acid was studied at various molar ratios (m) of competing ligands (m = TFA/AA) using NMR (¹H, ¹⁹F) and luminescence spectroscopy. The formation of mixed Eu(AA)₂(TFA) · Phen and Eu(AA)(TFA)₂ · Phen complexes in the resultant solutions was attested. The luminescence spectra were studied. The competitive capacity of TFA was ascertained to be higher than that of AA. Depending on the m value, the substitution of acido ligands was shown to occur successively according equations Eu(AA)₃ · Phen + (TFA) _n = Eu(AA)_{3 − n} (TFA) _n · Phen + (AA) _n (n = 1, 2, 3).