Is the structure of hydroxide dihydrate OH−(H2O)2? An ab initio path integral molecular dynamics study

We carried out ab initio path integral molecular dynamics simulations at room temperature for OH^?(H₂O) _n (n = 1, 2) clusters to elucidate the ionic hydrogen bond structure with full thermal and nuclear quantum effects. We found that the hydrogen-bonded proton is located near the water molecule in the case of n = 2, while the proton is located at the center between hydroxide ion and the water molecule in the case of n = 1. Thus, the solvated hydroxide structure \({\text{HO}}{-}{\text{H}} \cdots{\text{OH}}\) is found in n = 2, while the proton sharing hydroxide structure \({\text{HO}} \cdots {\text{H}} \cdots {\text{OH}}\) is in n = 1. We found that the nature of hydrogen bonds significantly changes with the number of water molecules around the hydroxide. We also compared these results with those of F^?(H₂O) _n (n = 1, 2) clusters.     

A path integral molecular dynamics study on intermolecular hydrogen bond of acetic acid–arsenic acid anion and acetic acid–phosphoric acid anion clusters

We apply ab initio path integral molecular dynamics simulation employing ωB97XD as the quantum chemical calculation method to acetic acid–arsenic acid anion and acetic acid–phosphoric acid anion clusters to investigate the difference of the hydrogen bond structure and its fluctuation such as proton transfer. We found that the nuclear quantum effect enhanced the fluctuation of the hydrogen bond structure and proton transfer, which shows treatment of the nuclear quantum effect was essential to investigate these systems. The hydrogen bond in acetic acid–arsenic acid anion cluster showed characters related to low-barrier hydrogen bonds, while acetic acid–phosphoric acid anion cluster did not. We found non-negligible distinction between these two systems, which could not be found in conventional calculations. We suggest that the difference in amount of atomic charge of the atoms consisting the hydrogen bond is the origin of the difference between acetic acid–arsenic acid and acetic acid–phosphoric acid anion cluster. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Effect of intermolecular O-H ⋯ O hydrogen bonding on the molecular structure of phenol: An ab initio molecular orbital study

The effect of intermolecular O-H O hydrogen bonding on the molecular structure of phenol has been studied by SCF ab initio MO calculations at the HF/6-31G * level. The systems investigated are eight phenol-water complexes and the dimer and trimer of phenol. Optimized geometries show that hydrogen bond formation causes a consistent pattern of changes in the structure of the molecule. When phenol acts as a proton donor, the expected increase ofr (O-H) is accompanied by a slight decrease ofr(C-O) and of the internal ring angles at theipso andpara positions, and by an increase ofr(C _ipso © _ortho ). These changes suggest that the relative contribution of polar canonical forms to the electronic structure of the molecule increases upon hydrogen bond formation, since this enhances the strength of the interaction. The opposite changes occur when phenol acts as a proton acceptor, except forr(O-H), which is the same as in the free molecule. If phenol acts as a proton donorand as a proton acceptor, the two hydrogen bonds become stronger due to a synergic effect. In this case, however, the structural deformation of the molecule is less pronounced than in the previous cases, due to the opposite effect of the two hydrogen bonds. The available experimental evidence on gas-crystal structural differences for phenol is critically reviewed, also in the light of the present results on gas-phase complexes.     

Structures,g-tensors,and hyperfine coupling constants of L-α-alanine radicals in radiation dosimetry: An ab initio molecular dynamics simulation study

Alanine is used as a transfer standard dosimeter for gamma ray and electron beam calibration. An important factor affecting its dosimetric response is humidity which can lead to errors in absorbed dose calculations. Ab initio molecular dynamics calculations were performed to determine the environmental effects on the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) parameters of L-α-alanine radicals in acidic and alkaline solutions. A new result, not dissimilar to the closed-shell amino acid molecule alanine, is that the non-zwitterionic form of the alanine radical is the stable form in the gas phase while the zwitterionic neutral alanine radical is not a stable structure in the gas phase. Geometric and EPR parameters of radicals in both gas and solution phases are found to be dependent on hydrogen bonding of water molecules with the polar groups and on dynamic solvation. Calculations on the optimized free radicals in the gas phase revealed that for the neutral radical, hydrogen bonding to water molecules drives a decrease in the magnitudes of g-tensor components g _xx and g _yy without affecting neither g _zz component nor the hyperfine coupling constants (HFCCs). The transfer from the gas to solution phase of the alanine radical anion is accompanied with an increase in the spin density on the carboxylic group's oxygen atoms. However, for the neutral radical, this transfer from gas to solution phase is accompanied with the decrease in the spin density on oxygen atoms. Calculated isotropic HFCCs and g-tensor of all radicals are in good agreement with experiment in both acidic and alkaline solutions.     

Proton transfers in aromatic and antiaromatic systems. How aromatic or antiaromatic is the transition state? An ab initio study

An ab initio study of six carbon-to-carbon identity proton transfers is reported. They refer to the benzenium ion/benzene (C6H7(+)/C6H6), the 2,4-cyclopentadiene/cyclopentadienyl anion (C5H6/C5H5(-)), and the cyclobutenyl cation/cyclobutadiene (C4H5(+)/C4H4) systems and their respective noncyclic reference systems, that is, [structure: see text], [structure: see text] and [structure: see text]. For the aromatic C6H7(+)/C6H6 and C5H6/C5H5(-) systems, geometric parameters and aromaticity indices indicate that the transition states are highly aromatic. The proton-transfer barriers in these systems are quite low, which is consistent with a disproportionately high degree of transition-state aromaticity. For the antiaromatic C4H5(+)/C4H4 system, the geometric parameters and aromaticity indices indicate a rather small degree of antiaromaticity of the transition state. However, the proton-transfer barrier is higher than expected for a transition state with a low antiaromaticity. This implies that another factor contributes to the barrier; it is suggested that this factor is angle and torsional strain in the transition state. The question whether charge delocalization at the transition state might correlate with the development of aromaticity was also examined. No such correlation was found, that is, charge delocalization lags behind proton transfer as is commonly observed in nonaromatic systems involving pi-acceptor groups.     

Solvent effects on the molecular stability,intramolecular hydrogen bond,and π-electron delocalization in the simple RAHB systems with different donors and acceptors: a quantum chemical study

Structural Chemistry - In the present study, solvent effects on the molecular stability, intramolecular hydrogen bond (IMHB), and π-electron delocalization (π-ED) in some of the simple...     

How the substituents in corannulene and sumanene derivatives alter their molecular assemblings and charge transport properties?—A theoretical study with a dimer model

The substituent effects on the structures, intermolecular interactions and charge transport properties of a series of corannulene and sumanene derivatives were investigated by DFT method. The intermolecular interaction energy and the potential energy surface of the dimers were also calculated and analyzed in detail, which showed several local energy minima and demonstrated the possible dimer structures in experiment. In addition, the reorganization energy, transfer integral, and carrier mobility were explored to measure the charge transport properties of these substituted corannulenes and sumanenes at different configurations for investigating the substituent effects. Our study is closely related to the experiment and previous theoretical investigation and provides a better understanding of the structure‐property relationships for these substituted corannulenes and sumanenes. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.