A computational study of microsolvation effect on ethylene glycol by density functional method

This study focuses on the conformational analysis of ethylene glycol-(water)n (n=1-3) complex by using density functional theory method and the basis set 6-311++G*. Different conformers are reported and the basis set superposition error corrected total energy is -306.767 5171, -383.221 3135, and -459.694 1528 for lowest energy conformer with 1, 2, and 3 water molecules, respectively, with corresponding binding energy -7.75, -15.43, and -36.28 kcal/mol. On applying many-body analysis it has been found that relaxation energy, two-body, three-body energy have significant contribution to the binding energy for ethylene glycol-(water)3 complex whereas four-body energies are negligible. The most stable conformers of ethylene glycol-(water)n complex are the cyclic structures in which water molecules bridge between the two hydroxyl group of ethylene glycol.     

Characteristics of the hydrogen bond and the structure of Н-complexes of <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-n-propyloxybenzoic acid and <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-n-propyloxy-<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>′-cyanobiphenyl

The conformational properties of p-n-propyloxybenzoic acid and p-n-propyloxy-p′-cyanobiphenyl molecules, which can exhibit liquid crystalline properties in the formation of Н-complexes, are studied (DFT/B3LYP)/cc-pVTZ method). It is found that a molecule of p-n-propyloxybenzoic acid has 16 conformers that can be divided into four groups with respect to relative energies (0 kcal/mol, 1.6 kcal/mol, 6.5 kcal/mol, and 8.1 kcal/mol), and a molecule of p-n-propyloxy-p′-cyanobiphenyl has six conformers with relative energies of 0 kcal/mol (two conformers, φ(С_Ph–O–C–C)=180°) and 1.6 kcal/mol (four conformers, φ(С_Ph–O–C–C)=64.4°). In all conformers of the 3-AOCB molecule, phenyl rings are turned at 35° relative to each other. A conformation with the planar arrangement of two rings has a higher energy by 1.5 kcal/mol. Barriers to the internal rotation of different groups are determined and it is established that the structural nonrigidity of the molecules is mainly due to the possible rotation of the–C₂Н₅ moiety about the C–C bond. It is shown that with increasing temperature the vibrational amplitudes of the OC₃H₇ substituent, which enhance the probabilities of transitions between the conformers, become appreciably larger. It is found that p-n-propyloxybenzoic acid and p-n-propyloxy-p′-cyanobiphenyl can form Н-complexes with the medium hydrogen bond. Two types of the structural organization of Н-complexes are considered: linear and angular. The similarity of energies of Н-complexes with different structures (NBO analysis) can be the reason for the occurrence of two liquid crystalline subphases of p-n-propyloxybenzoic acid and p-n-propyloxy-p′-cyanobiphenyl system.     

Aspirin. An ab initio quantum-mechanical study of conformational preferences and of neighboring group interactions.

The potential energy surface of acetylsalicylic acid, aspirin, has been explored at the RHF/6-31G* and B3LYP/6-31G* levels, and single-point calculations were performed at levels up to B3LYP/6-311G**//B3LYP/6-31G*. All conformational isomers have been located, the thermochemical functions have been computed, and relative energies and free enthalpies were determined. The conformational space of aspirin is spanned by three internal coordinates, and these are the carboxylic acid C-O conformation (s-trans preferred by about 7 kcal/mol), the C-COOH conformation (Z preferred unless there are H-bonding opportunities), and the ester C-O conformation (s-trans preferred by about 4 kcal/mol). There are nine aspirin isomers since one of the conformers realizes hydrogen-bonding structure isomerism as well. Neighboring group interactions are discussed with reference to the intrinsic properties of benzoic acid and phenyl acetate. The intrinsic conformational preference energies for benzoic acid and phenyl acetate are not additive. The acid s-trans preference energies differ by as much as 9 kcal/mol depending on the Ph-COOH and ester conformations. Similarly, the E-preference energies about the Ph-COOH bond vary by as much as 6 kcal/mol depending on the ester conformation. The structural discussion suggests an overall ortho repulsion between the functional groups in all aspirin isomers including the intramolecularly hydrogen-bonded isomers. The isodesmic reaction between the most stable conformers of benzoic acid and phenyl acetate to form aspirin and benzene is found to be endothermic by 2.7 kcal/mol and provides compelling evidence for and a quantitative measure of ortho repulsion. The ortho repulsion of 2.7 kcal/mol is a lower limit, and the ortho repulsion can increase to as much as 6 kcal/mol in some aspirin isomers.     

Besides N(2), What Is the Most Stable Molecule Composed Only of Nitrogen Atoms?

Polynitrogen molecules have been studied systematically at high levels of ab initio and density functional theory (DFT). Besides N(2), the thermodynamically most stable N(n)() molecules, located with the help of a newly developed energy increment system, are all based on pentazole units. The geometric, energetic, and magnetic criteria establish pentazole (2) and its anion (3) to be as aromatic as their isoelectronic analogues, e.g., furan, pyrrole, and the cyclopentadienyl anion. The bond lengths in 2 and 3 are equalized; both have large aromatic stabilization energies (ASE) and also substantial magnetic susceptibility exaltations (Lambda). The C(s)() symmetric azidopentazole (14), a candidate for experimental investigation, is the lowest energy N(8) isomer but is still 196.7 kcal/mol higher in energy than four N(2) molecules. Octaazapentalene (12) with 10 pi electrons also is aromatic. The D(2)(d)() symmetric bispentazole (21) is the lowest energy N(10) minimum but is 260 kcal/mol higher in energy than five N(2) molecules. For strain-free molecules, the average deviation is +/-2.6 kcal/mol between the DFT energies and those based on the increment scheme. The increment scheme also provides estimates of the strain energies of polynitrogen compounds, e.g., tetraazatetrahedrane (8, 48.2 kcal/mol), octaazacubane (11, 192.6 kcal/mol), and N(20) (27, 294.6 kcal/mol), and is useful in searching for new high-energy-high-density materials.     

Gaseous arginine conformers and their unique intramolecular interactions

Extensive ab initio calculations were employed to characterize stable conformers of gaseous arginine, both the canonical and zwitterionic tautomers. Step-by-step geometry optimizations of possible single-bond rotamers at the B3LYP/6-31G(d), B3LYP/6-31++G(d,p), and MP2/6-31++G(d,p) levels yield numerous structures that are more stable than any known ones. The final electronic energies of the conformers were determined at the CCSD/6-31++G(d,p) level. The lowest energies of the canonical and zwitterionic structures are lower than the existing values by 2.0 and 2.3 kcal/mol, respectively. The relative energies, rotational constants, dipole moments, and harmonic frequencies of the stable conformers remain for future experimental verification. The conformational distributions at various temperatures, estimated according to thermodynamic principles, consist almost exclusively of the newly found structures. One striking feature is the occurrence of blue-shifting hydrogen bonds in all six of the most stable conformers. A unique feature of important conformations is the coexistence of dihydrogen and blue- and red-shifting hydrogen bonds. In addition to the hydrogen bonds, the stereoelectronic effects were also found to be important stabilization factors. The calculated and measured proton affinities agree within the theoretical and experimental uncertainties, affirming the high quality of our conformational search. The theoretical gas-phase basicity of 245.9 kcal/mol is also in good agreement with the experimental value of 240.6 kcal/mol. The extensive searches establish firmly that gaseous arginine exists primarily in the canonical and not the zwitterionic form.     

Manifestation of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">gauche</Emphasis> effect in conformers of benzenesulfonic acid hydrazide

Conformational properties of a benzenesulfonic acid hydrazide molecule and its para-nitro and para-methyl derivatives, which have found wide application as porofors and biologically active compounds, are studied. It is found that the benzenesulfonic acid hydrazide molecule has six conformers with relative energies of 0//0 kcal/mol, 0.34//0.98 kcal/mol, 2.51//2.25 kcal/mol, 2.54//2.56 kcal/mol, 2.90//3.28 kcal/mol, 6.64//6.43 kcal/mol (MP2//DFT(B3LYP) with the cc-pVTZ basis set), each conformer has enantiomer. The conformers differ from each other in the relative orientation of the fragments of the–SO2NHNH2 group, the energies of the frontier orbitals, the direction and value of the dipole moments. It is shown that the introduction of a nitro or methyl group into the para-position practically does not affect the conformational properties of the sulfonyl hydrazide group. Change in the structure of benzenesulfonic acid hydrazide during the crystal–gas transition is considered and it is revealed that in the crystal the conformation similar in structure to one of the high-energy conformers of the free molecule is stabilized. The NBO analysis of the electron density distribution is performed and it is shown that the occurrence of the gauche effect in all conformers of the molecules under study can be interpreted by the manifestation of the total action of strong anomeric effects between the lone pairs of nitrogen atoms and antibonding orbitals of S=O, N–H, C–S, and N–S bonds.     

Rotational isomerism about acyl–oxygen bond in two envelope conformations and vibrational spectral analysis of cyclopentyl acetate—a combined theoretical and experimental study

The s-cis and s-trans isomers resulting from the rotation about the acyl–oxygen bond of two envelope conformations with C5 (neighbour to substituted carbon C4) and C4 as apical atoms in the five-membered ring and vibrational spectra of cyclopentyl acetate are studied with density functional molecular orbital theory at the B3LYP/6-311++G** level. In the case of C5 at the flap and –OAc group in the axial position, it is found that the s-cis isomer (1:s-cis) is more stable than the s-trans isomer (1:s-trans) by 7.46 kcal/mol. The s-cis–s-trans rotational barrier is 15 kcal/mol. The other two conformers with C4 at the flap and –OAc group in the equatorial position, the relative energies of the s-cis and s-trans isomers (2:s-cis and 2:s-trans) with respect to 1:s-cis are found to be 0.45 and 8.21 kcal/mol, respectively. The infrared spectra (200–3200 cm⁻¹) in gas and liquid phase and Raman spectra (3200–150 cm⁻¹) in liquid phase for cyclopentyl acetate and 10 of its isotopomers are recorded. The calculated spectra of all conformers along with the observed spectra has helped study the effect of rotational isomerism on the vibrational spectra. The normal coordinate analysis in terms of non-redundant local coordinates is done for vibrational assignments of the 57 normal modes. The experimental and theoretical results are compared to the corresponding quantities of some similar molecules.     

Ab Initio computed molecular structures and energies of the conformers of glucose

Ab initio computations indicate the existence of several stable and some unstable conformers in isolated α and β glucose molecules. All of the lower-energy conformers exhibit a strikingly regular pattern of internal hydrogen bonding. Five such stable structures have been identified for each of the α and β anomers, differing primarily in the orientation of the CH₂OH group. In each conformer, the α anomer is predicted to be lower in energy than the corresponding conformers of β anomer. The difference is about 2 kcal/mol in the 4-31G basis but only 0.4 kcal/mol in the 6-31G* basis. It is found that the electronic contributions to the free energy difference stabilize the α anomer while the nuclear motion contributions stabilize the β anomer. The implications of these predictions and the future investigations required to understand the relative stabilities of the two anomers are pointed out. © 1992 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Conformational search for zwitterionic leucine and hydrated conformers of both the canonical and zwitterionic leucine using the DFT-CPCM model

The stable conformations for zwitterionic leucine have been searched for in solution as well as in gas phase. A total of 54 trial structures were generated by considering possible combinations of single bond rotamers. It is observed that zwitterions are not stable in gas phase. In order to investigate the zwitterions of leucine in solution, the calculations for all trial structures of zwitterions were performed initially at the PM3 level and 14 the lowest energy structures were reoptimized at the B3LYP/6-311G(d) level using the CPCM model. Seven of these conformers of zwitterionic leucine were found to be stable in solution. The five most stable conformers were then reoptimized at the B3LYP/6-311++G(d, p) level. The energy ordering of the canonical leucine(neutral) conformers were also considered on the basis of single point energy calculations at the B3LYP/6-311++G(d, p) level using the CPCM model. The chemical hardness, chemical potential, vertical ionization energy and vertical electron affinity were calculated for a few of the most stable canonical leucine and its zwitterions in solution. The effects of explicit addition of water molecules (microsolvation) on the structure and the energy of both canonical and zwitterionic conformers of leucine were investigated. It is noted that in gas phase, the singly and doubly hydrated canonical (neutral) forms are more stable than their zwitterionic counterparts. The solvated zwitterions and canonical structures of leucine were further investigated using the discrete/SCRF model with zero, one and two water molecules. In solution, the continuum solvent model shows that the bare zwitterionic form is more stable than the bare canonical form by 1.6 kcal/mol. This energy separation is increased to 3.8 and 4.8 kcal/mol with inclusion of one and two water molecules, respectively. The optimized structural parameters for the most stable zwitterionic leucine with zero, one and two water molecules in solution were compared with those reported for l-leucine crystal, which shows a close agreement between the optimized geometrical parameters of the zwitterionic leucine with two water molecules in solution with the experimental geometrical parameters for l-leucine crystal. It is also observed that when the structures of zwitterions with one and two explicit water molecules are optimized in solution, the geometrical parameters and their relative energies are found to be appreciably modified. We have also calculated the vibrational spectra of the most stable solvated zwitterionic leucine as well as for the most stable structure of zwitterionic leucine with one and two water molecules in solution.     

Structures of protonated arginine dimer and bradykinin investigated by density functional theory: further support for stable gas-phase salt bridges

The gas-phase structures and energetics of both protonated arginine dimer and protonated bradykinin were investigated using a combination of molecular mechanics with conformational searching to identify candidate low-energy structures, and density functional theory for subsequent minimization and energy calculations. For protonated arginine dimer, a good correlation (R = 0.88) was obtained between the molecular mechanics and EDF1 6-31+G* energies, indicating that mechanics with MMFF is suitable for finding low-energy conformers. For this ion, the salt-bridge or ion-zwitterion form was found to be 5.7 and 7.2 kcal/mol more stable than the simple protonated or ion-molecule form at the EDF1 6-31++G** and B3LYP 6-311++G** levels. For bradykinin, the correlation between the molecular mechanics and DFT energies was poor (R = 0.28), indicating that many low-energy structures are likely passed over in the mechanics conformational searching. This result suggests that structures of this larger peptide ion obtained using mechanics calculations alone are not necessarily reliable. The lowest energy structure of the salt-bridge form of bradykinin is 10.6 kcal/mol lower in energy (EDF1) than the lowest energy simple protonated form at the 6-311G* level. Similarly, the average energy of all salt-bridge structures investigated is 13.6 kcal/mol lower than the average of all the protonated forms investigated. To the extent that a sufficient number of structures are investigated, these results provide some additional support for the salt-bridge form of bradykinin in the gas phase.     

Calculation of relative energies of permethylated oligosilane conformers in vapor and in alkane solution

The geometries of 35 conformers of Me(SiMe2)nMe (n = 4, 1; n = 5, 2; n = 6, 3; n = 7, 4) were optimized at the MP2/VTDZ level, and CCSD(T) single-point calculations were done at three MP2/VTDZ conformer geometries of 1. The relative ground-state energies of the conformers of 1-4 in the gas phase were obtained from the MP2/VTDZ electronic energy, zero-point vibrational energy, and thermal corrections at 0, 77, and 298 K. Relative energies in an alkane solvent at 77 and 298 K were obtained by the addition of solvation energies, obtained from the SM5.42R model. The calculated energies of 26 of the conformers (n = 4-6) have been least-squares fitted to a set of 15 additive increments associated with each Si-Si bond conformation and each pair of adjacent bond conformations, with mean deviations of 0.06-0.20 kcal/mol. An even better fit for the energies of 24 conformers (mean deviations, 0.01-0.09 kcal/mol) has been obtained with a larger set of 19 increments, which also contained contributions from selected combinations of conformations of three adjacent bonds. The utility of the additive increments for the prediction of relative conformer energies in the gas phase and in solution has been tested on the remaining nine conformers (n = 6, 7). With the improved increment set, the average deviation from the SM5.42R//MP2 results for solvated conformers at 298 K was 0.18 kcal/mol, and the maximum error was 0.98 kcal/mol.     

A density functional study of the glycine molecule: Comparison with post-Hartree–Fock calculations and experiment

The potential energy surface of un-ionized glycine has been explored with density functional theory. The performance of several nonlocal functionals has been evaluated and the results are presented in the context of available experimental information and post-Hartree–Fock quantum chemical results. The zero-point and thermal vibrational energies along with vibrational entropies play a very important role in determining the relative stability of glycine conformers; the realization of this has led to some revision and reinterpretation of the experimental results. Uncertainties in the vibrational contributions to the energy differences of several tenths of a kilocalorie/mole remain. The uncertainty in the vibrational free energy is even larger, about 1 kcal/mol. In the final analysis, we suggest that the best estimate of the electronic energy difference between the two lowest glycine conformers should be revised downward from 1.4 to 1.0 kcal/mol. Thirteen stationary points on the potential energy surface have been localized. For the majority of these, there is close agreement among various nonlocal density functionals and the post-Hartree–Fock methods. However, the second conformer (IIn), which has a strong hydrogen bond between the hydroxyl hydrogen and the nitrogen of the amine group, presents a distinct challenge. The relative energy of this conformer is extremely sensitive to the basis set, the level of correlation, or the functional used. The widely used BP86, PP86, and BP91 nonlocal functionals overestimate the strength of the hydrogen bond and predict that this conformer is the lowest energy structure. This contradicts both experiment and high-level post-Hartree–Fock studies. The adiabatic connection method (ACM) and the BLYP functional yield the correct order. The ACM method, in particular, gives energies which are in reasonable agreement with MP2, although these are somewhat low as compared with experiment. Based on this study, ACM should perform well for this type of bioorganic application, with typical errors of a few tenths of a kilocalorie/mole and only rarely exceeding 0.5 kcal/mol. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 18 : 1609–1631, 1997     

Theoretical study of the structure, stability, and infrared spectra of hydrogen-bonded complexes of N-nitrosodiethanolamine (NDELA) with water molecules

A theoretical study of the interaction between the N-nitrosodiethanolamine (NDELA) molecule and one to five water molecules was performed at the B3LYP level using a large polarized basis set. The calculated complexation energies (corrected for BSSE and ZPVE) of NDELA with one, two, three, four, and five water molecules are ?4.62 kcal/mol, ?9.83 kcal/mol, ?15.29 kcal/mol, ?21.60 kcal/mol, and ?25.10 kcal/mol respectively at the B3LYP/6-311++G** level. In all complexes studied, there are red shifts in the vibrational frequencies of the O-Hs of NDELA and water molecules along with increases in the corresponding IR intensities.     

Assessment of Gaussian-3 and density-functional theories on the G3/05 test set of experimental energies

The G3/99 test set [L. A. Curtiss, K. Raghavachari, P. C. Redfern, and J. A. Pople, J. Chem. Phys. 112, 7374 (2000)] of thermochemical data for validation of quantum chemical methods is expanded to include 78 additional energies including 14 enthalpies of formation of the first- and second-row nonhydrogen molecules, 58 energies of molecules containing the third-row elements K, Ca, and Ga-Kr, and 6 hydrogen-bonded complexes. The criterion used for selecting the additional systems is the same as before, i.e., experimental uncertainties less than +/- 1 kcal/mol. This new set, referred to as the G3/05 test set, has a total of 454 energies. The G3 and G3X theories are found to have mean absolute deviations of 1.13 and 1.01 kcal/mol, respectively, when applied to the G3/05 test set. Both methods have larger errors for the nonhydrogen subset of 79 species for which they have mean absolute deviations of 2.10 and 1.64 kcal/mol, respectively. On all of the other types of energies the G3 and G3X methods are very reliable. The G3/05 test set is also used to assess density-functional methods including a series of new functionals. The most accurate functional for the G3/05 test set is B98 with a mean absolute deviation of 3.33 kcal/mol, compared to 4.14 kcal/mol for B3LYP. The latter functional has especially large errors for larger molecules with a mean absolute deviation of 9 kcal/mol for molecules having 28 or more valence electrons. For smaller molecules B3LYP does as well or better than B98 and the other functionals. It is found that many of the density-functional methods have significant errors for the larger molecules in the test set.     

Quantum monte carlo study of heats of formation and bond dissociation energies of small hydrocarbons

A quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) benchmark study of heats of formation at 298 K and bond dissociation energies (BDEs) of 22 small hydrocarbons is reported. Diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) results, obtained using a simple product trial wavefunctions consisting of a single determinant and correlation function, are compared to experiment and to other theory including a version of complete basis set theory (CBS‐Q) and density functional theory (DFT) with the B3LYP functional. For heats of formation, the findings are a mean absolute deviation from experiment of 1.2 kcal/mol for CBS‐Q, 2.0 kcal/mol for B3LYP, and 2.2 kcal/mol for DMC. The mean absolute deviation of 31 BDEs is 2.0 kcal/mol for CBS‐Q, 4.2 kcal/mol for B3LYP, and 2.5 kcal/mol for DMC. These findings are for 17 BDEs of closed‐shell molecules that have mean absolute deviations from experiment of 1.7 kcal/mol (CBS‐Q), 4.0 kcal/mol (B3LYP), and 2.2 kcal/mol (DMC). The corresponding results for the 14 BDEs of open‐shell molecules studied are 2.4 kcal/mol (CBS‐Q), 4.3 kcal/mol (B3LYP), and 2.9 kcal/mol (DMC). The DMC results provide a baseline from which improvement using multideterminant trial functions can be measured. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Chem Kinet 37: 583–592, 2005     

MM3 MODELING OF ALDOPENTOSE PYRANOSE RINGS

MM3 (version 1992, ?=3.0) was used to study the ring conformations of d-xylopyranose, d-lyxopyranose and d-arabinopyranose. The energy surfaces exhibit low-energy regions corresponding to chair and skew forms with high-energy barriers between these regions corresponding to envelope and half-chair forms. The lowest energy conformer is ⁴ C ₁ for α- and β-xylopyranose and α- and β-lyxopyranose, and the lowest energy conformer is ¹ C ₄ for α- and β-arabinopyranose. Only α-lyxopyranose exhibits a secondary low-energy region (¹ C ₄) within 1 kcal/mol of its global minimum. Overall, the results are in good agreement with NMR and crystallographic results. For many of these molecules, skew conformations are found with relatively low energies (2.5 to 4 kcal/mol above lowest energy chair form). The ² S _O and ¹ C ₄ conformers of crystalline benzoyl derivatives of xylopyranose are in secondary low-energy regions on the β-xylopyranose surface, within 3.8 kcal/mol of the global ⁴ C ₁ minimum.     

High-level ab initio computations of structures and interaction energies of naphthalene dimers: origin of attraction and its directionality

The intermolecular interaction energies of naphthalene dimers have been calculated by using an aromatic intermolecular interaction model (a model chemistry for the evaluation of intermolecular interactions between aromatic molecules). The CCSD(T) (coupled cluster calculations with single and double substitutions with noniterative triple excitations) interaction energy at the basis set limit has been estimated from the second-order M?ller-Plesset perturbation interaction energy near saturation and the CCSD(T) correction term obtained using a medium-size basis set. The estimated interaction energies of the set of geometries explored in this work show that two structures emerge as being the lowest energy, and may effectively be considered as isoenergetic on the basis of the errors inherent in out extrapolation procedure. These structures are the slipped-parallel (Ci) structure (-5.73 kcal/mol) and the cross (D2d) structure (-5.28 kcal/mol). The T-shaped (C2v) and sandwich (D2h) dimers are substantially less stable (-4.34 and -3.78 kcal/mol, respectively). The dispersion interaction is found to be the major source of attraction in the naphthalene dimer. The electrostatic interaction is substantially smaller than the dispersion interaction. The large dispersion interaction is the cause of the large binding energies of the cross and slipped-parallel dimers.     

Mechanism of the hydration of carbon dioxide: direct participation of H2O versus microsolvation

Thermochemical parameters of carbonic acid and the stationary points on the neutral hydration pathways of carbon dioxide, CO 2 + nH 2O --> H 2CO 3 + ( n - 1)H 2O, with n = 1, 2, 3, and 4, were calculated using geometries optimized at the MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ level. Coupled-cluster theory (CCSD(T)) energies were extrapolated to the complete basis set limit in most cases and then used to evaluate heats of formation. A high energy barrier of approximately 50 kcal/mol was predicted for the addition of one water molecule to CO 2 ( n = 1). This barrier is lowered in cyclic H-bonded systems of CO 2 with water dimer and water trimer in which preassociation complexes are formed with binding energies of approximately 7 and 15 kcal/mol, respectively. For n = 2, a trimeric six-member cyclic transition state has an energy barrier of approximately 33 (gas phase) and a free energy barrier of approximately 31 (in a continuum solvent model of water at 298 K) kcal/mol, relative to the precomplex. For n = 3, two reactive pathways are possible with the first having all three water molecules involved in hydrogen transfer via an eight-member cycle, and in the second, the third water molecule is not directly involved in the hydrogen transfer but solvates the n = 2 transition state. In the gas phase, the two transition states have comparable energies of approximately 15 kcal/mol relative to separated reactants. The first path is favored over in aqueous solution by approximately 5 kcal/mol in free energy due to the formation of a structure resembling a (HCO 3 (-)/H 3OH 2O (+)) ion pair. Bulk solvation reduces the free energy barrier of the first path by approximately 10 kcal/mol for a free energy barrier of approximately 22 kcal/mol for the (CO 2 + 3H 2O) aq reaction. For n = 4, the transition state, in which a three-water chain takes part in the hydrogen transfer while the fourth water microsolvates the cluster, is energetically more favored than transition states incorporating two or four active water molecules. An energy barrier of approximately 20 (gas phase) and a free energy barrier of approximately 19 (in water) kcal/mol were derived for the CO 2 + 4H 2O reaction, and again formation of an ion pair is important. The calculated results confirm the crucial role of direct participation of three water molecules ( n = 3) in the eight-member cyclic TS for the CO 2 hydration reaction. Carbonic acid and its water complexes are consistently higher in energy (by approximately 6-7 kcal/mol) than the corresponding CO 2 complexes and can undergo more facile water-assisted dehydration processes.     

Probing the limits of accuracy in electronic structure calculations: is theory capable of results uniformly better than "chemical accuracy"?

Current limitations in electronic structure methods are discussed from the perspective of their potential to contribute to inherent uncertainties in predictions of molecular properties, with an emphasis on atomization energies (or heats of formation). The practical difficulties arising from attempts to achieve high accuracy are illustrated via two case studies: the carbon dimer (C2) and the hydroperoxyl radical (HO2). While the HO2 wave function is dominated by a single configuration, the carbon dimer involves considerable multiconfigurational character. In addition to these two molecules, statistical results will be presented for a much larger sample of molecules drawn from the Computational Results Database. The goal of this analysis will be to determine if a combination of coupled cluster theory with large 1-particle basis sets and careful incorporation of several computationally expensive smaller corrections can yield uniform agreement with experiment to better than "chemical accuracy" (+/-1 kcal/mol). In the case of HO2, the best current theoretical estimate of the zero-point-inclusive, spin-orbit corrected atomization energy (SigmaD0=166.0+/-0.3 kcal/mol) and the most recent Active Thermochemical Table (ATcT) value (165.97+/-0.06 kcal/mol) are in excellent agreement. For C2 the agreement is only slightly poorer, with theory (D0=143.7+/-0.3 kcal/mol) almost encompassing the most recent ATcT value (144.03+/-0.13 kcal/mol). For a larger collection of 68 molecules, a mean absolute deviation of 0.3 kcal/mol was found. The same high level of theory that produces good agreement for atomization energies also appears capable of predicting bond lengths to an accuracy of +/-0.001 A.     

Many-body interaction in glycine-(water)3 complex using density functional theory method

Various configurations were investigated to find the most stable structures of glycine-(water)3 complex. Five different optimized conformers of glycine-(water)3 complex are obtained from density functional theory calculations using 6-311++G* basis set. Relaxation energy and many body interaction energies (two, three, and four body) are also calculated for these conformers. Out of the five conformers, the most stable conformer has the BSSE corrected total energy -513.917 967 7 Hartree and binding energy -27.28 Kcal/mol. It has been found that the relaxation energies, two body energies and three body energies have significant contribution to the total binding energy whereas four body energies are very small. The chemical hardness and chemical potential also confirmed the stability of the conformer having lowest total energy.