Theoretical kinetics study of thymine tautomerism and interaction of Na+ with its tautomers

The current work is a theoretical study of the tautomerism of thymine in the gas phase. Eighteen structures were found in the isomerisation reaction of thymine, some of which are reported for the first time. Thirty hydrogen transfer reactions were carried out. In 24 of the reactions, the hydrogen abstractions N―H→O, N―H→C and C―H→O were considered. The potential energy surface for all trajectories was determined for 18 tautomers and 40 transition states. The RRKM-TST model was used to calculate the rate constants of the reactions to examine their kinetics. Nonlinear least-squares fitting was used to calculate the rate constants expressions. The interaction of sodium ion and tautomers in the gas phase was also investigated. Three types of interaction of metal cations with thymine were found. In the first, metal cations interact with a lone pair of nitrogen or oxygen tautomers. The second type is the interaction of metal cations with two nitrogen and oxygen of tautomers. The last type is the interaction of metal cations and the electron density of the π-system of thymine in which the metal ion is perpendicular to the ring of tautomers. The stability ranking of the thymine tautomers and their complexes was also determined.