The influence of the solvent on the conformational energy differences due to the anomeric effect

The solvation free energy ΔG^sol of molecules exhibiting the anomeric effect is computed in an approach that considers a continuous distribution for the solvent. A partition of ΔG^sol into separately evaluated contributions confirms that changes in the energy of the systems due to changes in conformation of the solute are ruled by the electrostatic contribution. A comparison with the “exact” values indicates that the approximate expression for the electrostatic contribution to ΔG^sol are not accurate enough to permit a proper modeling of the solvent influence on the anomeric effect. The systems are composed of methanediol, methoxymethanol, dimethoxymethane, and 2-methoxytetrahydropyran in carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, acetone, and water. The calculations have been performed at the SCF level with the STO -3G and 4–31G basis sets.