On the keto-enol tautomerization of malonaldehyde: an effective fragment potential study

Recent studies have mapped the keto-enol tautomerization of malonaldehyde through a general transition structure that leads exclusively to the Z isomer of the enol. However, it will be shown that a competing general transition structure exists that leads to both the E and Z isomers of the enol at the B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) and MP2/6-31G(d,p) levels of theory. Both the RHF- and DFT-based effective fragment potential methods have been used to model solvation effects, and the results are compared with full ab initio calculations. It is found that two bridging water molecules with two discrete DFT-based effective fragment potential solvent waters at the MP2/6-31G(d,p) level of ab initio theory provides the most computationally effective model for solvent effects in this system. It is shown that the relative energies for this QM/MM model differ from the full MP2/6-31G(d,p) energies by an average absolute relative difference of 2.2 kcal mol-1 across the reaction path when the zero-point vibrational energy correction is included.