Intermolecular hydrogen bonds in hetero-complexes of biologically active aromatic ligands: Monte Carlo simulations results

We report results of the Monte Carlo simulations of systems containing heterodimers of biological active ligands and water molecules. The study was designed to identify the possible formation of intermolecular hydrogen bonds in such systems in order to investigate the molecular mechanisms of hetero-association of aromatic ligands in aqueous solution. The geometry optimization and the calculation of the atomic charges of free ligands were carried out at DFT/B3LYP level of theory. Monte Carlo simulations with Metropolis algorithm were used to determine the low energy conformations of heterodimers in water clusters. The analysis of the Monte Carlo simulation results allows us to describe in detail the hydration properties of all investigated heterodimers and to determine the intermolecular hydrogen bonds between the functional donor–acceptor groups for some of hetero-associates under investigation. In the case of heterodimers without intermolecular hydrogen bonds, the additional stabilization of these hetero-complexes can be explained by the formation the water bridges between donor and acceptor groups of the ligands.