Search results for " solvent effect"
showing 7 items of 7 documents
Aminoacid zwitterions in solution : Geometric, energetic, and vibrational analysis using density functional theory-continuum model calculations
1998
Glycine and alanine aminoacids chemistry in solution is explored using a hybrid three parameters density functional (B3PW91) together with a continuum model. Geometries, energies, and vibrational spectra of glycine and alanine zwitterions are studied at the B3PW91/6-31+G∗∗ level and the results compared with those obtained at the HF and MP2/6-31+G∗∗ levels. Solvents effects are incorporated by means of an ellipsoidal cavity model with a multipolar expansion (up to sixth order) of the solute’s electrostatic potential. Our results confirm the validity of the B3PW91 functional for studying aminoacid chemistry in solution. Taking into account the more favorable scaling behavior of density funct…
Magnetic field-induced alignment of molecular rotor-shaped cyclophanes
2010
Molecular pinwheels consisting of dipolar substituted cyclophanes in solution can function as free microscopic rotors in the presence of a homogeneous static magnetic field B and a circularly polarized electric field E rotating on a plane containing B. Owing to the high magnetic anisotropy of [26](1,2,3,4,5,6)cyclophane and [36](1,2,3,4,5,6)cyclophane biased by strong ring currents, ∼1 in 105 molecules are expected to align with the C6 symmetry axis perpendicular to a magnetic field of 21 T. The magnetic-field-controlled alignment of rotor-shaped cyclophanes is insignificantly affected by nonpolar solvents, for example, toluene.
Molecular dynamics simulations of elementary chemical processes in liquid water using combined density functional and molecular mechanics potentials.…
1997
The first molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of a chemical process in solution with an ab initio description of the reactant species and a classical representation of the solvent is presented. We study the dynamics of proton (deuterium) transfer in strongly hydrogen-bonded systems characterized by an energy surface presenting a double well separated by a low activation barrier. We have chosen the hydroxyl-water complex in liquid water to analyze the coupling between the reactive system and the environment. The proton is transferred from one well to the other with a frequency close to 1 ps−1 which is comparable to the low-frequency band associated to hindered translations, diffusional transl…
Triggering dissymmetry in achiral dye molecules by chiral solvents: Circular dichroism experiments and DFT calculations
2011
The electronic circular dichroism spectra of achiral product “Lumogen F Red” (ROT-300) in four different chiral solvents are recorded at different temperatures. DFT calculations allow to identify two enantiomeric conformers for ROT-300. In vacuo they are equally populated; in chiral solvents one enantiomer prevails. Thermodynamic quantities involved in the chiral preference are derived. Chirality, 2011. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Ab initio study on the low-lying excited states of retinal
1997
Ab initio results for the electronic spectrum of all-trans-retinal and its truncated model 3-methyl-all-trans (10-s-cis)-2,4,6,8,10-undecapentaen-1-al are presented. The study includes geometry determination of the ground state. Vertical excitation energies have been computed using multiconfigurational second-order perturbation theory through the CASPT2 formalism. The lowest singlet excited state in gas phase is predicted to be of nπ∗ character. The lowest triplet state corresponds, however, to a ππ∗ state. The most intense feature of the spectrum is due to the strongly dipole-allowed ππ∗ transition, in accordance with the observed maximum in the one-photon spectra. The vertical excitation …
Molecular dynamics simulations of elementary chemical processes in liquid water using combined density functional and molecular mechanics potentials.…
1997
A new approach to carry out molecular dynamics simulations of chemical reactions in solution using combined density functional theory/molecular mechanics potentials is presented. We focus our attention on the analysis of reactive trajectories, dynamic solvent effects and transmission coefficient rather than on the evaluation of free energy which is another important topic that will be examined elsewhere. In a previous paper we have described the generalities of this hybrid molecular dynamics method and it has been employed to investigate low energy barrier proton transfer process in water. The study of processes with activation energies larger than a few kT requires the use of specific tech…
Thermal Aggregation of Bovine Serum Albumin in Trehalose and Sucrose Aqueous Solutions
2012
We report results of static and dynamic light scattering measurements performed on bovine serum albumin (BSA) in saccharide (trehalose and sucrose) solutions. Our aim is to study the effects of the two disaccharides on the first steps of thermal aggregation of BSA in aqueous solutions at two protein concentrations (1 and 30 mg/mL) at increasing sugar/water ratio. Results show that sugars modify early stages of aggregation mainly by perturbing the thermodynamic behavior of the solvent (i.e., general solvent effects) without involving direct, specific sugar-protein interactions. This agrees with current hypotheses on sugar action in protein solutions. (1-3) The linear correlation detected bet…