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Levodopa (LD) is used to increase dopamine level for treating Parkinson’s disease. The major metabolism of LD to produce dopamine is decarboxylation. In order to understand the metabolism of LD; the electronic structure of levodopa was investigated at the Density Functional DFT/B3LYP level of theory using the 6-311+G** basis set, in the gas phase and in solution. LD is not planar, with the amino acid side chain acting as a free rotator around several single bonds. The potential energy surface is broad and flat. Full geometry optimization enabled locating and identifying the global minimum on this Potential energy surface (PES). All possible protonation/deprotonation forms of LD were examined and analyzed. Protonation/deprotonation is local in nature, i.e., is not transmitted through the molecular framework. The isogyric protonation/deprotonation reactions seem to involve two subsequent steps: First, deprotonation, then rearrangement to form H-bonded structures, which is the origin of the extra stability of the deprotonated forms. Natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis of LD and its deprotonated forms reveals detailed information of bonding characteristics and interactions across the molecular framework. The effect of deprotonation on the donor-acceptor interaction across the molecular framework and within the two subsystems has also been examined. Attempts to mimic the complex formation of LD with water have been performed.

The present study aims to explore the quantum topological features of the electron density and its Laplacian of the understudied molecular bromine species involved in ozone depletion events. The characteristics of the C-Br and O-Br bonds have been analyzed via quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) analysis using the wave functions computed at the B3LYP/aug-cc-PVTZ level of theory. Quantum topology analysis reveal that the C-Br and O-Br bonds show depletion of charge density indicating the increased ionic character of these bonds. Contour plots and relief maps have been analyzed for regions of valence shell charge concentrations (VSCC) and depletions (VSCD) in the ground state.

The geometry, energetics and dipole moment of the most stable conformers of cytosine in the ground state were calculated at different density functional methods, namely, B3LYP, M06-2X, ωB97-D and PEBPEB methods and the 6-311++G(3df,3pd) basis set. The most stable conformer, the keto-amino conformer is only 1 Kcal/mol more stable than the imino-enol form. The ultrafast radiationless decay mechanism has been theoretically investigated using Complete Active Space Multiconfiguration SCF calculation. The conical intersection seam was searched in the full dimensional space for the vibrational degrees of freedom. A new conical intersection has been identified, a semi-planar conical intersection (SPCI) with main deformations inside the cytosine ring and C=O bond. The g-vector and h-vector for the semi-planar conical intersection were calculated and discussed along with their geometrical parameters. A classical trajectory dynamic simulation has been performed to characterize and identify the evolution of geometry and energy changes of the SPCI with time.