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Studying the vibrational energy flow within molecules can help us better understand their reactivity and facilitate the design of novel functional groups for potential drug candidates. This study examined the conformation of benzene sulfonamide in solvents and vacuum. Potential energy surfaces were computed for the two possible conformations, showing that the conformers' stability varied with the medium. Additionally, the vibrational energy redistribution of halogen‐substituted benzene sulfonamide conformers was studied in solvents and vacuums. The lifetimes of the halogen stretching mode C−X (where X=F, Cl, or Br) in the substituted benzene sulfonamides were calculated and compared. The solvent and vacuum media lifetimes followed the order: C−Cl>C−Br>C−F. However, the degree of delocalization of vibrational energy was found to vary between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The compounds under investigation sought a new approach to synthesis via the Baylis‐Hillman (B−H) and Michael addition reactions. The product formation's legitimacy was tested using a repeat reaction with many different nucleophiles. The additional stability of the product via aromatic π⋅⋅⋅π and C−H⋅⋅⋅π interactions may result in unexpected product formation in diverse reactions undertaken utilizing different starting materials. This study suggests that weak interaction not only provides selectivity during reactions but also modifies the result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequency-resolved communication maps provide a coarse-grained picture of energy transport in nanoscale systems. We calculate communication maps for homodimeric hemoglobin from Scapharca inaequivalvis and sample them to elucidate energy transfer pathways between the binding sites and other parts of the protein with focus on the role of the cluster of water molecules at the interface between the globules. We complement analysis of communication maps with molecular simulations of energy flow. Both approaches reveal that excess energy in one heme flows mainly to regions of the interface where early hydrogen bond rearrangements occur in the allosteric transition. In particular, energy is carried disproportionately by the water molecules, consistent with the larger thermal conductivity of water compared to proteins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terahertz (THz) measurements of salt solutions are presented that have helped in understanding the controversy over whether salts have acted as kosmotropes or chaotropes, which have increased or reduced the solvent order. The results have shown that THz spectroscopy is a powerful tool to highlight the contributions of anions and cations to the structuring of water.

Dissociation energies (D0) of 11 H-bonded and 11 dispersion-bound complexes were calculated as the sum of interaction energies and the change of zero-point vibrational energies (ΔZPVE). The structures of H-bonded complexes were optimized at the RI-MP2/cc-pVTZ level, at which deformation and harmonic ΔZPVE energies were also calculated. The structures of dispersion-bound complexes were optimized at the DFT-D3 level, and harmonic ΔZPVE energies were determined at the same level as well. For comparison, CCSD(T)/CBS D0 energies were also evaluated for both types of complexes. The CCSD(T)/CBS interaction energy was constructed as the sum of MP2/CBS interaction energy, extrapolated from aug-cc-pVTZ and aug-cc-pVQZ basis sets, and ΔCCSD(T) correction, determined with the aug-cc-pVDZ basis set. The ΔZPVE energies were determined for all complexes at the harmonic level and for selected complexes, these energies were also calculated using second-order vibration perturbation (VPT2) theory. For H-bonded complexes, the harmonic CCSD(T)/CBS D0 energies were in better agreement with the experimental values (with a mean relative error (MRE) of 6.2%) than the RI-MP2/cc-pVTZ D0 (a MRE of 12.3%). The same trend was found for dispersion-bound complexes (6.2% (MRE) at CCSD(T)/CBS and 7.7% (MRE) at the DFT-D3 level). When the anharmonic ΔZPVE term was included instead of harmonic one, the agreement between theoretical and experimental D0 deteriorated for H-bonded as well as dispersion-bound complexes. Finally, the applicability of “diagonal approximation” for determining the anharmonic ΔZPVE was shown. For the phenol…H2O complex, the ΔZPVE energy calculated at the VPT2 level and on the basis of “diagonal approximation” differed by less than 0.1 kcal mol−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine dynamics of water molecules and hydrogen bonds at the water-protein interface of the wild-type antifreeze protein from spruce budworm Choristoneura fumiferana and a mutant that is not antifreeze active by all-atom molecular dynamics simulations. Water dynamics in the hydration layer around the protein is analyzed by calculation of velocity autocorrelation functions and their power spectra, and hydrogen bond time correlation functions are calculated for hydrogen bonds between water molecules and the protein. Both water and hydrogen bond dynamics from subpicosecond to hundred picosecond time scales are sensitive to location on the protein surface and appear correlated with protein function. In particular, hydrogen bond lifetimes are longest for water molecules hydrogen bonded to the ice-binding plane of the wild type, whereas hydrogen bond lifetimes between water and protein atoms on all three planes are similar for the mutant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The cyclooctatetraenyl dianion (C8H8 2−) π-conjugated system forms a stable complex system with alkali and some transition metals. The results of vibrational analysis for C8H8M2 (M=Na, K) complexes were reported here. The geometries of C8H8M2 (M=Na, K) were optimized using ab initio (HF, MP2, CCSD(T)) and DFT (B3LYP) methods with 6-311G** and 6-311++G** basis sets and the harmonic frequencies were obtained. To reproduce and compare with the experimental values the structurally similar molecules C5H5M (M=Na, K) and benzene were studied. The scale factors obtained from these systems were applied to predict the experimental frequencies of C8H8M2 (M=Na, K). The force field and vibrational spectra are analyzed and the most probable assignments are proposed for all the fundamentals based on the potential energy distribution. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Vibrational spectroscopy in supersonic jet expansions is a powerful tool to assess molecular aggregates in close to ideal conditions for the benchmarking of quantum chemical approaches. The low temperatures achieved as well as the absence of environment effects allow for a direct comparison between computed and experimental spectra. This provides potential benchmarking data which can be revisited to hone different computational techniques, and it allows for the critical analysis of procedures under the setting of a blind challenge. In the latter case, the final result is unknown to modellers, providing an unbiased testing opportunity for quantum chemical models. In this work, we present the spectroscopic and computational results for the first HyDRA blind challenge. The latter deals with the prediction of water donor stretching vibrations in monohydrates of organic molecules. This edition features a test set of 10 systems. Experimental water donor OH vibrational wavenumbers for the vacuum-isolated monohydrates of formaldehyde, tetrahydrofuran, pyridine, tetrahydrothiophene, trifluoroethanol, methyl lactate, dimethylimidazolidinone, cyclooctanone, trifluoroacetophenone and 1-phenylcyclohexane- cis -1,2-diol are provided. The results of the challenge show promising predictive properties in both purely quantum mechanical approaches as well as regression and other machine learning strategies.