Bonding, reactivity and aromaticity in the light of the multicenter indices

Structures, Energetics, and Spectra of (NH) and (OH) Tautomers of 2-(2-Hydroxyphenyl)-1-azaazulene: A Density Functional Theory/Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory Study

Tautomerization of 2-(2-hydroxyphenyl)-1-azaazulene (2OHPhAZ) in the gas phase and ethanol has been studied using B3LYP, M06-2X, and ωB97XD density functional theory (DFT) with different basis sets. For more accurate data, energies were refined at CCSD(T)/6-311++G(2d,2p) in the gas phase. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), aromaticity, Fukui functions, acidity, and basicity were also calculated and compared with experimental data. Time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT)-solvation model based on density (TDDFT-SMD) calculations in acetonitrile have been utilized for the simulation of UV-vis electronic spectra. In addition, electronic structures of the investigated system have been discussed. The results reveal that the enol form (2OHPhAZ) is thermodynamically and kinetically stable relative to the keto tautomer (2OPhAZ) and different rotamers (2OHPhAZ-R1:R3) in the gas phase and ethanol. A comparison with the experiment illustrates a good agreement and supports the computational findings.

Chemical Reactivity and Skin Sensitization Studies on a Series of Chloro- and Fluoropyrroles-A Computational Approach

Global density functional descriptors analysis on a series of chloro- and fluoropyrroles provide vital data concerning their overall biochemical activities. In this study, a comprehensive investigation is presented for a series of chloro- and fluoropyrroles using DFT-based descriptors to elucidate physicochemical properties and their relevance to reactivity, charge transfer, site selectivity, and toxicity. Electrophilicity-based charge transfer (ECT) descriptor reveals the fact that chloro- and fluoropyrroles act as electron donors during their interaction with DNA bases. The local descriptor, namely, multiphilic descriptor conveys the activeness of specific sites in chloro- and fluoropyrroles. Further, Toxicity Prediction Komputer Assisted Technology (TOPKAT) studies on carcinogenicity bioassays using four rodent models provide the interesting fact that chloro- and fluoropyrroles exhibit a strong skin sensitization effect in these species.

Toxicity of polyhalogenated dibenzo-p-furans in the light of nucleic acid bases interaction

Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) investigation utilizing quantum chemical descriptors under density functional theory is performed to predict the toxicity (pEC₅₀) of a series of polyhalogenated dibenzo-p-furans (PHDFs). PHDFs are very important concern to the researchers due to their presence and diverse effects in the environment. A successful two parameter QSAR model is developed with a combination of a global descriptor known as charge transfer (ΔN) between toxins and biosystem and a local descriptor as Fukui function (f_max⁺) for maximum nucleophilic attack at the toxin site. A systematic analysis is performed to identify the electron donation/acceptance nature of the considered PHDF compounds with the choice of a model biosystems comprising five different nucleic acid bases, namely Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, Cytosine and Uracil to identify proper ΔN descriptor. Accordingly, PHDFs are found to be electron acceptors with maximum charge transfer from Guanine and therefore, ΔN_G is utilized as the charge transfer parameter for all the toxins in the present work. The selected combination of global and local descriptors (ΔN_G andf_max⁺) are found to predict 93% of the observed toxicity (pEC₅₀) of the PHDFs. The developed QSAR model is tested for two different test sets: PHDFs and polyhalogenated biphenyls (PHBs) with about 90% of prediction of their toxicity values, which confirms the importance of the selected descriptors.

Static second hyperpolarizability of inverse sandwich compounds (M1-C5H5-M2) of alkali (M1 = Li, Na, K) and alkaline earth metals (M2 = Be, Mg, Ca)

In the investigated inverse sandwich complexes, charge transfer from alkali metal (M1) led to aromatically stabilized Cp ring, which prevented further charge transfer from the alkaline earth metal (M2). This electron push effect resulted in diffusion of electron density from the outermost "ns" subshell of alkaline earth metal. The alkaline earth metal is weakly bound to the alkali metal-C5H5 complex. The vertical ionization energy of the chosen M1-Cp-M2 complexes was smaller than that of the corresponding alkaline earth metals. Large second hyperpolarizability (106-108 a.u.) was obtained for the studied molecules. The correction due to the basis set superposition error (BSSE) in the calculated second hyperpolarizability was found to be small for larger systems, while it was rather significant for small systems. The MP4SDQ and CCSD results were in fair agreement, which indicates the necessity of higher order electron correlation treatment in the accurate description of second hyperpolarizability. Calculated dynamic second hyperpolarizabilities at 1064 nm were found to increase considerably for most of the chosen metal complexes.

Quantum-mechanical calculations on molecular substructures involved in nanosystems

In this review article, four ideas are discussed: (a) aromaticity of fullerenes patched with flowers of 6-and 8-membered rings, optimized at the HF and DFT levels of theory, in terms of HOMA and NICS criteria; (b) polybenzene networks, from construction to energetic and vibrational spectra computations; (c) quantum-mechanical calculations on the repeat units of various P-type crystal networks and (d) construction and stability evaluation, at DFTB level of theory, of some exotic allotropes of diamond D5, involved in hyper-graphenes. The overall conclusion was that several of the yet hypothetical molecular nanostructures herein described are serious candidates to the status of real molecules.

Fullerenes patched by flowers with octagonal core

The aromatic character of three different flowers of general formula [n:(p i,p j)n/2], namely [8:(5,7)4], [8:(6,6)4] and [8:(5,6)4], has been evaluated by means of geometric (HOMA index), energetic (heats of formation) and magnetic criteria (NICS index, exaltation of magnetic susceptibility). Also, the reactivity descriptors within the DFT approach -absolute hardness, electrophilicity, Fukui functions — have been computed. All the different methods used for estimating the aromaticity led to a unitary conclusion. Two fullerene structures, patched by the most stable 8-Sumanene flower, have been designed and evaluated by means of ab initio computations

Al4(2-); the anion-π interactions and aromaticity in the presence of counter ions

The influence of presence of counter ions and π-complexation with benzene on the bonding and magnetic properties of Al(4)(2-), the most studied all-metal cluster, is studied here. It is shown that complexation by either counter ions or benzene decreases the delocalization index between Al atoms and the magnitude of bond magnetizability, that is a Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules, QTAIM, -based magnetic index of aromaticity. Benzene forms two types of π-complexes with the Al(4) framework; CH-π (T-shaped) complexes and parallel π-π stacking (PPS) complexes. It is shown that variation in the π-charge of the Al(4) framework affects the relative stability of the T-shaped/PPS complexes. Free Al(4)(2-) forms a stable T-shaped anion-π complex with benzene but in the presence of cations, formation of PPS complexes is more favourable, energetically. It is suggested that this property could be used for designing molecular switches and tuneable anion sensors.