A Computational Study of Microhydrated N-Acetyl-Phenylalaninylamide (NAPA): Kinetics and Thermodynamics

The formations of [NAPA-A(H2O)n (n = 1, 2, 3, 4)] complexes have been studied employing DFT/wB97XD/cc-pVTZ computational level to understand the kinetics and thermodynamics for the hydration reactions of N-acetyl-phenylalaninylamide (NAPA). Thermodynamic parameters such as reaction energy (E), enthalpy (H), Gibb’s free energy (G), specific heat capacity (Cv), entropy (S), and change of these parameters (ΔEr, ΔHr, ΔGr, ΔCr, and ΔSr) were studied using the explicit solvent model. The predicted values of H, G, C, and S increase with the sequential addition of water in NAPA-A due to the increase in the total number of vibrational modes. On the other hand, the value of ΔEr, ΔHr, and ΔGr increases (more negative to less negative) gradually for n = 1, 2, 3, and 4 that indicates an increase of hydration in NAPA-A makes exothermic to endothermic reactions. The barrier heights for the transition states (TS) of [NAPA-A(H2O)n (n = 1, 2, 3, 4)] complexes are predicted to lie at 4.41, 4.05, 3.72 and 2.26 kcal/mol respectively below the reactants. According to the calculations, the formations of [NAPA-A(H2O)1] and [NAPA-A(H2O)2] complexes are barrierless reactions because both water molecules are strongly bonded via two hydrogen bonds in the backbone of NAPA-A. On the contrary, the reactions of [NAPA-A(H2O)3] and [NAPA-A(H2O)4] complexation are endothermic and the barrier heights are predicted to stay at 6.30 and 10.54 kcal/mol respectively above the reactants. The free energy of activation (Δ‡G0) for the reaction of [NAPA-A(H2O)1], [NAPA-A(H2O)2], [NAPA-A(H2O)3], and [NAPA-A(H2O)4] complexation are 4.43, 4.28, 3.83 and 5.11 kcal/mol respectively which are very low. As well as the rates of reactions are 3.490 × 109 s-1, 4.514 × 109 s-1, 9.688 × 109 s-1, and 1.108 × 109 s-1 respectively which are very fast and spontaneous.

The Effects of Oxidation States and Spin States of Chromium Interaction with <i>Sargassum Sp</i>.: A Spectroscopic and Density Functional Theoretical Study

The study of various oxidation states of chromium with Sargassum sp. is of particular interest since hexavalent chromium is reduced to trivalent chromium in an aqueous solution. In this study, a systematic density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed to study the interactions of transition metal chromium ion with different oxidation states and spin states with the Sargassum sp. decorated with carboxylate (acetate) at the wB97XD/6-311++ G(d,p) level of theory. The structures and binding energies of chromium metal-carboxylate complexes at various oxidation states and spin states in gas phase were examined. The coordination strength of Cr(VI) with the acetate ligand was predominantly the strongest compared to the other oxidation states. Vibrational frequency analysis, for the homoleptic monomers of tris [CrIII(AC)3]0 and [CrVI(AC)3]3+ complexes, illustrate good harmony with the experimental and theoretical calculated frequencies. Using the time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) at the level of CAM-B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p), the vertical excitation energies were obtained. The stabilization energies derived using the second order perturbation theory, Eij(2), of NBO analysis confirmed the greater charge transfer for the observed trends in the metal binding. The calculated binding energies (ΔE) and interactions energies SEij(2) favor the formation of [CrVI(AC)3]3+ complexes. The findings of this study identify efficient electronic factors as major contributors to the metal binding affinities, with promising possibilities for the design of metal-ligand complexes and sensing of the metal ions.

A TD-DFT Study for the Excited State Calculations of Microhydration of N-Acetyl-Phenylalaninylamide (NAPA)

Investigating the impact of microhydration on the excited-states and electronic excitation properties of biomolecules has remained one of the important yet challenging aspects of science because of the complexity of developing models. However, with the advent of computational chemistry methods such as TD-DFT, many useful insights about the electronic excitation energy and excited-state nature of biomolecules can be explored. Accordingly, in our study, we have incorporated the TD-DFT/wB97XD/cc-pVTZ method to study the excited state properties of N-acetyl phenylalanine amide (NAPA-A(H2O) n) (n = 1 to 4) clusters from ground to the tenth lowest gaseous singlet excited state. We found that the C=O bond length gradually increases both in N-terminal amide and C-terminal amide after the sequential addition of water molecules because of intermolecular H-bonding and this intermolecular H-bonding becomes weaker after the sequential addition of H2O molecules. The UV absorption maxima of NAPA-A (H2O)n (n = 1 - 4) clusters consisted of two peaks that are S5←S0 (1st absorption) and S6←S0 (2nd absorption) excitations. The first absorption maxima were blue-shifted with the increase in oscillator strength. This means that strong H-bonds reduce the charge transfer and make clusters more rigid. On the other hand, the second absorption maxima were red-shifted with the decrease in oscillator strength. In the ECD spectra, the negative bands indicate the presence of an amide bond and L-configuration of micro hydrated NAPA-A clusters. Finally, our calculated absorption and fluorescence energy confirm that all the NAPA-A (H2O) n (n = 0 - 4) clusters revert to the ground state from the fluorescent state by emitting around 5.490 eV of light.