Predicting Pt-195 NMR chemical shift using new relativistic all-electron basis set.

Predicting NMR properties is a valuable tool to assist the experimentalists in the characterization of molecular structure. For heavy metals, such as Pt-195, only a few computational protocols are available. In the present contribution, all-electron Gaussian basis sets, suitable to calculate the Pt-195 NMR chemical shift, are presented for Pt and all elements commonly found as Pt-ligands. The new basis sets identified as NMR-DKH were partially contracted as a triple-zeta doubly polarized scheme with all coefficients obtained from a Douglas-Kroll-Hess (DKH) second-order scalar relativistic calculation. The Pt-195 chemical shift was predicted through empirical models fitted to reproduce experimental data for a set of 183 Pt(II) complexes which NMR sign ranges from -1000 to -6000 ppm. Furthermore, the models were validated using a new set of 75 Pt(II) complexes, not included in the descriptive set. The models were constructed using non-relativistic Hamiltonian at density functional theory (DFT-PBEPBE) level with NMR-DKH basis set for all atoms. For the best model, the mean absolute deviation (MAD) and the mean relative deviation (MRD) were 150 ppm and 6%, respectively, for the validation set (75 Pt-complexes) and 168 ppm (MAD) and 5% (MRD) for all 258 Pt(II) complexes. These results were comparable with relativistic DFT calculation, 200 ppm (MAD) and 6% (MRD). © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Covalent versus ionic bonding in alkalimetal fluoride oligomers.

The most polar bond in chemistry is that between a fluorine and an alkalimetal atom. Inspired by our recent finding that other polar bonds (C--M and H--M) have important covalent contributions (i.e., stabilization due to bond overlap), we herein address the question if covalency is also essential in the F--M bond. Thus, we have theoretically studied the alkalimetal fluoride monomers, FM, and (distorted) cubic tetramers, (FM)4, with M=Li, Na, K, and Rb, using density functional theory at the BP86/TZ2P level. Our objective is to determine how the structure and thermochemistry (e.g., F--M bond lengths and strengths, oligomerization energies, etc.) of alkalimetal fluorides depend on the metal atom, and to understand the emerging trends in terms of quantitative Kohn-Sham molecular orbital theory. The analyses confirm the extreme polarity of the F--M bond (dipole moment, Voronoi deformation density and Hirshfeld atomic charges), and they reveal that bond overlap-derived stabilization (ca. -6, -6, and -2 kcal/mol) contributes only little to the bond strength (-136, -112, and -114 kcal/mol) and the trend therein along Li, Na, and K. According to this and other criteria, the F--M bond is not only strongly polar, but also has a truly ionic bonding mechanism. Interestingly, the polarity is reduced on tetramerization. For the lithium and sodium fluoride tetramers, the F4 tetrahedron is larger than and surrounds the M4 cluster (i.e., F--F>>M--M). But in the potassium and rubidium fluoride tetramers, the F4 tetrahedron is smaller than and inside the M4 cluster (i.e., F--F

Mapping the sites for selective oxidation of guanines in DNA.

The effective energy of a positive charge when it is localized at a specific guanine nucleobase in DNA was calculated using density functional theory. The results demonstrate that the efficiency of a guanine to act as a hole-trap in DNA strongly depends on the nature of the flanking nucleobases. The presence of a pyrimidine base at the 3' position adjacent to a guanine significantly increases the localization energy of the positive charge. The calculated distributions of a positive charge in sequences of two or three adjacent guanines, flanked by other nucleobases, provide an explanation for experimental literature data on the site-selective oxidation of DNA.