The furan microsolvation blind challenge for quantum chemical methods: First steps

Local Electronic Correlation in Multicomponent Møller-Plesset Perturbation Theory

We present in this contribution the first application of local correlation in the context of multicomponent methods. Multicomponent approaches allow for the targeted simulation of electrons together with other Fermions (most commonly protons) as quantum particles. These methods have become increasingly popular over the last years, particularly for the description of nuclear quantum effects (in strong hydrogen bonds, proton tunneling, and many more). However, most implementations are still based on canonical formulations of wave function theory, which we know for decades to be computationally inefficient for capturing dynamical correlation effects. Local correlation approaches, particularly with the use of pair natural orbitals (PNOs), enable asymptotically linear scaling of computational costs with very little impact on the overall accuracy. In this context, the efficient use of density fitting approximations in the integral calculation proves essential. We start by discussing our implementation of density-fitted NEO-MP2 and NEO-PNO-LMP2, upgrading the electronic correlation treatment up to PNO local coupled cluster level of theory. Several challenging examples are provided to benchmark the method in terms of accuracy as well as computational cost scaling. Following appropriate protocols, anharmonic corrections to localized X-H stretches can be applied routinely with little computational overhead.

Efficient Generation of Torsional Energy Profiles by Multifidelity Gaussian Processes for Hindered Rotor Corrections

Accurate thermochemistry computations often require proper treatment of torsional modes. The one-dimensional hindered rotor model has proven to be a computationally efficient solution, given a sufficiently accurate potential energy surface. Methods that provide potential energies at various compromises of uncertainty and computational time demand can be optimally combined within a multifidelity treatment. In this study, we demonstrate how multifidelity modeling leads to (1) smooth interpolation along low-fidelity scan points with uncertainty estimates, (2) inclusion of high-fidelity data that change the energetic order of conformations, and (3) predicting best next-point calculations to extend an initial coarse grid. Our diverse application set comprises molecules, clusters, and transition states of alcohols, ethers, and rings. We discuss limitations for cases in which the low-fidelity computation is highly unreliable. Different features of the potential energy curve affect different quantities. To obtain "optimal" fits, we apply strategies ranging from simple minimization of deviations to developing an acquisition function tailored for statistical thermodynamics. Bayesian prediction of best next calculations can save a substantial amount of computation time for one- and multidimensional hindered rotors.

The Fe-MAN Challenge: Ferrates-Microkinetic Assessment of Numerical Quantum Chemistry

Organometallic species, such as organoferrate ions, are prototypical nucleophiles prone to reacting with a wide range of electrophiles, including proton donors. In solution, the operation of dynamic equilibria and the simultaneous presence of several organometallic species severely complicate the analysis of these fundamentally important reactions. This can be overcome by gas-phase experiments on mass-selected ions, which allow for the determination of the microscopic reactivity of the target species. In this contribution, we focus on the reactivity of a series of trisarylferrate complexes toward 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol and 2,2-difluoroethanol. By means of mass-spectrometric measurements, we determined the experimental bimolecular rate constants kexp of the gas-phase protolysis reactions of the trisarylferrate anions FePh3- and FeMes3- with the aforementioned acids. Based on these experiments, we carried out a dual blind challenge, inviting theoretical groups to submit their best predictions for the activation barriers and/or theoretical rate constants ktheo. This provides a unique opportunity to evaluate different computational protocols under minimal bias and sets the stage for further benchmarking of quantum chemical methods and data-driven approaches in the future.

Dispersion Control over Molecule Cohesion: Exploiting and Dissecting the Tipping Power of Aromatic Rings

ConspectusWe have learned over the past years how London dispersion forces can be effectively used to influence or even qualitatively tip the structure of aggregates and the conformation of single molecules. This happens despite the fact that single dispersion contacts are much weaker than competing polar forces. It is a classical case of strength by numbers, with the importance of London dispersion forces scaling with the system size. Knowledge about the tipping points, however difficult to attain, is necessary for a rational design of intermolecular forces. One requires a careful assessment of the competing interactions, either by sensitive spectroscopic techniques for the study of the isolated molecules and aggregates or by theoretical approaches. Of particular interest are the systems close to the tipping point, when dispersion interactions barely outweigh or approach the strength of the other interactions. Such subtle cases are important milestones for a scale-up to realistic multi-interaction situations encountered in the fields of life and materials science. In searching for examples that provide ideal competing interactions in complexes and small clusters, aromatic systems can offer a diverse set of molecules with a variation of dispersion and electrostatic forces that control the dominant and peripheral interactions. Our combined spectroscopic and theoretical investigations provide valuable insights into the balance of intermolecular forces because they typically allow us to switch the aromatic substituent on and off. High-resolution rotational spectroscopy serves as a benchmark for molecular structures, as correct calculations should be based on correct geometries. When discussing the competition with other noncovalent interactions, obvious competitors are directional hydrogen bonds. As a second counterweight to aryl interactions, we will discuss aurophilic/metallophilic interactions, which also have a strong stabilization with a small number of atoms involved. Vibrational spectroscopy is most sensitive to interactions of light atoms, and the competition of OH hydrogen bonds with dispersion forces in a molecular aggregate can be judged well by the OH stretching frequency. Experiments in the gas phase are ideal for gauging the accuracy of quantum chemical predictions free of solvent forces. A tight collaboration utilizing these three methods allows experiment vs experiment vs theory benchmarking of the overall influence of dispersion in molecular structures and energetics.

The first HyDRA challenge for computational vibrational spectroscopy

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.

Comparison of Implicit and Explicit Solvent Approaches in Ab Initio Evaluation of Thermochemistry in Solution: Application in Studying Boron Isotope Fractionation in Water

Evaluation of thermochemistry in solution plays a key role in numerous fields. For this task, the solvent effects are commonly included in theoretical computations based on either implicit or explicit solvent approaches. In the present study, we evaluate and compare the performance of some of the most widely applied methods based on these two approaches. For studying the solvent effect on thermochemistry with an explicit solvent, we demonstrate that partial normal mode analysis with frozen geometry of solvent molecules for multiple solute-solvent configurations can yield quite accurate and reliable results for a drastically reduced computational cost. As a case study, we consider the evaluation of the equilibrium constant for the boron isotope exchange between boric acid and borate (k_3-4) in pure and saline water which is of high geochemical importance. Employing three different rigorous and high-precision theoretical approaches, we provide a reliable estimation of k_3-4 which is a value within 1.028 to 1.030 for both pure and saline water which is in excellent agreement with experimental data.

Benchmarking quantum chemical methods for accurate gas-phase structure predictions of carbonyl compounds: the case of ethyl butyrate

High-resolution spectroscopy techniques play a pivotal role to validate and efficiently benchmark available methods from quantum chemistry. In this work, we analyzed the microwave spectrum of ethyl butyrate within the scope of a systematic investigation to benchmark state-of-the-art exchange-correlation functionals and ab initio methods, to accurately predict the lowest energy conformers of carbonyl compounds in their isolated state. Under experimental conditions, we observed two distinct conformers, one of Cs and one of C1 symmetry. As reported earlier in the cases of some ethyl and methyl alkynoates, structural optimizations of the most abundant conformer that exhibits a C1 symmetry proved extremely challenging for several quantum chemical levels. To probe the sensitivity of different methods and basis sets, we use the identified soft-degree of freedom in proximity to the carbonyl group as an order parameter. The results of our study provide useful insight for spectroscopists to select an adapted method for structure prediction of carbonyl compounds based on their available computational resources, suggesting a reasonable trade-off between accuracy and CPU cost. At the same time, our observations and the resulting sets of highly accurate experimental constants from high-resolution spectroscopy experiments give an appeal to theoretical groups to look further into this seemingly simple family of chemical compounds, which may prove useful for the further development and parametrization of theoretical methods in computational chemistry.

Automated handling of complex chemical structures in Z-matrix coordinates-The chemcoord library

In this work, we present a fully automated method for the construction of chemically meaningful sets of hierarchical nonredundant internal coordinates (ICs; also commonly denoted as Z-matrices) from the Cartesian coordinates of a molecular system. Particular focus is placed on avoiding ill-definitions of angles and dihedrals due to linear arrangements of atoms, to consistently guarantee a well-defined transformation to Cartesian coordinates, even after structural changes. The representations thus obtained are particularly well suited for pathway construction in double-ended methods for transition state search and optimizations with nonlinear constraints. Analytical gradients for the transformation between the coordinate systems were derived for analytical geometry optimizations purely in Z-matrix coordinates. The geometry optimization was coupled with a Symbolic Algebra package to support arbitrary nonlinear constraints in Z-matrix coordinates, while retaining analytical energy gradient conversion. The difference to the commonly used nonhierarchical IC transformations is discussed. Sample applications are provided for a number of common chemical reactions and illustrative examples.

Phosphine Reactivity and Its Implications for Pyrolysis Experiments and Astrochemistry

Despite the importance of phosphorus-bearing molecules for life and their abundance outside Earth, the chemistry of those compounds still is poorly described. The present study investigates phosphine (PH₃) decomposition and formation pathways. The reactions studied include phosphine thermal dissociation, conversion into PO(²Π), PN(¹Σ₊), and reactions in the presence of H₂O⁺. The thermodynamic and rate coefficients of all reactions are calculated in the range of 50-2000 K considering the CCSD(T)/6-311G(3df,3pd)//ωB97xD/6-311G(3df,3pd) electronic structure data. The rate coefficients were calculated by RRKM and semiclassical transition-state theory (SCTST). According to our results, PH₃ is stable to thermal decomposition at T < 100 K and can be formed promptly by a reaction network involving PH(³Σ_-), PO(²Π), and PN(¹Σ₊). In the presence of radiation or ions, PH₃ is readily decomposed. For this reason, it should be mainly associated with dust grains or icy mantles to be observed under the physical conditions prevailing in the interstellar medium (ISM). The intersystem crossing associated with the dissociation of the isomers PON, NPO, and PNO is accessed by multireference methods, and its importance for the gas-phase PH₃ formation/destruction is discussed. Also, the implications of the present outcomes on phosphorus astrochemistry are highlighted.

Raising the benchmark potential of a simple alcohol-ketone intermolecular balance

2-Butanone offers two hydrogen bond docking variants to a solvating methanol which are cleanly separated by supersonic jet infrared absorption spectroscopy in the OH-stretching range, resolving earlier action spectroscopy indeterminacies for this elementary case of an intermolecular alcohol-ketone balance. The solvent preference for the shorter chain side is unambiguously derived from the spectra of homologous compounds. It is analysed in terms of competing steric and dispersion interactions and the resulting energy differences across a low interconversion barrier. Fortuitous cancellations are discussed and quantitative energy deficiencies of the employed DFT approaches are suggested. Some benchmarkable experimental observations: at low temperature, a single methanol molecule prefers the methyl-sided oxygen lone pair of 2-butanone over the ethyl-sided lone pair by 1-2 kJ mol^-1, the trans butane backbone is conserved in both low-lying isomers, the OH-stretching fundamentals differ by 47(2) cm^-1.

Towards understanding solvation effects on the conformational entropy of non-rigid molecules

The absolute molecular entropy is a fundamental quantity for the accurate description of thermodynamic properties. For non-rigid molecules, a substantial part of the entropy can be attributed to a conformational contribution. Systems and properties where this is relevant, e.g., protein-ligand binding affinities or pK_a values refer usually to the liquid phase. In this work, the influence of solvation on the conformational entropy is investigated. A recently introduced state-of-the-art and automated computational protocol for the computation of conformational entropies [Pracht et al., Chem. Sci., 2021, 12, 6551-6568.] is applied in combination with fast and accurate semiempirical quantum-chemical methods and implicit solvation models for a set of 25 commercially available drug molecules and five transition metal compounds. Computed gas-phase conformational entropies are compared with values obtained in implicit n-hexane and water. It is found that implicit solvation can have a substantial effect of several cal mol^-1 K^-1 on the entropy as a result of large conformational changes in the different phases. We conclude that for flexible molecules chemical accuracy for free energies in solution can only be achieved if solvation effects on the conformational ensemble are considered.

Efficient Reaction Space Exploration with ChemTraYzer-TAD

The development of a reaction model is often a time-consuming process, especially if unknown reactions have to be found and quantified. To alleviate the reaction modeling process, automated procedures for reaction space exploration are highly desired. We present ChemTraYzer-TAD, a new reactive molecular dynamics acceleration technique aimed at efficient reaction space exploration. The new method is based on the basin confinement strategy known from the temperature-accelerated dynamics (TAD) acceleration method. Our method features integrated ChemTraYzer bond-order processing steps for the automatic and on-the-fly determination of the positions of virtual walls in configuration space that confine the system in a potential energy basin. We use the example of 1,3-dioxolane-4-hydroperoxide-2-yl radical oxidation to show that ChemTraYzer-TAD finds more than 100 different parallel reactions for the given set of reactants in less than 2 ns of simulation time. Among the many observed reactions, ChemTraYzer-TAD finds the expected typical low-temperature reactions despite the use of extremely high simulation temperatures up to 5000 K. Our method also finds a new concerted β-scission plus O₂ addition with a lower reaction barrier than the literature-known and so-far dominant β-scission.

Setting up the HyDRA blind challenge for the microhydration of organic molecules

The procedure leading to the first HyDRA blind challenge for the prediction of water donor stretching vibrations in monohydrates of organic molecules is described. A training set of 10 monohydrates...

Reaction Mechanisms and Rate Constants of Auto-Catalytic Urethane Formation and Cleavage Reactions

The chemistry of urethanes plays a key role in important industrial processes. Although catalysts are often used, the study of the reactions without added catalysts provides the basis for a deeper understanding. For the non-catalytic urethane formation and cleavage reactions, the dominating reaction mechanism has long been debated. To our knowledge, the reaction kinetics have not been predicted quantitatively so far. Therefore, we report a new computational study of urethane formation and cleavage reactions. To analyze various potential reaction mechanisms and to predict the reaction rate constants quantum chemistry and transition state theory were employed. For validation, experimental data from literature and from own experiments were used. Quantitative agreement of experiments and predictions could be demonstrated. The calculations confirm earlier assumptions that urethane formation reactions proceed via mechanisms where alcohol molecules act as auto-catalysts. Our results show that it is essential to consider several transition states corresponding to different reaction orders to enable agreement with experimental observations. Urethane cleavage seems to be catalyzed by an isourethane, leading to an observed 2nd-order dependence of the reaction rate on the urethane concentration. The results of our study support a deeper understanding of the reactions as well as a better description of reaction kinetics and will therefore help in catalyst development and process optimization.

A Rather Universal Vibrational Resonance in 1:1 Hydrates of Carbonyl Compounds

When the lower frequency OH stretching fundamental of a water molecule is shifted to the 3500 cm^-1 spectral range by the solvation of a carbonyl compound, in this case a ketone, its infrared intensity is shared with a dark state. It is shown by chemical and isotope substitution for more than a dozen systems that the location of this resonance is remarkably substitution-independent. Harmonic and anharmonic model calculations support its assignment to a combination of the water bending overtone and in-plane water libration. This previously unrecognized intramolecular-intermolecular coupling in single solvent water has a strength of 7-10 cm^-1. It may have been sporadically observed before in a few other carbonyl compounds such as amides, without any previous exploration of its potential universality. The resulting generic picosecond energy redistribution channel for aqueous solutions may represent a slow counterpart and doorway model of what happens on a subpicosecond time scale when the hydrogen bonds become stronger, such as in carboxylic acid dimers or protonated water clusters.

Understanding benzyl alcohol aggregation by chiral modification: the pairing step

A combination of linear infrared and Raman spectroscopy in supersonic slit jet expansions is used to clarify the conformational preferences in the dimer of the transiently chiral benzyl alcohol (phenylmethanol) under vacuum isolation. By experimentally exploring close analogies with the permanently chiral 1-phenylethanol, which is conformationally locked in the jet through intramolecular chirality induction, and by computational analysis of their conformational energy landscapes, several conclusions are drawn. The lowest energy dimer is confirmed to be cooperatively OHOHπ-bonded and shown to be homochiral. Its heterochiral counterpart is slightly higher in energy and can be spectrally assigned as a minor constituent. A metastable heterochiral OHπ/OHπ structure with weakly coupled hydrogen bonds is efficiently trapped behind a Ci symmetry-enhanced barrier and can be assigned by IR/Raman mutual exclusion. Its homochiral counterpart is kinetically less stable but might be addressed by rotational spectroscopy. Ratings of standard density functionals with a standard basis set in terms of reproducing these experimental chirality synchronization benchmarks are presented.

Pinacolone-Alcohol Gas-Phase Solvation Balances as Experimental Dispersion Benchmarks

The influence of distant London dispersion forces on the docking preference of alcohols of different size between the two lone electron pairs of the carbonyl group in pinacolone was explored by infrared spectroscopy of the OH stretching fundamental in supersonic jet expansions of 1:1 solvate complexes. Experimentally, no pronounced tendency of the alcohol to switch from the methyl to the bulkier tert-butyl side with increasing size was found. In all cases, methyl docking dominates by at least a factor of two, whereas DFT-optimized structures suggest a very close balance for the larger alcohols, once corrected by CCSD(T) relative electronic energies. Together with inconsistencies when switching from a C4 to a C5 alcohol, this points at deficiencies of the investigated B3LYP and in particular TPSS functionals even after dispersion correction, which cannot be blamed on zero point energy effects. The search for density functionals which describe the harmonic frequency shift, the structural change and the energy difference between the docking isomers of larger alcohols to unsymmetric ketones in a satisfactory way is open.

Prediction of Solvation Free Energies of Ionic Solutes in Neutral Solvents

The prediction of solvation free energies is essential for a variety of applications. Solvation free energies of neutral systems can be predicted quite accurately. The accuracy of predictions for solvation free energies of ionic solutes dissolved in neutral solvents, however, has been reported to be worse by at least 1 order of magnitude. In this study, the performance of three approaches for solvation free energy prediction of several hundred ions dissolved in neutral solvents is evaluated. The applied methods are COSMO-RS, cluster continuum model (CCM) together with COSMO-RS, and COSMO-RS-ES. It is emphasized that the reference data for model evaluation are subject to large uncertainties stemming from the impossibility to measure the so-called elusive absolute free energies of solvation of a single ion. Consequently, such uncertainty must be considered during the evaluation of prediction methods. Therefore, a straightforward approach to account for the underlying uncertainty is applied here. Hereby, it is revealed that the true performance of the method is better than what is often reported. The average absolute deviation (AAD) of COSMO-RS is calculated to be 2.3 kcal mol^-1, while applying the CCM and COSMO-RS-ES each results in AADs of 2.0 kcal mol^-1. This accuracy allows for qualitative assessment of solvation free energy-dependent quantities, such as reaction rate constants.

Benchmark Experimental Gas-Phase Intermolecular Dissociation Energies by the SEP-R2PI Method

The gas-phase ground-state dissociation energy D0( S0) of an isolated and cold bimolecular complex is a fundamental measure of the intermolecular interaction strength between its constituents. Accurate D0 values are important for the understanding of intermolecular bonding, for benchmarking high-level theoretical calculations, and for the parameterization of dispersion-corrected density functionals or force-field models that are used in fields ranging from crystallography to biochemistry. We review experimental measurements of the gas-phase D0( S0) and D0( S1) values of 55 different M⋅S complexes, where M is a (hetero)aromatic molecule and S is a closed-shell solvent atom or molecule. The experiments employ the triply resonant SEP-R2PI laser method, which involves M-centered ( S0 → S1) electronic excitation, followed by S1 → S0 stimulated emission spanning a range of S0 state vibrational levels. At sufficiently high vibrational energy, vibrational predissociation of the M⋅S complex occurs. A total of 49 dissociation energies were bracketed to within ≤1.0 kJ/mol, providing a large experimental database of accurate noncovalent interactions.

Three-dimensional docking of alcohols to ketones: an experimental benchmark based on acetophenone solvation energy balances

The two hydrogen bond solvation sites exhibited by the carbonyl group in acetophenone are influenced by alkylation of the methyl group in both the acetophenone and in the prototype solvent methanol, largely due to London dispersion forces. Phenyl docking and alkyl docking preferences can be realized at will by appropriate substitution. In particular, cyclopropylation helps to stabilize the opposite phenyl docking site. In all cases, the energy gap is small enough to allow for a simultaneous detection even under low temperature conditions. This density functional prediction is checked experimentally by jet FTIR spectroscopy and largely confirmed. A spurious out-of-plane solvation preference predicted for cyclopropylphenylketone with tert-butyl alcohol by B3LYP-D3 calculations is not confirmed experimentally. It is unlikely that this discrepancy is due to zero-point energy effects. Instead, the second most stable alkyl-side solvation motif predicted with a more in-plane coordination is found in the jet expansion. Overall, the ability of carbonyl solvation balances to benchmark subtle electronic structure effects for non-covalent interactions without major nuclear motion corrections is supported.

Quantifying how step-wise fluorination tunes local solute hydrophobicity, hydration shell thermodynamics and the quantum mechanical contributions of solute–water interactions

Locally tuning solute–water interactions with fluorination.

Encapsulation of anticancer drug doxorubicin inside dendritic macromolecular cavities: First-principles benchmarks

By using first-principles approaches based on Density Functional Theory, we explore the possibility of using dendritic macromolecular structures as carriers of the doxorubicin anticancer drug. In particular, we consider macromolecular cavities of different sizes composed of phenylene-, thiophene-, phenyl-cored thiophen- and thioazole-based dendrimers. The comparison between the optimized molecular geometries of the monomers and of the host-guest complexes reveals that only slight structural changes are observed in doxorubicin upon complexation. Also, the encapsulation energies for the host-guest complexes suggest that these systems are of potential use for pharmacology applications in vivo. The interaction of the guest doxorubicin with the macromolecular cavities exploits different types of weak intermolecular forces including σ, π and hydrogen bond interactions. The electronic structure of these complexes is discussed, with particular emphasis placed on the role of the charge distribution and the nature of the frontier molecular orbitals in the encapsulation process. Spectroscopic properties of these complexes are derived to facilitate their detection in laboratory and in vivo. These include IR vibrational frequencies, absorption wavelengths and relative oscillator strengths for the main transitions in the UV-Vis spectrum.

Phenylacetylene as a gas phase sliding balance for solvating alcohols

Phenylacetylene offers two similarly attractive π binding sites to OH containing solvent molecules, the phenyl ring and the acetylenic triple bond. By systematically varying the solvent molecule and by methylating aromatic or acetylenic CH groups, the docking preference can be controlled. It ranges from almost exclusive acetylene docking to predominant phenyl docking, depending on how electron density is deposited into the conjugated system and how large the London dispersion interaction is. FTIR spectroscopy of supersonic jet expansions is used to observe the competitive docking preferences in phenylacetylene and some of its methylated derivatives. A new data evaluation procedure that estimates band strength uncertainties based on a Monte Carlo approach is introduced. We test how well two density functionals (B3LYP-D3 and M06-2X) in combination with a def2-TZVP basis set are able to describe the docking switch. B3LYP-D3 is slightly biased towards acetylenic hydrogen bond docking and M06-2X is strongly biased towards phenyl hydrogen bond docking. More accurate theoretical predictions are invited and some previous experimental assignments are questioned.

Understanding non-covalent interactions in larger molecular complexes from first principles

Non-covalent interactions pervade all matter and play a fundamental role in layered materials, biological systems, and large molecular complexes. Despite this, our accumulated understanding of non-covalent interactions to date has been mainly developed in the tens-of-atoms molecular regime. This falls considerably short of the scales at which we would like to understand energy trends, structural properties, and temperature dependencies in materials where non-covalent interactions have an appreciable role. However, as more reference information is obtained beyond moderately sized molecular systems, our understanding is improving and we stand to gain pertinent insights by tackling more complex systems, such as supramolecular complexes, molecular crystals, and other soft materials. In addition, accurate reference information is needed to provide the drive for extending the predictive power of more efficient workhorse methods, such as density functional approximations that also approximate van der Waals dispersion interactions. In this perspective, we discuss the first-principles approaches that have been used to obtain reference interaction energies for beyond modestly sized molecular complexes. The methods include quantum Monte Carlo, symmetry-adapted perturbation theory, non-canonical coupled cluster theory, and approaches based on the random-phase approximation. By considering the approximations that underpin each method, the most accurate theoretical references for supramolecular complexes and molecular crystals to date are ascertained. With these, we also assess a handful of widely used exchange-correlation functionals in density functional theory. The discussion culminates in a framework for putting into perspective the accuracy of high-level wavefunction-based methods and identifying future challenges.

Dispersion-controlled docking preference: multi-spectroscopic study on complexes of dibenzofuran with alcohols and water

The planarity and rigidity of dibenzofuran inverts the docking preference for increasingly bulky R-OH solvent molecules, compared to the closely related diphenyl ether. Now, London dispersion favors OH⋯π hydrogen bonding.

Spectroscopy of Proton Coordination with Ethylenediamine

Protonated ethylenediamine monomer, dimer, and trimer were produced in the gas phase by an electrical discharge/supersonic expansion of argon seeded with ethylenediamine (C₂H₈N₂, en) vapor. Infrared spectra of these ions were measured in the region from 1000 to 4000 cm^-1 using laser photodissociation and argon tagging. Computations at the CBS-QB3 level were performed to explore possible isomers and understand the infrared spectra. The protonated monomer exhibits a gauche conformation and an intramolecular hydrogen bond. Its parallel shared proton vibration occurs as a broad band around 2785 cm^-1, despite the formally equivalent proton affinities of the two amino groups involved, which usually leads to low frequency bands. The barrier to intramolecular proton transfer is 2.2 kcal mol^-1 and does not vanish upon addition of the zero-point energy, unlike the related protonated ammonia dimer. The structure of the dimer is formed by chelation of the monomer's NH₃⁺ group, thereby localizing the excess proton and increasing the frequency of the intramolecular shared proton vibration to 3157 cm^-1. Other highly fluxional dimer structures with facile intermolecular proton transfer and concomitant structural reorganization were computed to lie within 2 kcal mol^-1 of the experimentally observed structure. The spectrum of the trimer is rather diffuse, and a clear assignment is not possible. However, an isomer with an intramolecular proton transfer like that of the monomer is most consistent with the experimental spectrum.

Communication through the furan ring: the conformational effect on the internal rotation of 5-methyl furfural studied by microwave spectroscopy

Internal rotation of the methyl group in 5-methyl furfural as a tool to explore electronic effects on the structure and dynamics of isolated molecules: new insights from large amplitude motions.

Stereochemistry-dependent hydrogen bonds stabilise stacked conformations in jet-cooled cyclic dipeptides: (LD) vs. (LL) cyclo tyrosine-tyrosine

Tyrosine-containing cyclic dipeptides based on a diketopiperazine (DKP) ring are studied under jet-cooled conditions using resonance-enhanced multi-photon ionisation (REMPI), conformer-selective IR-UV double resonance vibrational spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations. The conformational landscape of the dipeptide containing natural L tyrosine (Tyr), namely c-LTyr-LTyr strongly differs from that of its diastereomer c-LTyr-DTyr. A similar family of conformers exists in both systems, with one aromatic ring folded on the dipeptide DKP ring and the other one extended. Weak NHπ and CHπ interactions are observed, which are slightly different in c-LTyr-LTyr and c-LTyr-DTyr. These structures are identical to those of LL and LD cyclo diphenylalanine, which only differ from c-Tyr-Tyr by the absence of hydroxyl on the benzene rings. While this is the only conformation observed for c-LTyr-DTyr, c-LTyr-LTyr exhibits an additional form stabilised by the interaction of the two hydroxyls, in which the two aromatic rings are in a stacked geometry. Stereochemical effects are still visible in the radical cation, for which one structure is observed for c-LTyr-DTyr, while the spectrum of the c-LTyr-LTyr radical cation is explained in terms of two co-existing structures.