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We present periodic plane-wave density functional theory (DFT) Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE-D2) calculations for four highly hydrated crystals, Na2CO3·10H2O, MgSO4·7H2O, MgSO4·11H2O, and Al(NO3)3·9H2O, containing 37 structurally unique water molecules and 74 unique hydrogen bonds. The calculated R(H-O) distances lie in the range 1.60-2.05 Å, the anharmonic OH frequencies in the range 2570-3425 cm-1, and the water dipole moments lie in the range 2.9-4.3 Debye, as calculated from the Wannier function centers and the nuclei. We present the following findings. (i) Our optimized intramolecular r(OH) distances are always larger than the gasphase value and thus more accurate than those derived from neutron diffraction experiments; (ii) The local in situ electric field over the molecule, calculated from the positions of the nuclei and the Wannier centers in the surrounding crystal, appears to be a good descriptor of the pertturbation from the water molecule's surroundings as the internal molecular properties (re, ν, µ) are found to correlate well with the crystalgenerated electric field; (iii) We have added DFT-calculated data points to the well-known experimental 'OH frequency versus R(H - O)' correlation curve in a region where the experimental data points are scarce; (iv) For all 37 water molecules, the Wannier centers located in the lone-pair region, and those located in the OH bonds, displace about equally much due to the polarizing environment. Finally, we propose that our resulting 'OH frequency versus Wannier-type electric field' correlation curve may constitute a useful tool for predicting OH vibrational frequencies from snapshots from PBE-D2-based ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of water-containing systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactions between the group XII metals Zn2+ and Cd2+ and amino acid residues play an important role in biology due to the prevalence of the first and the toxicity of the second. Estimates of the interaction energies between the ions and relevant residues in proteins are however difficult to obtain. This study reports on calculated interaction energy curves for small complexes of Zn2+ or Cd2+ and amino acid mimics (acetate, methanethiolate, and imidazole) or water. Given that many applications and models (e.g., force fields, solvation models, etc.) begin with and rely on an accurate description of gas-phase interaction energies, this is where our focus lies in this study. Four density functional theory (DFT)-functionals and MP2 were used to calculate the interaction energies not only at the respective equilibrium distances but also at a relevant range of ion-ligand separation distances. The calculated values were compared with those obtained by CCSD(T). All DFT-methods are found to overestimate the magnitude of the interaction energy compared to the CCSD(T) reference values. The deviation was analyzed in terms of energy components from localized molecular orbital energy decomposition analysis scheme and is mostly attributed to overestimation of the polarization energy. MP2 shows good agreement with CCSD(T) [root mean square error (RMSE) = 1.2 kcal/mol] for the eight studied complexes at equilibrium distance. Dispersion energy differences at longer separation give rise to increased deviations between MP2 and CCSD(T) (RMSE = 6.4 kcal/mol at 3.0 Å). Overall, the results call for caution in applying DFT methods to metalloprotein model complexes even with closed-shell metal ions such as Zn2+ and Cd2+, in particular at ion-ligand separations that are longer than the equilibrium distances. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The calculation of the electrostatic potential resulting from an infinite or extended array of charges in the interior of a region of interest is a frequent task in computational chemistry. In case of a periodic potential this can, for example, be done by Ewald summation or by multipole methods. An important alternative are those methods where arrays of auxiliary point charges are optimized with respect to charge and/or position to reproduce the original electrostatic potential. In the literature different variations are reported. We compare the performance of some of these with respect to their ability to reproduce the original potential and the computational effort required. Between (1) surface charges determined by the conductor-boundary condition, (2) optimized surface charges, and (3) surface charges floating on the surface we find that (2) offers good quality with small computational costs involved. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2004 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]