Communication: Constructing an implicit quantum mechanical/molecular mechanics solvent model by coarse-graining explicit solvent.

To avoid repeated, computationally expensive QM solute calculations while sampling MM solvent in QM/MM simulations, a new approach for constructing an implicit solvent model by coarse-graining the solvent properties over many explicit solvent configurations is proposed. The solvent is modeled using a polarizable force field that is parameterized in terms of distributed multipoles (electrostatics), polarizabilities (induction), and frequency-dependent polarizabilities (dispersion). The coarse-graining procedure exploits the ability to translate these properties to the center of each coarse-graining cell and average them over many solvent configurations before interacting them with the solute. A single coarse-grained QM/MM calculation of the interaction between a formamide solute and aqueous solvent reproduces the much more expensive average over many explicit QM/MM calculations with kJ/mol accuracy.

Vibrations of a chelated proton in a protonated tertiary diamine.

Vibrational spectra of the conjugate acid of Me(2)NCH(2)CH(2)CH(2)CH(2)NMe(2) (N,N,N',N'-tetramethylputrescine) have been examined in the gaseous and crystalline phases using Infrared Multiple Photon Dissociation (IRMPD) spectroscopy, Inelastic Neutron Scattering (INS), and high pressure Raman spectroscopy. A band observed near 530 cm(-1) is assigned to the asymmetric stretch of the bridging proton between the two nitrogens, based on deuterium substitution and pressure dependence. The NN distance measured by X-ray crystallography gives a good match to DFT calculations, and the experimental band position agrees with the value predicted from theory using a 2-dimensional potential energy surface. The reduced dimensionality potential energy surface, which treats the ion as though it possesses a linear NHN geometry, shows low barriers to proton transit from one nitrogen to the other, with zero point levels close to the barrier tops. In contrast, two other related systems containing strong hydrogen bonds do not exhibit the same spectroscopic signature of a low barrier hydrogen bond (LBHB). On the one hand, the IRMPD spectra of the conjugate acid ions of the amino acid N,N,N',N'-tetramethylornithine (in which the two nitrogens have different basicities) show fewer bands and no comparable isotopic shifts in the low frequency domain. On the other hand, the IRMPD spectrum of the shorter homologue Me(2)NCH(2)CH(2)CH(2)NMe(2) (N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-1,3-propanediamine), for which the NHN bond angle deviates substantially from linearity, displays more than one band in the 1100-1400 cm(-1) domain, which vanish as a consequence of deuteration.

The structure of the protonated adenine dimer by infrared multiple photon dissociation spectroscopy and electronic structure calculations.

The infrared multiple photon dissociation (IRMPD) spectrum of electrosprayed adenine proton-bound dimers were recorded in the gas-phase inside the cell of a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance spectrometer coupled to a tunable optical parametric oscillator/amplifier infrared laser. While gas-phase B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) calculations indicate that the four lowest isomers are essentially isoenergetic, comparisons of the experimental and predicted IR spectra suggest that only two of the four isomers are observed in the experiment. However, computed solvation effects, as modeled using both a polarizable continuum model and microsolvation with five explicit water molecules, preferentially stabilize these two observed isomers, consistent with the interpretation of the IRMPD spectra. This work shows that for these small species the solvent-phase structure is preserved. It also demonstrates the potential danger of using gas-phase calculations to predict the structures of gaseous ions born in solution, such as those from an electrospray source.