Experimental and Computational Modeling of H-Bonded Arginine-Tyrosine Groupings in Aprotic Environments.

H-bonds between neutral tyrosine and arginine in nonpolar environments are modeled by small-molecule phenol/guanidine complexes. From the temperature and concentration dependence of UV spectra, a value of ΔH° = -74 ± 4 kJ mol-1 is deduced for the formation of H-bonded p-cresol/dodecylguanidine in hexane. ΔE = -71 kJ mol-1 is computed with density functional theory (in vacuo). In dimethyl sulfoxide or crystals, (p-phenolyl)alkylguanidines form head-to-tail homodimers with two strong H-bonding interactions, as evidenced by UV, IR, and NMR spectral shifts, strong IR continuum absorbance bands, and short O···N distances in X-ray crystal structures. Phenol/alkylguanidine H-bonded complexes consist of polarizable rapidly interconverting tautomers, with the proton shift from phenol to guanidine increasing with increase in the polarity of the aprotic solvent. As measured by NMR, both groups in these strongly H-bonded neutral complexes can simultaneously appear to be predominantly protonated. These systems serve as models for the hypothetical hydrogen-Bonded Uncharged (aRginine + tYrosine), or "BU(RY)", motifs in membrane proteins.

Ferromagnetic Coupling in "Double-Bridged" Dihydrogenpyrophosphate Complexes of Cobalt(II) and Nickel(II).

Three isostructural compounds of the formula {[M(bipy)(H2O)(H2P2O7)]2·2H2O} [bipy = 2,2'-bipyridine; M = Ni (1), Co (2), Mn (3)] have been isolated from aqueous solutions containing the corresponding metal(II) chloride hydrate with a bipy and sodium pyrophosphate solution in a 1:1:2 molar ratio, and their structures were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The structures of 1-3 consist of neutral aqua(2,2'-bipyridine)metal(II) dinuclear units bridged by two dihydrogenpyrophosphate groups adopting a bidentate/monodentate mode. Each metal ion in 1-3 is six-coordinate in a distorted octahedral geometry, with the reduced value of the angle subtended by the chelating bipy at the metal ion [79.6(1)° (1), 77.32(7)° (2), and 72.9(1)° (3)] being the main source of this distortion. The values of the intramolecular metal-metal separation are 5.271(1) Å (1), 5.3065(8) Å (2), and 5.371(1) Å (3). Magnetic susceptibility measurements on polycrystalline samples of 1-3 in the temperature range 1.9-300 K shows weak intramolecular ferromagnetic [J = +1.86(2) cm(-1) (1) and +0.25(1) cm(-1) (2)] and antiferromagnetic [J = -0.48(1) cm(-1) (3)] coupling, with the spin Hamiltonian being defined as H = -JSM1·SM1a. This rarely observed coordination mode for dihydrogenpyrophosphate leads to ferromagnetic coupling in complexes of nickel(II) or cobalt(II).