Sharif Digital Repository

Histidine as a natural amino acid is found to be biologically important and is known to function as a nucleophile or enzyme co-factor, or in proton transfer process. The properties of gaseous aromatic amino acid histidine depend on the structural forms it may take in gas-phase. Ab initio method has been used to characterize the gas-phase conformer/tautomers of histidine. Wide range of possible structures for histidine was surveyed at the MM level, and then the geometries of the unique conformers were refined at the B3LYP/6-311++G (d,p) levels. At this theoretical level, 25 conformers were located for both tautomers of histidine i.e., His [NπH] and His [NτH]. The MM level provides a poor... 

The effects of selected metal ions on the gas-phase acidity of weak organic acids have been explored using the DFT and Moller-Plesset Perturbation Theory (MP2) calculations. The three organic acids selected for this study were acetic acid (aliphatic), benzoic acid (aromatic), and glycine (amino acid). The acidities of these compounds are compared with the acidity of their Li +-, Na+-, and K+ -complexed species. The results indicate that upon complexation with Li+, Na+, and K+ at 298K, the gas-phase acidity of acetic acid, for example, varies from 345.3 to 218.8, 230.2, and 240.1 kcal/mol, respectively (i.e., its dissociation becomes much less endothermic). These values indicate that a weak...