Issue 41, 2018

Protonated glycine supramolecular systems: the need for quantum dynamics

Abstract

IR spectroscopy is one of the most commonly employed techniques to study molecular vibrations and interactions. However, characterization of experimental IR spectra is not always straightforward. This is the case of protonated glycine supramolecular systems like Gly2H+ and (GlyH + nH2), whose IR spectra raise questions which have still to find definitive answers even after theoretical spectroscopy investigations. Specifically, the assignment of the conformer responsible for the spectrum of the protonated glycine dimer (Gly2H+) has led to much controversy and it is still debated, while structural hypotheses formulated to explain the main experimental spectral features of (GlyH + nH2) systems have not been theoretically confirmed. We demonstrate that simulations must account for quantum dynamical effects in order to resolve these open issues. This is achieved by means of our divide-and-conquer semiclassical initial value representation technique, which approximates the quantum dynamics of high dimensional systems with remarkable accuracy and outperforms not only the commonly employed but unfit scaled-harmonic approaches, but also pure classical dynamics simulations. Besides the specific insights concerning the two particular cases presented here, the general conclusion is that, due to the widespread presence of protonated systems in chemistry, quantum dynamics may play a prominent role and should not be totally overlooked even when dealing with large systems including biological structures.

Graphical abstract: Protonated glycine supramolecular systems: the need for quantum dynamics

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
09 jul 2018
Accepted
16 sep 2018
First published
17 sep 2018
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2018,9, 7894-7901

Protonated glycine supramolecular systems: the need for quantum dynamics

F. Gabas, G. Di Liberto, R. Conte and M. Ceotto, Chem. Sci., 2018, 9, 7894 DOI: 10.1039/C8SC03041C

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