A quantum chemical insight to intermolecular hydrogen bonding interaction between cytosine and nitrosamine: Structural and energetic investigations

Hydrogen bond interactions which are formed during complex formation between cytosine and nitrosamine have been fully investigated using B3LYP, B3PW91 and MP2 methods in conjunction with various basis sets including 6-311++G (d,p), 6-311++G (2d,2p), 6-311++G (df,pd) and AUG-cc-pVDZ. Three regions around the most stable conformer of cytosine in the gas phase with six possible double H-bonded interactions were considered. Two intermolecular hydrogen bonds of type N-C-N-H-NA and OH(NH)(C)-O-NA were found on the potential energy surface in a cyclic system with 8-member in CN1, CN3, CN5 and 7-member in CN2, CN4, CN6 systems. Results of binding energy calculation at all applied methods reveal that the CN1 structure is the most stable one which is formed by interaction of nitrosamine with cytosine in S1 region. The BSSE-corrected binding energy for six complex system is ranging from -23.8 to -43.6 kJ/mol at MP2/6-311++G (df,pd) level and the stability order is as CN1 > CN2 > CN3 > CN4 > CN5 > CN6 in all studied levels of theories. The NBO results reveal that the charge transfer occurred from cytosine to nitrosamine in CN1, CN3, CN5 and CN6 whereas this matter in the case of CN2 and CN4 was reversed. The relationship between BEs with red shift of H-bond involved bonds vibrational frequencies, charge transfer energies during complex formation and electron densities at H-bond BCPs were discussed. In addition activation energetic properties related to the proton transfer process between cytosine and nitrosamine have been calculated at MP2/6-311++G (df,pd) level. AIM results imply that H-bond interactions are electrostatic with partially covalent characteristic in nature. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.