Solvent effects in the GIAO-DFT calculations of the 15N NMR chemical shifts of azoles and azines

The calculation of N-15 NMR chemical shifts of 27 azoles and azines in 10 different solvents each has been carried out at the gauge including atomic orbitals density functional theory level in gas phase and applying the integral equation formalism polarizable continuum model (IEF-PCM) and supermolecule solvation models to account for solvent effects. In the calculation of N-15 NMR, chemical shifts of the nitrogen-containing heterocycles dissolved in nonpolar and polar aprotic solvents, taking into account solvent effect is sufficient within the IEF-PCM scheme, whereas for polar protic solvents with large dielectric constants, the use of supermolecule solvation model is recommended. A good agreement between calculated 460 values of N-15 NMR chemical shifts and experiment is found with the IEF-PCM scheme characterized by MAE of 7.1ppm in the range of more than 300ppm (about 2%). The best result is achieved with the supermolecule solvation model performing slightly better (MAE 6.5ppm). Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.