Two Tautomers of Thiobarbituric Acid in One Crystal: The Experimental Charge Density Perspective

High-quality crystals of a certain polymorphic form of thiobarbituric acid containing both keto and enol tautomers in the asymmetric unit were obtained. High-resolution X-ray diffraction data up to sinθ/λ = 1.0 Å−1 were collected and subsequently successfully used for the refining of the multipolar model of electron density distribution. The use of a crystal containing both ketone and enol forms allowed a direct comparison of the topological analysis results and a closer look at the differences between these two forms. The similarities and differences between the deformation densities, electrostatic potentials, Laplacian maps and bond characteristics of the tautomers were analysed. Additionally, the spectrum of the intermolecular interactions was identified and studied from classical, relatively strong N-H···O and O-H···O hydrogen bonds through weaker N-H···S hydrogen bonds to weak interactions (for instance, C-H···O, C-H···S and N···O). The results of these studies point toward the importance of including both the geometrical features and the details of the electron density distribution in the analysis of such weak interactions.

Investigation of features for prediction modeling of nano-scale conduction with time-dependent calculation of electron wave packet

The model to predict the electron transmission probability from the random impurity distribution in a two-dimensional nanowire system by combining the time evolution of the electron wave function and machine learning is proposed. We have shown that the intermediate state of the time evolution calculation is a great advantage for efficient modeling by machine learning. The features for machine learning are extracted by analyzing the time variation of the electron density distribution using time evolution calculations. Consequently, the prediction error of the model is improved by performing machine learning based on the features. The proposed method provides a useful perspective for analyzing the motion of electrons in nanoscale semiconductors.

A Proposed Insight into the Anti-viral Potential of Silver Nanoparticles against Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

This article presents a proposed insight into the anti-viral potential of silver nanoparticles against novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Possible mechanisms of influence of silver nanoparticles on the coronavirus are considered. Models of nanosilver complexes with spike protein of coronavirus amino acids were constructed using computer quantum-chemical modeling. The values of electron density distribution, highest occupied molecular orbital, lowest unoccupied molecular orbital and electron density distribution gradient for each constructed model are obtained. Analysis of the obtained data showed that the most energy-efficient interaction is the formation of the "tryptophan–nanosilver" complex (E= - 5856.83 kkal/mol). According to the results of quantum chemical calculations, the most stable complex is the "cysteine– Ag nanoparticles" complex (ΔE = 0.16 a. u.).

Novel study on the electron density distribution projection maps calculated via the discrete cosine transform

It is already known that a curve estimated via the discrete cosine transform (DCT) always passes through all the measured points without using imaginary numbers in the DCT coefficients, unlike the discrete Fourier transform. Moreover, owing to its character, the DCT can be used instead of the nonlinear least-squares method to express various theoretical curves. Because the DCT is a kind of Fourier transform, there is a possibility that the DCT could be employed to draw electron density distribution maps of crystals. If so, the probability that the DCT could be used to investigate the internal structure of materials by analysing the theoretical curves would increase. This article reports an attempt to draw the electron density distribution maps of the Mg3BN3 low-pressure phase [Mg3BN3(L)] by using the DCT in order to confirm the utility of the DCT for analysing the internal structure of materials. It is found that the DCT can provide mirror-symmetric electron density distribution projection maps and a modified DCT can be used to calculate whole standard electron density distribution projection maps for the surface plane of the unit cell. Moreover, a real crystal structure that has a centre of symmetry can be determined by the DCT by transforming a 1/4 part of the mirror-symmetric electron density distribution projection map.