Modeling the Structure of Crystalline Alamethicin and Its NMR Chemical Shift Tensors

Alamethicin (ALM) is an antimicrobial peptide that is frequently employed in studies of the mechanism of action of pore-forming molecules. Advanced techniques of solid-state NMR spectroscopy (SSNMR) are important in these studies, as they are capable of describing the alignment of helical peptides, such as ALM, in lipid bilayers. Here, it is demonstrated how an analysis of the SSNMR measurements can benefit from fully periodic calculations, which employ the plane-wave density-functional theory (PW DFT) of the solid-phase geometry and related spectral parameters of ALM. The PW DFT calculations are used to obtain the structure of desolvated crystalline ALM and predict the NMR chemical shift tensors (CSTs) of its nuclei. A variation in the CSTs of the amidic nitrogens and carbonyl carbons along the ALM backbone is evaluated and included in simulations of the orientation-dependent anisotropic 15N and 13C chemical shift components. In this way, the influence of the site-specific structural effects on the experimentally determined orientation of ALM is shown in models of cell membranes.

Efficient polynomial analysis of magic-angle spinning sidebands and application to order parameter determination in anisotropic samples

Chemical shift tensors in 13C solid-state NMR provide valuable localized information on the chemical bonding environment in organic matter, and deviations from isotropic static-limit powder line shapes sensitively encode dynamic-averaging or orientation effects. Studies in 13C natural abundance require magic-angle spinning (MAS), where the analysis must thus focus on spinning sidebands. We propose an alternative fitting procedure for spinning sidebands based upon a polynomial expansion that is more efficient than the common numerical solution of the powder average. The approach plays out its advantages in the determination of CST (chemical-shift tensor) principal values from spinning-sideband intensities and order parameters in non-isotropic samples, which is here illustrated with the example of stretched glassy polycarbonate.

Efficient polynomial analysis of MAS spinning sidebands and application to order parameter determination in anisotropic samples

Chemical shift tensors in 13C solid-state NMR provide valuable localized information on the chemical bonding environment in organic matter, and deviations from isotropic static-limit powder lineshapes sensitively encode dynamic-averaging or orientation effects. Studies in 13C natural abundance require magic-angle spinning (MAS), where the analysis must thus focus on spinning sidebands. We propose an alternative fitting procedure for spinning sidebands based upon a polynomial expansion that is more efficient 5 than the common numerical solution of the powder average. The approach plays out its advantages in the determination of CST principal values from spinning-sideband intensities and order parameters in non-isotropic samples, which is here illustrated on the example of stretched glassy polycarbonate.

Investigation of Adsorption Effect of Carbon Monoxide on Coniine: A DFT Study

: For the first time in the present study, the non-bonded interaction of the Coniine (C8H17N) with carbon monoxide (CO) was investigated by density functional theory (DFT/M062X/6-311+G*) in the gas phase and solvent water. The adsorption of the CO over C8H17N was affected on the electronic properties such as EHOMO, ELUMO, the energy gap between LUMO and HOMO, global hardness. Furthermore, chemical shift tensors and natural charge of the C8H17N and complex C8H17N/CO were determined and discussed. According to the natural bond orbital (NBO) results, the molecule C8H17N and CO play as both electron donor and acceptor at the complex C8H17N/CO in the gas phase and solvent water. On the other hand, the charge transfer is occurred between the bonding, antibonding or nonbonding orbitals in two molecules C8H17N and CO. We have also investigated the charge distribution for the complex C8H17N/CO by molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) calculations using the M062X/6-311+G* level of theory. The electronic spectra of the C8H17N and complex C8H17N/CO were calculated by time dependent DFT (TD-DFT) for investigation of the maximum wavelength value of the C8H17N before and after the non-bonded interaction with the CO in the gas phase and solvent water. Therefore, C8H17N can be used as strong absorbers for air purification and reduce environmental pollution.

Refining crystal structures using 13C NMR chemical shift tensors as a target function

A two-step process is described for refining crystal structures from any source. This approach employs an initial lattice-including DFT relaxation step followed by a Monte Carlo sampling procedure to create...