Computational chemists have long demonstrated great interest in finding ways to reliably and accurately predict the molecular properties for transition-metal-containing complexes. This study is a ...continuation of our validation efforts of density functional theory (DFT) methods when applied to transition-metal-containing systems (Riley, K.E.; Merz, K. M., Jr. J. Phys. Chem. 2007, 111, 6044−6053). In our previous work we examined DFT using all-electron basis sets, but approaches incorporating effective core potentials (ECPs) are effective in reducing computational expense. With this in mind, our efforts were expanded to include evaluation of the performance of the basis set derived to approximate such an approach as well on the same set of density functionals. Indeed, employing an ECP basis such as LANL2DZ (Los Alamos National Laboratory 2 double ζ) for transition metals, while using all-electron basis sets for all other non-transition-metal atoms, has become more and more popular in computations on transition-metal-containing systems. In this study, we assess the performance of 12 different DFT functionals, from the GGA (generalized gradient approximation), hybrid-GGA, meta-GGA, and hybrid-meta-GGA classes, respectively, along with the 6-31+G** + LANL2DZ (on the transition metal) mixed basis set in predicting two important molecular properties, heats of formation and ionization potentials, for 94 and 58 systems containing first-row transition metals from Ti to Zn, which are all in the third row of the periodic table. An interesting note is that the inclusion of the exact exchange term in density functional methods generally increases the accuracy of ionization potential prediction for the hybrid-GGA methods but decreases the reliability of determining the heats of formation for transition-metal-containing complexes for all hybrid density functional methods. The hybrid-GGA functional B3LYP gives the best performance in predicting the ionization potentials, while the meta-GGA functional TPSSTPSS provides the most reliable and accurate results for heat of formation calculations. TPSSTPSS, a meta-GGA functional, which was constructed from first principles and subject to known exact constraints just like in an “ab initio” way, is successful in predicting both the ionization potentials and the heats of formation for transition-metal-containing systems.
Electron repulsion integral (ERI) calculation on graphical processing units (GPUs) can significantly accelerate quantum chemical calculations. Herein, the ab initio self-consistent-field (SCF) ...calculation is implemented on GPUs using recurrence relations, which is one of the fastest ERI evaluation algorithms currently available. A direct-SCF scheme to assemble the Fock matrix efficiently is presented, wherein ERIs are evaluated on-the-fly to avoid CPU–GPU data transfer, a well-known architectural bottleneck in GPU specific computation. Realized speedups on GPUs reach 10–100 times relative to traditional CPU nodes, with accuracies of better than 1 × 10–7 for systems with more than 4000 basis functions.
Commonly seen in rare-earth chemistry and materials science, highly charged metal ions play key roles in many chemical processes. Computer simulations have become an important tool for scientific ...research nowadays. Meaningful simulations require reliable parameters. In the present work, we parametrized 18 M(III) and 6 M(IV) metal ions for four new water models (OPC3, OPC, TIP3P-FB, TIP4P-FB) in conjunction with each of the 12-6 and 12-6-4 nonbonded models. Similar to what was observed previously, issues with the 12-6 model can be fixed by using the 12-6-4 model. Moreover, the four new water models showed comparable performance or considerable improvement over the previous water models (TIP3P, SPC/E, and TIP4PEW) in the same category (3-point or 4-point water models, respectively). Finally, we reported a study of a metalloprotein system demonstrating the capability of the 12-6-4 model to model metalloproteins. The reported parameters will facilitate accurate simulations of highly charged metal ions in aqueous solution.
Simulating the Chelate Effect Sengupta, Arkajyoti; Seitz, Anthony; Merz, Kenneth M
Journal of the American Chemical Society,
11/2018, Letnik:
140, Številka:
45
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Despite the rich history of experimental studies focusing on the thermochemistry and kinetics associated with the chelate effect, molecular-level computational studies on the chelate ring ...opening/ring closure are scarce. The challenge lies in an accurate description of both the metal ion and its aqueous environment. Herein, we demonstrate that an optimized 12-6-4 Lennard-Jones (LJ) model can capture the thermodynamics and provide detailed structural and mechanistic insights into the formation of ethylenediamine (en) complexes with metal ions. The water molecules in the first solvation shell of the metal ion are found to facilitate the chelate ring formation. The optimized parameters further simulate the formation of bis and tris(en) complexes representing the wide applicability of the model to simulate coordination chemistry and self-assembly processes.
Computational methods to calculate binding affinity in protein−ligand interaction are of immense interest because of obvious practical applications in structure-based drug design. Scoring functions ...attempt to calculate the variation in binding affinity of ligands−inhibitors bound to protein targets at various levels of theory. In this study we use semiempirical quantum mechanics to design a scoring function that can calculate the electrostatic interactions and solvation free energy expected during complexation. This physically based approach has the ability to capture binding affinity trends in a diverse range of protein−ligand complexes. We also show the predictive power of this scoring function within protein targets and its ability to score ligand poses docked to a protein target. We also demonstrate the ability of this scoring function to discriminate between native and decoy poses and highlight the crucial role played by electrostatic interactions in molecular recognition. Finally we compare the performance of our scoring function with other available scoring functions in the literature.
While accurately modeling the conformational ensemble is required for predicting properties of flexible molecules, the optimal method of obtaining the conformational ensemble appears as varied as ...their applications. Ensemble structures have been modeled by generation, refinement, and clustering of conformations with a sufficient number of samples. We present a conformational clustering algorithm intended to automate the conformational clustering step through the Louvain algorithm, which requires minimal hyperparameters and importantly no predefined number of clusters or threshold values. The conformational graphs produced by this method for O-succinyl-l-homoserine, oxidized nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, and 200 representative metabolites each preserved the geometric/energetic correlation expected for points on the potential energy surface. Clustering based on these graphs provides partitions informed by the potential energy surface. Automating conformational clustering in a workflow with AutoGraph may mitigate human biases introduced by guess and check over hyperparameter selection while allowing flexibility to the result by not imposing predefined criteria other than optimizing the model’s loss function. Associated codes are available at https://github.com/TanemuraKiyoto/AutoGraph.
As a fundamental property of all fluids, diffusion plays myriad roles in both science and our daily lives. Diffusive properties of many liquids including water have been extensively studied both ...experimentally and theoretically, while for transition metal ions, there exist significant experimental data that have not been extensively studied theoretically. Hence, high-confidence predictions for challenging systems like radioactive ions that are biohazardous cannot be reliably generated. In this work, a workflow named ISAIAH (Ion Simulation using AMBER for dIffusion Action when Hydrated) was designed to accurately simulate the diffusion coefficients of 15 monoatomic ions with charges varying from −1 to +3 in four water models. As the results indicate, good agreement with experimental values was achieved, leading us to select 239Pu4+ (for which no experimental data are available) as a candidate ion to make a theoretical prediction of its diffusion coefficient in water. Among all the force field parameter sets, the ones parametrized using an augmented 12-6-4 Lennard-Jones (LJ) potential showed lower average unsigned errors (AUE) for ions of various radii and electron configurations relative to some 12-6 LJ parameters. This observation agrees well with the fact that diffusion is affected by both the hydration free energy (HFE) and the ion-oxygen distance (IOD) between solute and solvent molecules, both of which are handled well by the 12-6-4 model.
Extended Zinc AMBER Force Field (EZAFF) Yu, Zhuoqin; Li, Pengfei; Merz, Kenneth M
Journal of chemical theory and computation,
01/2018, Letnik:
14, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
An empirical approach based on the previously developed zinc AMBER force field (ZAFF) is proposed for the determination of the parameters for bonds and angles involving zinc. We call it the extended ...ZAFF (EZAFF) model because the original ZAFF model was only formulated for four-coordinated systems, while EZAFF additionally can tackle five- and six-coordinated systems. Tests were carried out for six metalloproteins and six organometallic compounds with different coordination spheres. Results validated the reliability of the current model to handle a variety of zinc containing complexes. Meanwhile, benchmark calculations were performed to assess the performance of three bonded molecular mechanics models (EZAFF, Seminario, and Z-matrix models), four nonbonded parameter sets (the HFE, IOD, CM, and 12-6-4 models), and four semiempirical quantum mechanical methods (AM1, PM3, PM6, and SCC-DFTB methods) for simulating zinc containing systems. The obtained results indicate that, even with their increased computational cost, the semiempirical quantum methods only offered slightly better accuracy for the computation of relative energies and only afforded similar molecular geometries, when compared to the investigated molecular mechanics models.