Enantiomerization of Axially Chiral Biphenyls: Polarizable MD Simulations in Water and Butylmethylether

In this study, we investigate the influence of chiral and achiral cations on the enantiomerization of biphenylic anions in <i>n</i>-butylmethylether and water. In addition to the impact of the cations and solvent molecules on the free energy profile of rotation, we also explore if chiral...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Veronika Zeindlhofer, Phillip Hudson, Ádám Márk Pálvölgyi, Matthias Welsch, Mazin Almarashi, H. Lee Woodcock, Bernard Brooks, Katharina Bica-Schröder, Christian Schröder
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-08-01
Series:International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/17/6222
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Summary:In this study, we investigate the influence of chiral and achiral cations on the enantiomerization of biphenylic anions in <i>n</i>-butylmethylether and water. In addition to the impact of the cations and solvent molecules on the free energy profile of rotation, we also explore if chirality transfer between a chiral cation and the biphenylic anion is possible, i.e., if pairing with a chiral cation can energetically favour one conformer of the anion via diastereomeric complex formation. The quantum-mechanical calculations are accompanied by polarizable MD simulations using umbrella sampling to study the impact of solvents of different polarity in more detail. We also discuss how accurate polarizable force fields for biphenylic anions can be constructed from quantum-mechanical reference data.
ISSN:1661-6596
1422-0067