Methods molecular mechanics calculations

The classical introduction to molecular mechanics calculations. The authors describe common components of force fields, parameterization methods, and molecular mechanics computational methods. Discusses th e application of molecular mechanics to molecules comm on in organic,and biochemistry. Several chapters deal w ith thermodynamic and chemical reaction calculations. 

The level of theory necessary for computing PES s depends on how those results are to be used. Molecular mechanics calculations are often used for examining possible conformers of a molecule. Semiempiricial calculations can give a qualitative picture of a reaction surface. Ah initio methods must often be used for quantitatively correct reaction surfaces. Note that size consistent methods must be used for the most accurate results. The specific recommendations given in Chapter 18 are equally applicable to PES calculations. 

For crystalline polymers, the bulk modulus can be obtained from band-structure calculations. Molecular mechanics calculations can also be used, provided that the crystal structure was optimized with the same method. 

Molecular mechanics methods have been used particularly for simulating surface-liquid interactions. Molecular mechanics calculations are called effective potential function calculations in the solid-state literature. Monte Carlo methods are useful for determining what orientation the solvent will take near a surface. Molecular dynamics can be used to model surface reactions and adsorption if the force held is parameterized correctly. 

PW91 (Perdew, Wang 1991) a gradient corrected DFT method QCI (quadratic conhguration interaction) a correlated ah initio method QMC (quantum Monte Carlo) an explicitly correlated ah initio method QM/MM a technique in which orbital-based calculations and molecular mechanics calculations are combined into one calculation QSAR (quantitative structure-activity relationship) a technique for computing chemical properties, particularly as applied to biological activity QSPR (quantitative structure-property relationship) a technique for computing chemical properties... 

Previous investigations might influence the choice of a molecular mechanics method. If molecular mechanics calculations of a particular compound or molecule type already exist, choose the same force field so you can make comparisons easily. 

This difference is shown in the next illustration which presents the qualitative form of a potential curve for a diatomic molecule for both a molecular mechanics method (like AMBER) or a semi-empirical method (like AMI). At large internuclear distances, the differences between the two methods are obvious. With AMI, the molecule properly dissociates into atoms, while the AMBERpoten-tial continues to rise. However, in explorations of the potential curve only around the minimum, results from the two methods might be rather similar. Indeed, it is quite possible that AMBER will give more accurate structural results than AMI. This is due to the closer link between experimental data and computed results of molecular mechanics calculations. 

HyperChem quantum mechanical calculations are ab initio and semi-empirical. Ab initio calculations use parameters (contracted basis functions) associated with shells, such as an s shell, sp shell, etc., or atomic numbers (atoms). Semi-empirical calculations use parameters associated with specific atomic numbers. The concept of atom types is not used in the conventional quantum mechanics methods. Semi-empirical quantum mechanics methods use a rigorous quantum mechanical formulation combined with the use of empirical parameters obtained from comparison with experiment. If parameters are available for the atoms of a given molecule, the ab initio and semi-empirical calculations have an a priori aspect when compared with a molecular mechanics calculation, letting... 

It is dangerous to draw too many conclusions from the numerical results of molecular mechanics calculations. In this case, we wanted only to show that the two likely conformations for the E and G-rings of PbTX-1 are roughly equal in energy and that it is plausible that they could both exist in solution at room temperature. It would be very useful to be able to estimate the energy of activation required for the conversions between conformations. Unfortunately, estimation of the energy barrier is beyond the realm of the empirical force field method for all but the simplest cases. 

Using molecular mechanics calculations to assess the three-dimensional shape of a molecule, various surface properties such as polarity and size can be calculated. The dynamic molecular surface properties can be determined from the (low energy) conformation(s) of the drug molecule obtained by molecular mechanics calculations of conformational preferences. The potential advantage of this method is that the calculated surface character-sitics determine numerous physicochemical properties of the molecules including lipophilicity, the energy of hydration and the hydrogen bond formation capacity [187-... 

The final step in the molecular-mechanics calculation of molecular conformation involves the minimization of the energy Approximations are involved whose importance is not always clear. Usually, all first derivatives with respect to the various internal coordinates are set equal to zero - although these coordinates are often not independent (see Section 10.6). Furthermore, the final conformation obtained depends on the assumed initial structure. Therefore, (he method must be applied with care and a certain amount of chemical intuition. In spite of these uncertainties the molecular mechanics method has been employed with considerable success, particularly in the conformational analysis of branched alkanes. For molecules containing hetero-atoms, it can be applied, but with somewhat less confidence. 

It is usually found that the conformation of the three chelate rings in [Co(en)3]3+ is such that each C-C vector lies approximately parallel (lei) with respect to the molecular C3 axis. This has been examined with a number of experimental and theoretical methods including NMR and IR,616 vibrational circular dichroism617 spectroscopy as well as molecular mechanics calculations.618... 

Molecular mechanics calculations have become a well established tool in the area of coordination chemistry, including the coordination chemistry of nickel375-379 where they are often applied for the analysis or the prediction of structures,380 the computation of isomer or conformer ratios and metal ion selectivities,381,382 and for simulating spectroscopic properties in combination with AOM calculations or by hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QMMM) methods.383,384 Details of the various approaches, e.g., the incorporation of d-electron stabilization energy... 

Geometric Optimization. The structure of the molecule as built by CHEMLAB (or a input from other methods) can be optimized through either a full force field molecular mechanics calculation (MMII) or with the semi-empirical molecular orbital methods MINDO-3 and MNDO. 

The reliability of molecular mechanics calculations hinges entirely on the validity and range of applicability of the force field. The parameterisation of these functions (the force field) represents the chemistry of the species involved. Many force fields have been developed and the one used in any application usually depends on the molecular mechanics package being used. The force field itself can be validated against experimental and ab initio results. Because of the relative speed of molecular mechanics calculations, it is possible to consider routine calculations of a large number of atoms, certainly tens of thousands, which makes the method amenable to calculations on polymers. To remove surface effects, calculations of bulk properties are normally carried out employing 3D periodic boundaries. In this way it is possible to perform calculations on both amorphous and crystalline systems. 

Murphy et al. [34,45] have parameterized and extensively tested a QM/MM approach utilizing the frozen orbital method at the HF/6-31G and B3LYP/6-31G levels for amino acid side chains. They parameterized the van der Waals parameters of the QM atoms and molecular mechanical bond, angle and torsion angle parameters (Eq. 3, Hqm/mm (bonded int.)) acting across the covalent QM/MM boundary. High-level QM calculations were used as a reference in the parameterization and the molecular mechanical calculations were performed with the OPLS-AA force... 

Enantiomers with a particular orientation were randomly generated by the Monte Carlo method on the surface of 23a and 23x defined by the particular van der Waals radius using the reported technique of blowing up the atomic radii.212 Molecular-mechanics calculations between the molecules were then performed step by step. The results of these calculations were evaluated with the averaged interaction energy. 

This computation involves of course all possible atom-atom interaction pairs—a relatively small population compared to the vast number of interorbital integrals that must be computed during MO calculations. As a consequence of these features, the molecular mechanics calculations far exceed in accuracy and speed the two other methods mentioned above. 

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