Non-covalent interactions between epinephrine and nitroaromatic compounds: A DFT study

Here, we present a density functional theory (DFT) study of hydrogen bonding and pi-pi stacking interactions between epinephrine and different aromatic nitro-compounds in gas phase as well as in methanol solvent. Detail investigations of hydrogen bonding and pi-pi interactions are performed and confirmed on the basis of theoretical IR spectra, natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis, non-covalent interaction (NCI), chemical reactivity descriptors and electronic spectra. Among different functionals used for the calculation, the results obtained from.B97XD functional are found to be more suitable to describe the hydrogen bonding and pi-pi stacking phenomenon for our considered systems. Weakening of hydrogen bonding and pi-pi stacking interaction on solvent incorporation is observed. Electronic transition between different orbitals and transition probabilities of epinephrine and nitro-aromatic complexes are described using time dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) method. (c) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.