Coupling properties of imidazole dimer radical cation assisted by embedded water molecule: toward understanding of interaction character of hydrogen-bonded histidine residue side-chains.

Geometry optimizations are performed at the DFTB3LYP6-311+G* level. Four intriguing coupling modes, totally eight stable structures are found in the potential energy surfaces of the water-assisted coupling of imidazole dimer radical cation. In these isomers, the water molecules are embedded between two imidazole moieties, and the oxygen atom is tridentate or quadridentate, respectively. The distinct redshifts of the vibrational frequencies of the O-H...N and N-H...O type H bonds indicate the strong interaction of two imidazole rings of respective isomer. Inspection of the highest occupied molecular orbital predicts the alterations of the geometry structures on oxidation and reduction. The low barrier of the fragment rotation demonstrates that the isomerization processes by experiencing the distinct transition states are easy to fulfill, especially for those with O-H...N and C-H...O H bonds. Both the energy difference of the 0 degrees-cis and 180 degrees-trans orientation and the barriers of the fragment rotation are lowered by the water assisting. The range of the zero point vibrational energy correction indicates that the influence on the complexes with N-H...O and O-H...N H bonds (0.13-0.17 kcal/mol) is more significant than those with O-H...N and C-H...O H bonds (+/-0.03 kcal/mol). The dissociation energies of these isomers indicate that the charges transfer easily through water in the dissociation process and then are distributed mainly over the imidazole ring connecting with water molecule. The isomer with proton transfer between imidazole fragments is the most stable one.