Effects of microsolvation on uracil and its radical anion: uracil(H2O)n (n = 1-5).

Microsolvation effects on the stabilities of uracil and its anion have been investigated by explicitly considering the structures of complexes of uracil with up to five water molecules at the B3LYPDZP++ level of theory. For all five systems, the global minimum of the neutral cluster has a different equilibrium geometry from that of the radical anion. Both the vertical detachment energy (VDE) and adiabatic electron affinity (AEA) of uracil are predicted to increase gradually with the number of hydrating molecules, qualitatively consistent with experimental results from a photodetachment-photoelectron spectroscopy study [J. Schiedt et al., Chem. Phys. 239, 511 (1998)]. The trend in the AEAs implies that while the conventional valence radical anion of uracil is only marginally bound in the gas phase, it will form a stable anion in aqueous solution. The gas-phase AEA of uracil (0.24 eV) was higher than that of thymine by 0.04 eV and this gap was not significantly affected by microsolvation. The largest AEA is that predicted for uracil(H2O)5, namely, 0.96 eV. The VDEs range from 0.76 to 1.78 eV.