Probing chiral solute-water hydrogen bonding networks by chirality transfer effects: a vibrational circular dichroism study of glycidol in water.

Vibrational absorption (VA) and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra of (S)-(-)-glycidol were measured in water with a concentration of 6.0M in the 1000-1750 cm(-1) region. Prominent and complex VCD spectral features were detected at the water bending vibrational region. Our experimental results show that water molecules can become optically active through hydrogen bonding interactions with glycidol molecules. To model the glycidol-water hydrogen bonding network in the solution, molecular dynamics simulations using the AMBER9 suite of programs were carried out. Altogether, 34 conformers of the small glycidol-(water)(N) clusters with N=1, 2, 3, and 4 were considered. Geometry optimizations, harmonic frequency calculations, and the VA and VCD intensity predictions of these small glycidol-water clusters were performed at the B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level of theory using the GAUSSIAN 03 program package. Strong cooperative hydrogen bonding effects were detected in the larger glycidol-(water)(N) clusters. The population weighted VA and VCD spectra of each N group of glycidol (water)(N=1,2,3,4) were used to produce the simulated VA and VCD spectra, which are in good agreement with the experimental VA and VCD spectra. The study shows that all these clusters make important contributions to the observed spectra and are the most important species in the aqueous solution with complicated equilibriums among them.