Comprehensive Studies on the Free Energies of Solvation and Conformers of Glycine: A Theoretical Study

The stable conformers of glycine and the inter-conversions between them were studied theoretically at various levels of theory, B3LYP, MP2, CCSD and CCSD(T), in the gas phase and in aqueous solution. In aqueous solution, the structures examined by use of the conductor-like polarizable continuum model (CPCM) with various cavity models, UA0, UAHF, UAKS, UFF, BONDI and PAULING, and by use of a discrete/continuum solvation model with eight water clusters. The Gibbs free energy differences between the neutral (NE) and zwitterionic conformers (ZW), ${\Delta}G_{Z-N}[=G_{ZW}-G_{NE}]$, in aqueous solution were well reproduced by using the BONDI and PAULING cavity models. However the ${\Delta}G_{Z-N}$ values were underestimated in other cavity models, although the ZW conformers existed as stable species in aqueous solution. In the studies of a discrete/continuum solvation model with eight water clusters, gas phase results are still insufficient to reproduce the experimental findings. However the ${\Delta}G_{Z-N}$ values calculated by use of CPCM method in aqueous solution agreed well with the experimental ones.