Density Functional Theory (DFT) Study of Gas-phase O.C Bond Dissociation Energy of Models for o-TEMPO-Bz-C(O)-Peptide: A Model Study for Free Radical Initiated Peptide Sequencing

The bond dissociation energy (BDE) of the chemical bond between the carbon and oxygen atoms of a simple TEMPO-derivative is calculated by employing the density functional theory, the $2^{nd}$ order M${\phi}$ller-Plesset (MP2) perturbation theory, and complete basis set (CBS) methods. We find that BDE of the positive ion of the TEMPO-derivative is larger at least by 7 kcal/mol than that of the negative ion, which implies that the dissociation reaction rate of the positive ion should be slower than that of the negative ion. Such theoretical predictions are contrary to the results of our previous experiments (Anal. Chem. 2013, 85, 7044), in which the larger energy was required for negative o-TEMPO-Bz-C(O)-peptides to undergo the dissociation reactions than for the positive ones. By comparing our theoretical results to those of the experiments, we conclude that the dissociation reaction of o-TEMPO-Bz-C(O)-peptide should occur in a complicated fashion with a charge, either positive or negative, probably being located on the amino acid residues of the peptide.