Hydration effects on the C[Triple Bond]N stretching mode frequencies of MeCN and MeSCN are investigated by carrying out ab initio calculations for a number of MeCN-water and MeSCN-water complexes with varying number of water molecules. It is found that the CN frequency shift induced by the hydrogen-bonding interactions with water molecules originate from two different ways to form hydrogen bonds with the nitrogen atom of the CN group. Considering the MeCN- and MeSCN-water cluster calculation results as databases, we first examined the validity of vibrational Stark effect relationship between the CN frequency and the electric field component parallel to the CN bond and found no strong correlation between the two. However, taking into account of additional electric field vector components is a simple way to generalize the vibrational Stark theory for the nitrile chromophore. Also, the electrostatic potential calculation method has been proposed and examined in detail. It turned out that the interactions of water molecules with nitrogen atom's lone pair orbital and with nitrile pi orbitals can be well described by the electrostatic potential calculation method. The present computational results will be of use to quantitatively simulate various linear and nonlinear vibrational spectra of nitrile compounds in solutions.

Beta-azidoalanine dipeptide 1 was synthesized, and its azido stretching vibration in H2O and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was studied by using Fourier transform (FT) IR spectroscopy. The dipole strength of the azido stretch mode is found to be about 19 and 5 times larger than those of the CN and SCN stretch modes, respectively, which have been used as local environmental IR sensors. The azido stretch band in H2O is blue-shifted by about 14 cm(-1) in comparison to that in DMSO, indicative of its sensitivity to the electrostatic environment. To test the utility of beta-azidoalanine as an IR probe of the local electrostatic environment in proteins, azidopeptide 4 was prepared by its incorporation into Abeta(16-22) peptide of the Alzheimer's disease amyloid beta-protein at position Ala21. The amide I IR spectrum of 4 in D2O suggests that the azidopeptide thus modified forms in-register beta-sheets in aggregates as observed for normal Abeta(16-22). The azido peak frequency of 4 in aggregates is almost identical to that in DMSO, indicating that the azido group is not exposed to water but to the hydrophobic environment. We believe that beta-azidoalanine will be used as an effective IR probe for providing site-specific information about the local electrostatic environments of proteins.

Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) disrupts the hydrogen-bond networks in water. The widespread use of DMSO as a cosolvent, along with its unusual attributes, have inspired numerous studies. Herein, infrared absorption spectroscopy of the S=O stretching mode combined with molecular dynamics and quantum chemistry models were used to directly quantify DMSO/water hydrogen-bond populations in binary mixtures. Singly H-bonded species are dominant at 10 mol %, due to strong DMSO-water interactions. We found an unexpected increase in non-hydrogen-bonded DMSO near the eutectic point (ca. 35 mol %) which also correlates with several abnormalities in the bulk solution properties. We find evidence for three distinct regimes: 1) strong DMSO-water interactions (<30 mol %), 2) ideal-solution-like (30-90 mol %), and 3) self-interaction, or aggregation, regime (>90 mol %). We propose a "step in" mechanism, which involves hydrogen bonding between water and the DMSO aggregate species.

A variety of spectroscopic probe molecules have been used to study the local electrostatic environment in proteins. Particularly, a few IR probes such as nitrile- and thiocyanate-derivatized amino acids were found to be quite useful not just because they are small but also because their IR absorption frequencies strongly depend on the strengths of hydrogen bonds with the surrounding protic solvent molecules. Recently, we experimentally demonstrated that azido-derivatized alanine is an excellent IR probe for studying structural change in protein in solution. The asymmetric stretching mode frequency of N(3)-group becomes blueshifted when it is dissolved in water. Such a blueshifting behavior upon hydrogen-bonding interaction with protic solvent molecules was commonly found in other IR probes containing a triple bond such as CN and SCN groups. In this paper, theoretical descriptions on the solvatochromic frequency shift and fluctuation of the azido stretch frequency are presented by carrying out ab initio calculations and both classical and quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical dynamics simulation studies for azidomethane and azidoalanine dipeptide dissolved in water. Two different methods developed here are based on the distributed multipole interaction models, and they are shown to be useful to describe site-specific hydrogen-bonding interaction-induced red- or blueshift of the azido stretch frequency. To test the validity of thus obtained interpolation formula, numerically simulated IR spectra of azidomethane and azidoalanine dipeptide in water are directly compared with experimental results. We anticipate that the present theoretical approaches will be of use in connecting experimentally measured azido stretch frequency to conformational change in protein containing this azido-derivatized alanine residue.