It is shown that the total charge density is a valid source to confirm hydrogen bonding without invoking a reference charge density. A set of criteria are proposed based on the theory of "atoms in molecules" to establish hydrogen bonding, even for multiple interactions involving C-H-O hydrogen bonds. These criteria are applied to several van der Waals complexes. Finally a bifurcated intramolecular C-H-O hydrogen bond is predicted in the anti-AIDS drug AZT, which may highlight a crucial feature of the biological activity of a whole class of anti-AIDS drugs.

A new type of hydrogen bond, called a dihydrogen bond, has recently been introduced. In this bond a hydrogen is donated to another (hydridic) hydrogen. We apply a set of criteria developed in the context of the theory of "atoms in molecules" that were previously successfully used to study conventional hydrogen bonds. This method enables one to characterize the dihydrogen bond on the basis of the electron density only. We investigated a dimer structure of BH 3 NH 3 at the ab initio level which contains two dihydrogen bonds that differ in strength. The combination of a theoretical density with our hydrogen-bonding criteria turns out to be a valuable new and independent source of information complementary to techniques such as NMR, IR, and structural crystallography.

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Eighty years have elapsed since Lewis introduced the concept of an electron pair into chemistry where it has continued to play a dominant rôle to this day. The pairing of electrons is a consequence of the Pauli exclusion principle and is the result of the localization of one electron of each spin to a given region of space. It is the purpose of this paper to demonstrate that all manifestations of the spatial localization of an electron of a given spin are a result of corresponding localizations of its Fermi hole. The density of the Fermi hole determines how the charge of a given electron is spread out in the space occupied by a second same-spin electron, thereby excluding an amount of same-spin density equivalent to one electronic charge. The Fermi hole is an electron's doppelgängerit goes where the electron goes and vice versa:  if the hole is localized, so is the electron. The topologies of two fields have been shown to provide information about the spatial localization of electronic charge:  the negative of the Laplacian of the electron density, referred to here as L(r), and the electron localization function ELF or η(r). The measure provided by L(r) is empirical. It is based upon the remarkable correspondence exhibited by its topology with the number and arrangement of the localized electron domains assumed in the VSEPR model of molecular geometry. η(r) is based upon the local behavior of the same-spin probability, and it is shown that the picture of electron localization that its topology provides is a consequence of a corresponding localization of the Fermi hole density. This paper provides a complete determination and comparison of the topologies of L(r) and η(r) for molecules covering a wide spectrum of atomic interactions. The structures of the two fields are summarized and compared in terms of the characteristic polyhedra that their critical points define for a central atom interacting with a set of ligands. In general, the two fields are found to be homeomorphic in terms of the number and arrangement of electron localization domains that they define. The complementary information provided by the similarities in and differences between these two fields extends our understanding of the origin of electron pairing and its physical consequences.

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Molecular mechanics is the tool of choice for the modeling of systems that are so large or complex that it is impractical or impossible to model them by ab initio methods. For this reason there is a need for accurate potentials that are able to quickly reproduce ab initio quality results at the fraction of the cost. The interactions within force fields are represented by a number of functions. Some interactions are well understood and can be represented by simple mathematical functions while others are not so well understood and their functional form is represented in a simplistic manner or not even known. In the last 20 years there have been the first examples of a new design ethic, where novel and contemporary methods using machine learning, in particular, artificial neural networks, have been used to find the nature of the underlying functions of a force field. Here we appraise what has been achieved over this time and what requires further improvements, while offering some insight and guidance for the development of future force fields.

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We report calculations of the Raman and Raman optical activity (ROA) spectra of methyl-β-D-glucose utilizing density functional theory combined with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to provide an explicit hydration environment. This is the first report of such combination of MD simulations with ROA ab initio calculations. We achieve a significant improvement in accuracy over the more commonly used gas phase and polarizable continuum model (PCM) approaches, resulting in an excellent level of agreement with the experimental spectrum. Modeling the ROA spectra of carbohydrates has until now proven a notoriously difficult challenge due to their sensitivity to the effects of hydration on the molecular vibrations involving each of the chiral centers. The details of the ROA spectrum of methyl-β-D-glucose are found to be highly sensitive to solvation effects, and these are correctly predicted for the first time including those originating from the highly sensitive low frequency vibrational modes. This work shows that a thorough consideration of the role of water is pivotal for understanding the vibrational structure of carbohydrates and presents a new and powerful tool for characterizing carbohydrate structure and conformational dynamics in solution.