Nitrobenzenic explosives can have high energy density and low impact sensitivity. In this work, the density functional theory (DFT) charge density of 50 nitrobenzenic molecules was analyzed using the Distributed Multipole Analysis (DMA) method to investigate the impact sensitivity of their explosives. The DMA monopole, dipole and quadrupole electric multipoles localized on the atoms of a molecule provide a very detailed picture of the molecular charge density and have a clear chemical interpretation. The DMA multipoles of each molecule were used to develop models correlating molecular charge properties and impact sensitivity of nitrobenzenic explosives, which is quantified by the quantity h50. Three models previously applied to 17 nitroaromatic molecules (J. Phys. Chem. A 115, 9055, 2011) are now examined for a larger dataset of 50 molecules. Model 1 used the nitro group charge as a single parameter for h50 prediction, Model 2 additionally included the quadrupole values of the benzene ring atoms (a measure of charge delocalization) and Model 3 included the dipole moment (indicator of site polarization) of the nitro groups of each molecule, as well as the average C−NO2 bond distance, which quantifies bond strength. Two additional new models that include the quadrupole values of the nitro group were also proposed. The original three models (Models 1–3), as well as the new models (4‐5), applied to the set of 50 nitrobenzenic molecules, displayed good results even when compared with the previous work. Among the computed DMA electrical multipole values, two proved to be essential for developing a good model, as found before for the smaller set: the DMA quadrupole values of the ring atoms that quantify the degree of electronic delocalization in the ring and the total DMA charge (monopole) values of the explosophore nitro group.
COMPARISON BETWEEN ATOMIC CHARGE METHODS FOR MOLECULAR SYSTEMS: THE N-{N-(PTERIN-7-YL) CARBONYLGLYCYL}-L-TYROSINE (NNPT) MOLECULE. Selecting a method to compute partial atomic charges is not trivial because different methods usually provide different charge values and there is no consensus on the most useful approach. In this work, Mulliken, MBS, Chelp, Chelpg, MK, Hirshfeld, NPA, DMA and AIM methods were selected to compute atomic charges and electric dipole moment vector of N-{N-(Pterin-7-yl)carbonylglycyl}-L-tyrosine molecule, a ricin inhibitor which has different types of bonds and chemical environments. While MBS and DMA methods provided the most chemically consistent charges according to atomic electronegativity and electron resonance effects criteria, Chelp, Chelpg and MK had the worst performances. Atomic charges and dipole moment calculated by the Hirshfeld method had the smallest magnitudes, a well-known behavior. Despite the differences among atomic charges predicted by all methods, the direction of the dipole moment vector was essentially the same. Further charge calculations using different basis sets and quantum methods indicated that the dependency on this aspect was the highest for Mulliken and Chelp and the lowest for MBS, Hirshfeld and DMA methods. Thus, results point to MBS and DMA as the most suitable methods for computing chemically consistent atomic charges and dipole moment vectors of similar systems for different applications; e.g., molecular dynamics.
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