51V solid-state NMR and density functional theory studies of vanadium environments in V(V)O2 dipicolinic acid...

(51)V solid-state NMR and density functional theory (DFT) investigations are reported for a series of pentacoordinate dioxovanadium(V)-dipicolinate [V(V)O(2)-dipicolinate] and heptacoordinate aquahydroxylamidooxovanadium(V)-dipicolinate [V(V)O-dipicolinate] complexes. These compounds are of interest because of their potency as phosphatase inhibitors as well as their insulin enhancing properties and potential for the treatment of diabetes. Experimental solid-state NMR results show that the electric field gradient tensors in the V(V)O(2)-dipicolinate derivatives are affected significantly by substitution on the dipicolinate ring and range from 5.8 to 8.3 MHz. The chemical shift anisotropies show less dramatic variations with respect to the ligand changes and range between -550 and -600 ppm. To gain insights on the origins of the NMR parameters, DFT calculations were conducted for an extensive series of the V(V)O(2)- and V(V)O-dipicolinate complexes. To assess the level of theory required for the accurate calculation of the (51)V NMR parameters, different functionals, basis sets, and structural models were explored in the DFT study. It is shown that the original x-ray crystallographic geometries, including all counterions and solvation water molecules within 5 A of the vanadium, lead to the most accurate results. The choice of the functional and the basis set at a high level of theory has a relatively minor impact on the outcome of the chemical shift anisotropy calculations; however, the use of large basis sets is necessary for accurate calculations of the quadrupole coupling constants for several compounds of the V(V)O(2) series. These studies demonstrate that even though the vanadium compounds under investigations exhibit distorted trigonal bipyramidal coordination geometry, they have a "perfect" trigonal bipyramidal electronic environment. This observation could potentially explain why vanadate and vanadium(V) adducts are often recognized as potent transition state analogs.