Computational study of the interaction of indole-like molecules with water and hydrogen sulfide

The characteristics of the interaction between water and hydrogen sulfide with indole and a series of analogs obtained by substituting the NH group of indole by different heteroatoms have been studied by means of ab initio calculations. In all cases, minima were found corresponding to structures where water and hydrogen sulfide interact by means of X-H···π contacts. The interaction energies for all these π complexes are quite similar, spanning from -13.5 to -18.8 kJ/mol, and exhibiting the stability sequence NH > CH(2) ≈ PH > Se ≈ S > O, for both water and hydrogen sulfide. Though interaction energies are similar, hydrogen sulfide complexes are slightly favored over their water counterparts when interacting with the π cloud. σ-Type complexes were also considered for the systems studied, but only in the case of water complexes this kind of complexes is relevant. Only for complexes formed by water and indole, a significantly more stable σ-type complex was found with an interaction energy amounting to -23.6 kJ/mol. Oxygen and phosphorous derivatives also form σ-type complexes of similar stability as that observed for π ones. Despite the similar interaction energies exhibited by complexes with water and hydrogen sulfide, the nature of the interaction is very different. For π complexes with water the main contributions to the interaction energy are electrostatic and dispersive contributing with similar amounts, though slightly more from electrostatics. On the contrary, in hydrogen sulfide complexes dispersion is by far the main stabilizing contribution. For the σ-type complexes, the interaction is clearly dominated by the electrostatic contribution, especially in the indole-water complex.