Conformational Stability of 3-aminopropionitrile: DFT and Ab initio Calculations

Many conformers of 3-aminopropionitrile are known. Due to the biomedical importance of 3-aminopropionitrile a full investigation of structural, vibrational, and other associated properties of all possible conformers was performed. The geometrical structures, relative stability, and vibrational frequencies of the gauche and trans 3-aminopropionitrile conformers have been studied using ab initio (CCSD/6-311+G(d,p)) and DFT (B3LYP and M06 functionals at 6-311+G(d,p) and aug-cc-pVDZ basis set) calculations. The conformational and vibrational studies of 3-aminopropionitrile molecule were presented here are in very good interpretation of the calculated data compared with very poor interpretation in previous studies. The results showed that the gauche 2 conformer is more stable by 0.19 kcal/mol than gauche 1, outlined as enthalpy change ΔH between the conformers, at CCSD/6-311+G(d,p). Additionally, the population analysis shows that the gauche conformers are more prevalent than the trans conformers in the gas phase, present at 72.8%, with gauche 2 being the dominating gauche conformer at 40.1%. These results are in good agreement with earlier experimental and theoretical conclusions. All minima conformers' thermodynamic characteristics have also been studied. The relevant bond lengths, bond angles, and dihedral angles were calculated at a different level of theory for all possible conformers. The geometrical outcomes of the conformers agree very well with the previous experimental results. Electrostatic potential surface (ESP) has been used to interpret the structure-activity relationship. The atomic charges are examined, together with the energy difference between HOMO (Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital) and LUMO (Lowest Unoccupied Molecular Orbital). Additionally, the HOMO-LUMO energy gap and other relevant molecular properties are computed. The most stable conformers' stabilization energy has been determined by the Natural Bond Orbital (NBO) analysis.