An Application of the Polarizable Continnum Model for Obtaining Chalcones Magnetic Properties

Chalcones exhibit a wide variety of beneficial biological activities. In addition, these compounds include the prevention of diseases related to oxidative stress. The structural characterization of these molecules by means of analytical techniques can become a difficult task due to the complexity of some structures. However, cases of erroneously established natural product structure review are still found in the literature despite recent advances in spectroscopic techniques. Therefore, it is necessary to develop quantum calculation protocols that can aid in the correct structural ascertainment of these compounds. Thus, in this work, we tried to develop a parameterized protocol for calculations of chemical shift of carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance, in order to ensure a correct structural determination of polyphenols, with a focus on chalcones. For this, a series of molecules belonging to this class, with complex and varied structural skeletons, reliably elucidated in the literature, was selected and subjected to stochastic conformational searches using the Monte Carlo method and the Merk molecular force filed. The lower energy conformations of each molecule were selected for the geometry optimization step, performed at the mPW1PW91/6-31G(d) level. The chemical shifts of carbon-13 were calculated at the same level of theory, taking into account the population distribution of Boltzmann. The calculations were affected in both liquid phases, using the Polarizable Continuous Model as an implicit solvation model. The results show that the level of theory applied in the liquid phase allows a good reproduction of the experimental data. The application of the scaling factor allows the cancellation of systematic errors, which means that the values of scaled chemical shift are closer to the experimental ones. Thus, the parameterized protocol proved to be an important tool for the structural elucidation of polyphenols by calculations of carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance chemical shifts.