Electronic structure and driving forces in α-cyclodextrin:butylparaben inclusion complexes

We investigate the geometry and electronic structure for complexes of α-cyclodextrin with butylparaben using DFT and Hartree-Fock calculations. The effect of solvent is explicitly taken into account. A Morokuma-Kiatura analysis of the bond energy is performed. We emphasize the role of the water, by pointing out the changes in the solvent's electronic structure for different docking geometries.