On the calculations of the nuclear spin-spin coupling constants in small water clusters

The calculations of the nuclear spin-spin coupling constants were carried out for small water clusters (H2O)n, n = 2-6, 12, and 17, using density functional theory (DFT) and second-order polarization propagator method (SOPPA). A wide range of different standard and modified basis sets was tested to enable the choice of the possibly smallest and most flexible basis set. The changes in the oxygen-proton coupling constants upon the cluster formation between the nuclei involved in hydrogen bonding cover a range of ca. 13 Hz. The range of the calculated changes in intramolecular 1JOH couplings shows that the simple model of rigid water clusters seems to be sufficient to reproduce properly the sign and to estimate the magnitude of the gas-to-liquid shift. The sign of the complexation-induced changes in the intramolecular 2JHH coupling constant is different for molecules with a different coordination number. While the sign is positive for the molecules of the single donor-single acceptor (DA) and single donor-double acceptor (DAA) types, it is negative for the double donor-single acceptor (DDA) molecules. In the four-coordinated double donor-double acceptor (DDAA) molecules the sign of Δ2JHH varies. The hydrogen-bond transmitted intermolecular coupling constants are substantial: 1hJOH spans the range from 2.8 to 8.4 Hz while 2hJOO varies from −0.6 to 7.5 Hz. The average intermolecular 1hJOH coupling constant decays slowly with the H⋯O distance in the cyclic clusters n = 2-6. The average 2hJOO coupling decreases exponentially with the O⋯O separation for the cyclic clusters n = 2-6.