Spectroscopic and structural elucidation of alanyl-containing dipeptides and their hydrogensquarates

The hydrogensquarates of alanyl-containing dipeptides glycylalanine (H-Gly-Ala-OH) and alanylalanine (H-Ala-Ala-OH) are characterized structurally by means of quantum chemical ab initio calculations, solid-state linear-dichroic infrared (IR-LD) spectroscopy, 1H and 13C NMR data, ESI-MS, HPLC-MS/MS, TGV and DSC methods. The structures consist in positive charged peptide moiety and negative hydrogensquarate anion (HSq−), stabilizing by strong intermolecular hydrogen bonds. The theoretical and IR-LD spectroscopic data are compared with corresponding ones of zwitterion dipeptides with a view to understanding the structural and conformational changes as well as the IR-spectroscopic ones as a result of hydrogensquarates formation. The strong overlapped and complicated IR-spectroscopic bands typical for hydrogensquarates in solid-state are assigned supporting with the presented vibrational analysis of the dipeptides and of the hydrogensqauarate anion.