DNA Nucleosides and Their Radical Anions: Molecular Structures and Electron Affinities

The deoxyribonucleosides have been studied to determine the properties of combinations of 2-deoxyribose with each of the isolated DNA bases for both neutral and anionic species. We have used a carefully calibrated theoretical method [Chem. Rev. 2002, 102, 231], employing the B3LYP hybrid Hartree−Fock/DFT functional with the DZP++ basis set. Predictions are made of the geometric parameters, adiabatic electron affinities, charge distributions based on natural population analysis, and decomposition enthalpy for the neutral and anionic forms of the four 2‘-deoxyribonucleosides in DNA:  2‘-deoxyriboadenosine (dA), 2‘-deoxyribocytidine (dC), 2‘-deoxyriboguanosine (dG), and 2‘-deoxyribothymidine (dT). Geometric changes in the anions show that the glycosidic bond exhibits little change with excess charge for the guanosine but significant shortening for the adenosine and for the pyrimidines. The zero-point corrected adiabatic electron affinities in eV for each of the 2‘-deoxyribonucleosides are as follows:  0.06, ...