Self-assembly of melamine-cyanuric acid (MC) leads to urinary tract calculi and renal failure. The hydration effects on molecular geometry, the IR spectra, the frontier molecular orbital, the energy barrier of proton transfer (PT), as well as the stability of MC were explored by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The intramolecular PT breaks the big π-conjugated ring of melamine or converts the p-π conjugation (:N-C'=O) to π-π conjugation (O=C-N=C') of cyanuric acid. The intermolecular PT varies the coupling between melamine and cyanuric acid from pure hydrogen bonds (Na…HNd and NH…O) to the cooperation of cation…anion electrostatic interaction (NaH(+)…Nd (-)) and two NH…O hydrogen bonds. Distinct IR spectra shifts occur for Na…HNd stretching mode upon PT, i.e., blue-shift upon intramolecular PT and red-shift upon intermolecular PT. It is expected that the PT would inhibit the generation of rosette-like structure or one-dimensional tape conformer for the MC complexes. Hydration obviously effects the local geometric structure around the water binding site, as well as the IR spectra of NH…O and N…HN hydrogen bonds. Hydration decreases the intramolecular PT barrier from ~45 kcal mol(-1) in anhydrous complex to ~11.5 kcal mol(-1) in trihydrated clusters. While, the hydration effects on intermolecular PT barrier is slight. The relative stability of MC varies slightly by hydration due to the strong hydrogen bond interaction between melamine and cyanuric acid fragments. Graphical Abstract Hydration effect on proton transfer in melamine-cyanuric acid complex.
Keywords: Energy barrier; IR spectra; Melamine-cyanuric acid; Proton transfer; Stability.