Degree Name
MS (Master of Science)
Program
Chemistry
Date of Award
12-2021
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Scott J. Kirkby
Committee Members
Marina Roginskaya, David Close
Abstract
While the spin trapping properties of thiols have been investigated through EPR analysis and kinetics studies, few groups have studied these properties using strictly computational methods. In particular, α-lipoic acid (ALA) and its reduced form, dihydrolipoic acid (DHLA), one of the strongest endogenously produced antioxidants, show potential for being effective, naturally occurring spin traps for the trapping of reactive oxygen species. This research covers electronic structure calculations of ALA, DHLA, and their corresponding hydroxyl radical spin adducts, performed at the cc-pVDZ/B3LYP/DFT level of theory. The effects on DHLA introduced by other radicals such as ·OOH, ·OCH3, and ·OOCH3 are reported. Explicit solvation was carried out using open-source molecular packing software and was studied using MOPAC PM6 semi-empirical geometry optimizations. Complete Basis Set (CBS) limit extrapolations were performed using cc-pVXZ (X = D, T, Q) Dunning basis sets under the DFT/B3LYP level of theory, and results are compared to the literature.
Document Type
Thesis - embargo
Recommended Citation
Bonfield, Matthew, "Computational Analysis of the Spin Trapping Properties of Lipoic Acid and Dihydrolipoic Acid" (2021). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 4002. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/4002
Copyright
Copyright by the author.