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

Copyright

Copyright by the author.

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