HEAT OF HYDRATION OF DIETHYLSULFONE BY QUANTUM CHEMICAL CALCULATION

The quantum chemical study of the hydration of diethyl sulfone was performed by using Gaussian 09 software package. The conformational analysis of the isolated molecule of diethyl sulfone is performed by the restricted Hartree-Fock (RHF) and the density functional theory (DFT/B3PW91) methods with 6-311++G(d,p) extended basis set. The analysis of the potential energy surface revealed the existence of four stable conformers of diethyl sulfone with different degrees of degeneracy. The nature of stationary points on the potential energy surface is verified by the complete gas phase optimization and the vibrational analysis. The global minimum is the conformer with two (CCSC) dihedral angles equal 180°. The fractional population distribution of different conformers is determined by Boltzmann distribution. The average energy of the diethyl sulfone molecule in vacuum is calculated. To account the effect of solvent the self-consistent reaction field (SCRF) method, particularly, solvent model based on electron density (SMD), was employed. It is shown, that solvent affects on the relative population of conformers. The thermodynamic parameters, in particular enthalpy, for the conformers of diethyl sulfone are determined both in the gas phase and in the aqueous solution. The average energy of diethyl sulfone in water is calculated. It is shown, that although the dissolution of crystalline diethyl sulfone in water is an endothermic process, the hydration of diethyl sulfone molecules occurs with the release of heat. The heat of dissolution of diethyl sulfone calculated by the density functional theory is consistent with the experimental data.