The knowledge on the conformations of amino acids is essential to understand the biochemical behaviors and physical properties of proteins. Comprehensive computational study is focused to understand the conformational landscape of three aromatic amino acids (AAAs): tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine. Three different density functionals (B3LYP, M06-2X and wB97X-D) were used with two basis sets of 6-31G(d) and 6-31+G(d,p) for geometry optimizations of the conformers of AAAs followed by the vibrational frequencies. The goal was to identify the right choice of density functional theory (DFT) level for conformational analysis of amino acids by comparing the computational data against the available experimental results. Calculated infrared (IR) frequency values indicated that wB97X-D/6-31+G(d,p) level is less favorable than other DFT levels in case of O-H and N-H stretching frequencies for the conformers of AAAs. The C=O stretching frequencies at different computational levels were in good agreement with the experimental results. Interactions of AAAs (tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine) and two cyclic amino acids (histidine and proline) individually with two finite-sized graphene sheets (C62H20 and C186H36) were explored using M06-2X/6-31G(d) level. Computational investigations of the binding of amino acids with graphene provide knowledge for designing of new graphene-based biological/biocompatible materials. Selected conformers for each amino acid with different orientations on the surface of graphene were examined. The purpose of computational study on graphene-amino acids interactions was to identify the preferred conformer of amino acid to bind on graphene as well as to find the influence of amino acid binding on the band gap of graphene. Different conformers of AAAs generally prefer parallel orientation through π-π interactions to bind with graphene. However, bent orientation is more preferred over parallel to bind on the surface of graphene in case of conformer having relative energy approximately equal to 5 kcal/mol for all three AAAs. Histidine generally exhibits higher binding affinity than proline to form complex with graphene. The binding energies in the aqueous medium were slightly lower than those obtained in the gas phase with some exceptions. The adsorption of amino acids did not affect the band gap of graphene.

In the presented work, first principle studies on electronic structure, stability, and magnetic properties of metal chalcogenide, CrnTem clusters have been carried out within a density functional framework using generalized gradient functions to incorporate the exchange and correlation effects. The energetic and electronic stability was investigated, and it was found that they are not always correlated as seen in the cluster Cr6Te8 which has smaller gap between its HOMO (Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital) and LUMO (Lowest Unoccupied Molecular Orbital) and a high electron affinity of 3.39 eV indicating lower electronic stability whereas higher fragmentation energy indicating energetic stability. The high electron affinity shows that the stability of Cr6Te8 cluster can be enhanced by adding charge donating ligands including PEt3 to form stable Cr6Te8(PEt3)6 clusters as seen in experiments. The other cluster of interest was Cr4Te6 in which energetic stability was accompanied with electronic inertness marked by its large HOMO-LUMO gap, non-magnetic ground state and high fragmentation energy.

Le domaine de la science des matériaux et plus particulièrement celui des matériaux hybrides suscite un intérêt croissant en raison de leurs nombreuses applications. Dans ce travail, deux stratégies synthétiques ont été considérées pour la synthèse de matériaux hybrides.Dans une première partie, nous nous sommes intéressés à une approche de synthèse directe en faisant réagir des ligands organiques de type oligophénylène avec de l’isopropoxyde de titane. Malheureusement, ces réactions ont conduit à la précipitation de solides amorphes ne permettant pas la caractérisation de ces produits.Dans une seconde partie, une approche de synthèse séquentielle qui consiste à synthétiser un objet précondensé pouvant s’auto-Assembler dans un second temps avec des ligands organiques a été proposée. Cette approche nous a conduits à synthétiser une nouvelle brique de formule Ti10O12(cat)8(pyr)8 et de trois dérivés de formules analogues Ti10O12(cat)8(pyr’)8 (pyr’ = pyridines substituées) obtenus par échange de ligands. Ces complexes, qui présentent des propriétés d’absorption dans le visible, ont été étudiés par spectroscopie d’absorption UV-Vis et grâce à des calculs théoriques. Puis nous avons utilisé le motif [Ti10O12(cat)8] pour générer des matériaux hybrides via des substitutions de ligands par des molécules polytopiques comme la 4,4’-Bipyridine et la poly(4-Vinylpyridine). / In the field of materials science, hybrid materials are of crucial importance due to their numerous applications. In this work, two strategies were considered to synthesize such hybrid materials.In a first part, we have tackled a one step synthetic approach by reacting resorcinol-Based oligophenylene organic ligands with titanium isopropoxide. Unfortunately, these reactions led to amorphous solids and no further structural information concerning these precipitates was obtained.In a second part, we have described a sequential approach which first concerns the preparation of pre-Ordered systems that are, in a second step, self-Assembled with organic linkers. Thus, our approach deals with the preparation of a new building block formulated as Ti10O12(cat)8(pyr)8 and three derivatives formulated as Ti10O12(cat)8(pyr’)8 (pyr’ = substituted pyridine) obtained by ligands exchange. These complexes exhibit visible light absorption properties that were studied through UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy and theoretical calculations. Then, the [Ti10O12(cat)8] motif was used to generate hybrid materials via ligands substitutions with polytopic ligands such as 4,4’-Bipyridine and poly(4-Vinylpyridine).