Molecular modeling, using both ab initio and semi-empirical methods has been undertaken for a series of dirhodium complexes in order to improve the understanding of the nature of the chemical bonding in this class of homogeneous catalysts. These complexes, with carboxylamidate and carboxylate ligands, are extremely functional metal catalysts used in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. The X-ray crystallography shows anomalies in the bond angles that have potential impact on understanding the catalysis. To resolve these issues, minimum energy structures of several examples (e.g. Rh2(NHCOCH3)4, Rh2(NHCOCH3)4NC, Rh2(CO2CH3)4, Rh2(CO2CH3)4NC, Rh2(CHO2)4, and Rh2(CHO2)4NC) were calculated using Hatree-Fock and Density Functional Theory/B3LYP with the LANL2DZ ECP (Rh), and cc-pVDZ (all other atoms) basis sets.

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.