Quantitative prediction of electronic absorption spectra of copper(II)–bioligand systems: Validation and applications

The visible region of the electronic absorption spectra of Cu(II) complexes was studied by time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT). The performance of twelve functionals in the prediction of absorption maxima (λmax) was tested on eleven compounds with different geometry, donors and charge. The ranking of the functionals for λmax was determined in terms of mean absolute percent deviation (MAPD) and standard deviation (SD) and it is as follows: BHandHLYP > M06 ≫ CAM-B3LYP ≫ MPW1PW91 ~ B1LYP ~ BLYP > HSE06 ~ B3LYP > B3P86 ~ ω-B97x-D ≫ TPSSh ≫ M06-2X (MAPD) and BHandHLYP > M06 ~ HSE06 > ω-B97x-D ~ CAM-B3LYP ~ MPW1PW91 > B1LYP ~ B3LYP > B3P86 > BLYP ≫ TPSSh ≫ M06-2X (SD). With BHandHLYP functional the MAPD is 3.1% and SD is 2.3%, while with M06 the MAPD is 3.7% and SD is 3.7%. The protocol validated in the first step of the study was applied to: i) calculate the number of transitions in the spectra and relate them to the geometry of Cu(II) species; ii) determine the coordination of axial water(s); iii) predict the electronic spectra of the systems where Cu(II) is bound to human serum albumin (HSA) and to the regions 94–97 and 108–112 of prion protein (PrP). The results indicate that the proposed computational protocol allows a successful prediction of the electronic spectra of Cu(II) species and to relate an experimental spectrum to a specific structure.