The fundamental mechanism of organophosphate hydrolysis is the subject of a growing interest resulting from the need for safe disposal of phosphoroorganic pesticides. Herein, we present a detailed ab initio study of the gas-phase mechanisms of alkaline hydrolysis of P–O and P–S bonds in a number of organophosphorus pesticides, including paraoxon, methyl parathion, fenitrothion, demeton-S, acephate, phosalone, azinophos-ethyl, and malathion. Our main finding is that the incoming group conformation influences the mechanism of decomposition of organophosphate and organothiophosphate compounds. Depending on the orientation of the attacking nucleophile, hydrolysis reaction might follow either a multistep pathway characterized by the presence of a pentavalent intermediate or a one-step mechanism proceeding through a single transition state. Despite a widely accepted view of the phosphotriester P–O bonds being decomposed exclusively via a direct-displacement mechanism, the occurrence of alternative, qualitatively distinct reaction pathways was confirmed for alkaline hydrolysis of both P–O and P–S bonds. As the pesticides included in our quantum chemical analysis involve organophosphate, phosphorothioate, and phosphorodithioate compounds, the influence of oxygen to sulfur substitution on the structural and energetic characteristics of the hydrolysis pathway is also discussed.

Major components of the interaction energy that define several approximate levels starting from second order Möller-Plesset theory were studied for 58 stacked nucleic acid dimers. They included typical B-DNA and A-DNA structures, and selected published geometries. A survey of the various terms yields an unexpected correlation between the Pauli exchange and dispersion or correlation terms, which holds for each class of similar planar geometries and for various basis sets. The geometries that exhibit these correlations span a specific range of molecular overlaps when compared to a model benzene-pyridine stacked dimer. Also, the relationship between electrostatic interactions and MP2 stabilization energies reported earlier is confirmed and a prediction interval of practical relevance is estimated.

An improved method for theoretical determination of the charge redistribution, i.e., the intramolecular charge shifts, intermolecular charge transfer, and dipole moment enhancement upon complexation, is proposed. This approach consists of counterpoise correction of the basis set superposition error on calculated electron density redistribution in molecular complexes. Ab initio LCAO MO SCF calculations for HF⋅⋅⋅HNH2, H2O⋅⋅⋅HOH, H2O⋅⋅⋅HF, H3N⋅⋅⋅HF, H3N⋅⋅⋅LiF, CO⋅⋅⋅HCN, H2S⋅⋅⋅OCHNH2, H2NHCO⋅⋅⋅HSH, [Mg⋅⋅⋅OH]+ [HO⋅⋅⋅HOH]−, [Be(OH)(NH3)2]+ molecular complexes in different basis set have been performed leading to more consistent results in contrast to sometimes largely overestimated uncorrected values reported previously. In addition, the charge redistribution upon complex formation has been analyzed for some dimers in terms of atomic multipole expansion of electron density and difference molecular electrostatic potentials.