Hydrate effects on the conformations of ethylene imine oligomers (EI-x, x ¼ 1{8 mers) were examined using quantum chemical calculations. Models were constructed by locating a water molecule to each nitrogen atom in the structures optimized for non-hydrate oligomers. Hydrate ratio, h (h = H 2 O mol /N mol ), was set from 0 to 1. Six type conformations with repeated units of N-C, C-C and C-N bonds were examined. Conformational energies (E c ) were calculated as differences between energies of oligomers with water molecules and those of non-hydrogen and/or hydrogen bonding water molecules. Hydrate energies for each conformer (Á h , based on E c in non-hydrate state) were negative and linearly decreased with increase of h, and all conformers were stabilized by electrostatic effect with hydration. All (tg þ t) x conformers with h < 1, and the (ttt) x conformers over 3 mers with h ¼ 1, were the most stable. Each result corresponded to results observed for nonhydrated and hydrated linear PEI crystals, respectively, and seemed to be related with hydrogen bonding between water molecules. Lengths of conformers having gauche structure significantly decreased with increasing h. Such contractions by hydrations, however, were independent of gauche preference energy (ÁE c(g) ) of each conformer.KEY WORDS: Conformation / Poly(ethylene imine) / Oligomer / Hydrate Effect / Quantum Chemical Calculation / Poly(ethylene imine) (PEI) has unique properties because it possesses electron-releasing heteroatom (N) in the skeletal chain, similar to heteroatom (O) in poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO). Such properties, including specific affinity to substrate and solubility of inorganic salt, have been employed in the advancement of solid polymer electrolytes, 1 gene delivery polymers, 2 etc. These properties are often affected by conformational characteristics such as trans/gauche preferences, which depend on environmental factors such as temperature, solvent, etc. The conformational analyses of these polymers, therefore, are essential in the molecular design towards various applications.X-Ray diffraction (XRD) 3-5 and other analyses 6 have confirmed that the structure of a linear non-hydrated PEI crystal is a 5/1 double stranded helix, with a repeating tgt conformation for the N-C, C-C, and C-N bonds. In the hydrate state, the structure transforms to the planar zigzag ttt conformation. Unlike the PEO solutions, the trans-fractions of the C-C bonds of the PEI solutions increase with increase of permittivity (") of solvents, based on NMR analyses of N,N 0 -dimethylethylenediamine (di-MEDA) as a model of PEI. 7 The conformation of PEI, in this manner, specifically depends on environmental factors. Unfortunately, detailed understandings of these environmental effects have yet to be clarified because of the complexity in these effects.To complement the experimental observations in the conformational analyses of PEO or PEI, computational chemistry is employed. Pioneering works on PEO, involving a rotational isomeric state model (RIS), was reported by M...