Solvent effects on chiroptical properties and spectroscopies can be huge, and affect not only the absolute value but the sign of molecular chiroptical responses. Therefore, the definition of reliable theoretical models and computational protocols to calculate chiroptical responses and assist the assignment of the chiral absolute configuration cannot overlook the effects of the surrounding environment. Continuum solvation methodologies are successful in case of weakly interacting solute-solvent couples, whereas in case of strongly interacting systems, such as those dominated by explicit hydrogen bonding interaction, a change of strategy is required to gain a reliable modeling.In this review, a recently developed integrated Quantum-Mechanical/Polarizable molecular mechanics (MM)/polarizable continuum model (PCM) method is discussed, which combines a fluctuating charge approach to the MM polarization with the PCM. Its theoretical fundamentals, and issues related to the calculation of chiroptical responses are summarized, and the application to few representative test cases in aqueous solution is discussed.aqueous solutions, chirality, polarizable embedding, solvent effects, quantum mechanical/molecular mechanics
| I N T R O D U C T I O NThe calculation of chiroptical properties and chiral spectra by means of Quantum-Mechanical (QM) methods [1][2][3][4][5] is a mature research field.Many theoretical developments have been reported in the literature, focusing on the different aspects (accuracy in the description of the molecular Hamiltonian, choice of the basis set, inclusion of environmental effects) [3,[6][7][8][9] which may contribute to reach an accurate description of chirality. The definition of accurate protocols is nowadays accompanied by several applications, which demonstrate that a significant level of accuracy is accessible, so that QM calculations are universally accepted as a powerful methodology to assist the determination of the molecular absolute configuration.[10]In case of standard (non-chiral) spectroscopies, the most relevant information which is extracted from spectra is mainly related to peak positions (energies), whereas peak intensities play a secondary role. This is reflected in the computational methodologies which have been developed so far, which are mainly interested in getting an accurate reproduction of peak positions (infrared/Raman wavenumbers, UV-Vis transition energies, NMR chemical shieldings, etc.), reserving instead much less attention to spectral intensities. [11][12][13] In case of chiroptical properties/spectroscopies, an opposite situation occurs, in fact not only the absolute value but also especially the sign of the spectroscopic response is the most relevant information taken from the spectra. This feature makes chiroptical properties among the most challenging for theoretical models, and the difficulties in their accurate modeling are further increased by that fact that they are formally mixed electricmagnetic properties, where the effects of both the fields are ...