Weighting methods
applied to systems with many conformers
have
been broadly employed to calculate thermodynamic properties, structural
characteristics, and populations. To better understand and test the
sensitivity of conventional weighting methods, the conformational
distributions of nicotine and its phosphorus-substituted derivatives
are investigated. The weighting schemes used for this are all based
on Boltzmann statistics. Classical Boltzmann factors based on the
electronic energy and the Gibbs free energy are calculated at different
quantum chemical levels of theory and compared to cluster weights
obtained by the quantum cluster equilibrium method. Furthermore, the
influence of the modified rigid-rotor–harmonic-oscillator (mRRHO)
approximation on the cluster weights is investigated. The substitution
of the nitrogen atom in the methylpyrrolidine ring by a phosphorus
atom results in more monomer conformers and clusters being populated.
The conformational distribution of the monomers remained stable at
different levels of theory and weighting methods. However, going to
dimers and trimers, we observe a significant influence of the level
of theory, weighting method, and mRRHO cutoff on the populations of
these clusters. We show that mRRHO cutoff values of 50 and 100 cm–1 yield similar results, which is why 50 cm–1 is recommended as a robust choice. Furthermore, we observe that
the global minimum for ΔE
0 and ΔG varies in a few cases and that the global minimum is not
always the dominantly occupied structure.