Combined DFT, Monte Carlo and molecular docking studies of benzene-1,x-diol O,Oʹ-diacetates (x = 2, 3, 4)

Abstract

In this work, we report detailed computational studies of a series of isomeric compounds, namely benzene-1,2-diol O,Oʹ-diacetate (1), benzene-1,3-diol O,Oʹ-diacetate (2) and benzene-1,4-diol O,Oʹ-diacetate (3), using the DFT/B3LYP/6–311++G(d,p) basis set. The electronic and potential corrosion inhibition properties toward Fe and Cu of 1–3 were revealed. The Monte Carlo simulations were applied to reveal adsorption of the studied compounds on the Fe(110) and Cu(111) surfaces. It was established that all the studied compounds exhibit good molecule-to-metal electron charge transfer for both metals, of which compound 3, followed by 1, exhibit the best results. The Monte Carlo simulations predicted that compound 2 exhibits the lowest adsorption energy with the Fe(110) surface, while the same energy absolute value is about two times lower for the Cu(111) surface. This allowed to conclude that 2 is the most promising candidate among the series of the studied compounds for inhibiting corrosion on both Fe and Cu. Compounds 1–3 were probed in silico as potential inhibitors of a series of the SARS-CoV-2 proteins. The best activity was revealed against Nonstructural protein 3 (Nsp3_range 207–379-MES).