Interfragment Interactions Research Articles

Exploring the influence of metal cations on individual hydrogen bonds in Watson-Crick guanine-cytosine DNA base pair: An interacting quantum atoms analysis.

This study delves into the nature of individual hydrogen bonds and the relationship between metal cations and hydrogen bonding in the Watson-Crick guanine-cytosine (GC) base pair and its alkali and alkaline earth cation-containing complexes (Mn+-GC). The findings reveal how metal cations affect the nature and strength of individual hydrogen bonds. The study employs interacting quantum atoms (IQA) analysis to comprehensively understand three individual hydrogen bonds within the GC base pair and its cationic derivatives. These analyses unveil the nature and strength of hydrogen bonds and serve as a valuable reference for exploring the impact of cations (and other factors) on each hydrogen bond. All the H D interactions (H is hydrogen and D is oxygen or nitrogen) in the GC base pair are primarily electrostatic in nature, with the charge transfer component playing a substantial role. Introducing a metal cation perturbs all H D interatomic interactions in the system, weakening the nearest hydrogen bond to the cation (indicated by a) and reinforcing the other (b and c) interactions. Notably, the interaction a, the strongest H D interaction in the GC base pair, becomes the weakest in the Mn+-GC complexes. A broader perspective on the stability of GC and Mn+-GC complexes is provided through interacting quantum fragments (IQF) analysis. This approach considers all pairwise interactions between fragments and intra-fragment components, offering a complete view of the factors that stabilize and destabilize GC and Mn+-GC complexes. The IQF analysis underscores the importance of electron sharing, with the dominant contribution arising from the inter-fragment exchange-correlation term, in shaping and sustaining GC and Mn+-GC complexes. From this point of view, alkaline and alkaline earth cations have distinct effects, with alkaline cations generally weakening inter-fragment interactions and alkaline earth cations strengthening them. In addition, IQA and IQF calculations demonstrate that the hydration of cations led to small changes in the hydrogen bonding network. Finally, the IQA interatomic energies associated with the hydrogen bonds and also inter-fragment interaction energies provide robust indicators for characterizing hydrogen bonds and complex stability, showing a strong correlation with total interaction energies.

Synergistic adsorption of real phosphorus-containing domestic wastewater by in-situ growth of MgFe-layered double hydroxides co-doped with dual-functional lignosulfonate and La(OH)3 on wood-derived cellulose aerogel

Recovering and reusing of phosphorus (P) in wastewater is the optimal solution to address mineral shortages and eutrophication. Here, the layered double hydroxides (LDHs) grown on wood-derived aerogels (WAs) were prepared after screening the powdered precursors and named La/MgFe-LDH(LS)@WAs. The intricate pore structure and surface morphology of the WAs formed a fibrous network with ultra-low density, good strength and elasticity, allowing for uniform loading. The sample exhibited excellent adsorption capacity of 139.5 mg P/g at pH 4.0, and over 100.0 mg P/g within a wide pH range (3.0–8.0). Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models could effectively describe the dynamic adsorption process. Microscopic morphology and textural characteristics of the samples were characterized and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and theoretical calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) were used to study the interaction mechanisms. The coordination bonds and weak interactions between the active component LS and La(OH)3 with phosphates were characterized using interaction region indicator (IRI) and independent gradient model based on Hirshfeld molecular density partitioning (IGMH) methods. The atomic δg index mapped to the molecular structure vividly illustrated the maximum contribution of hydroxyl hydrogen to phosphate deprotonation oxygen in inter-fragment interactions on LS. Combining the formation of Me-O-P bonds characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the mechanism involves weak interactions (hydrogen bond) and chemical adsorption via ligand exchange. High removal efficiency was demonstrated in real wastewater. A method for waste reuse was also proposed. Plant cultivation experiments showed that La/MgFe-LDH(LS)@WAs could sustain wheat growth with slowly degrade and maintain high phosphate availability. The composite shows potential for water restoration, waste treatment, and value-added conversion in the production of controlled-release fertilizers.

Strong electron correlation from partition density functional theory

Standard approximations for the exchange–correlation functional in Kohn–Sham density functional theory (KS-DFT) typically lead to unacceptably large errors when applied to strongly correlated electronic systems. Partition-DFT (PDFT) is a formally exact reformulation of KS-DFT in which the ground-state density and energy of a system are obtained through self-consistent calculations on isolated fragments, with a partition energy representing inter-fragment interactions. Here, we show how typical errors of the local density approximation (LDA) in KS-DFT can be largely suppressed through a simple approximation, the multi-fragment overlap approximation (MFOA), for the partition energy in PDFT. Our method is illustrated on simple models of one-dimensional strongly correlated linear hydrogen chains. The MFOA, when used in combination with the LDA for the fragments, improves LDA dissociation curves of hydrogen chains and produces results that are comparable to those of spin-unrestricted LDA, but without breaking the spin symmetry. MFOA also induces a correction to the LDA electron density that partially captures the correct density dimerization in strongly correlated hydrogen chains. Moreover, with an additional correction to the partition energy that is specific to the one-dimensional LDA, the approximation is shown to produce dissociation energies in quantitative agreement with calculations based on the density matrix renormalization group method.

Beryllium bonding with noble gas atoms.

Quantum chemical calculations were carried out to investigate the nature of the bonding between a neutral Be3 ring and noble gas atom. Electronic structure calculation for these complexes was carried out at different computational levels in association with natural bond orbital, quantum theory of atoms in molecules, electron localization function, symmetry adapted perturbation theory, and molecular electrostatic potential surface analysis of Be3 complexes. The Be atoms in the Be3 moiety are chemically bonded to one another, with the BeBe bond dissociation energy being ~125 kJ mol-1 . The Be3 ring interacts with the noble gases through non-covalent interactions. The binding energies of the noble gas atoms with the Be3 ring increases with increase in their atomic number. The non-covalent interaction index, density overlap region indicator and independent gradient model analyses reveal the presence of non-covalent inter-fragment interactions in the complexes. Energy decomposition analysis reveals that dispersion plays the major role towards stabilizing these systems.

Scalable ab initio fragmentation methods based on a truncated expansion of the non-orthogonal molecular orbital model.

An alternative formulation of the non-orthogonal molecular orbital model of electronic structure theory is developed based on the expansion of the inverse molecular orbital overlap matrix. From this model, a hierarchy of ab initio fragment-based quantum chemistry methods, referred to as the nth-order expanded non-orthogonal molecular orbital methods, are developed using a minimal number of approximations, each of which is frequently employed in intermolecular interaction theory. These novel methods are compared to existing fragment-based quantum chemistry methods, and the implications of those significant differences, where they exist, between the methods developed herein and those already existing methods are examined in detail. Computational complexities and theoretical scaling are also analyzed and discussed. Future extensions for the hierarchy of methods, to account for additional intrafragment and interfragment interactions, are outlined.

A unified molecular‐wide and electron density based concept of chemical bonding

AbstractChemical bonding is at heart but, not being a quantum mechanical‐defined physical property of a system, is a subject of endless and often fruitless debates. Having so many and very different models of chemical bonding without knowing what this really is does not make it easier. There is, however, a general agreement that concentrating electron density (ED) in and delocalizing ED to internuclear region is always associated with minimizing system's energy and synonymous with chemical bonding. Fragment, atomic, localized, delocalized, and interatomic (FALDI)‐based density analysis involves entire space occupied by a molecule. From this molecular‐wide and density‐based methodology, it is possible to quantify localized and delocalized by all atoms ED at any coordinater, including critical points on Bader's molecular graphs. Each atom and atom‐pair contributions of delocalized density are quantified to reveal major players in the all‐atom and molecular‐wide chemical bonding. Partitioning the total ED to individual molecular or natural orbital's contributions using MO‐ED and MO‐DI methods, in conjunction with one dimensional (1D) cross section methodology, generates an orbital‐based molecular‐wide picture. This provides, besides reproducing results from FALDI, qualitative description of orbitals' nature that correlates well with classical understanding of bonding, nonbonding, and antibonding orbitals. A qualitative and quantitative impact of an immediate, distant, or molecular‐wide molecular environment on intra‐ and intermolecular di‐atomic, intra‐ and interfragment interactions is the domain of the Fragment Attributed Molecular System Energy Change (FAMSEC) family of methods. The FALDI, FAMSEC, MO‐ED, MO‐DI, and 1D cross section methodologies provide consistent and quantifiable physics‐based picture of molecular‐wide chemical bonding without invoking unicorns, such as a chemical bond.This article is categorized under:Electronic Structure Theory > Density Functional TheoryElectronic Structure Theory > Ab Initio Electronic Structure MethodsMolecular and Statistical Mechanics > Molecular Interactions

Understanding the aqueous chemistry of quinoline and the diazanaphthalenes: insight from DFT study

The inter-fragment interactions at various binding sites and the overall cluster stability of quinolone (QNOL), cinnoline (CNOL), quinazoline (QNAZ), and quinoxaline (QNOX) complexes with H2O were studied using the density functional theory (DFT) approach. The adsorption and H-bond binding energies, and the energy decomposition mechanism was considered to determine the relative stabilization status of the studied clusters. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), natural bonding orbitals (NBO) and charge decomposition were studied to expose the electronic distribution and interaction between fragments. The feasibility of formations of the various complexes were also studied by considering their thermodynamic properties. Results from adsorption studies confirmed the actual adsorption of H2O molecules on the various binding sites studied, with QNOX clusters exhibiting the best adsorptions. Charge decomposition analysis (CDA) revealed significant charge transfer from substrate to H2O fragment in most complexes, except in QNOL, CNOL and QNAZ clusters with H2O at binding position 4, where much charges are back-donated to substrate. The O---H inter-fragment bonds was discovered to be stronger than counterpart N---H bonds in the complexes, whilst polarity indices confirmed N---H as more polar covalent than O---H bonds. Thermodynamic considerations revealed that the formation process of all studied complexes are endothermic (+ve ΔHf) and non-spontaneous (+ve ΔGf).

An insight into quartz mineral interactions with kerogen in Green River oil shale

Green River oil shale is an organic-inorganic macromolecular composite system. Identifying the interactions between nanoscale organic kerogen and the inorganic mineral matrix in oil shale is an important step towards the design of technologies for economic and efficient recovery of shale oil. Quartz (SiO2), one of the tectosilicate minerals present in the Green River oil shale, is modeled to determine the interactions with the 3D kerogen model. The molecular dynamics simulation technique is used as the tool for modeling the interactions. Two models with different orientations of quartz mineral and kerogen are built to evaluate the role of mineral orientation on the molecular interactions. The models are simulated at room temperature and pressure (300 K and 1.013 bar). The kerogen-quartz interactions are evaluated with respect to eight kerogen fragments. We observe that different fragments within the 3D Kerogen molecules interact with the quartz depending upon the quartz orientation. In both cases, the unconstrained ammonium (NH4) ions from the adjacent layer of kerogen migrate to the quartz cavities. All the non-interacting kerogen fragments move away from quartz. The nonbonded interactions between kerogen and quartz are generally electrostatic. The presence of quartz mineral also affects the inter-fragment and inter-layer interactions within the kerogen molecule.

Intramolecular interactions in a target specific anti-tumor nanodrug: a theoretical study

Through this authoritative report, an application of fragment molecular orbital (FMO) method on a functionalized carbon nanotube (CNT) has been proposed. A targeted anti-tumor nanodrug, based on CNT that converges towards cancerous cells, has been innovated in this regard. The anticancer drug cisplatin and the target selector arginine-aspartate-glycine acid (RGD) have been attached via poly ethylene glycol (PEG) on CNT. This nanodrug has been divided into 12 fragments including CNT as one of them. General atomic molecular electronic structure system (GAMESS), an ab initio package, has been used for calculations. The contributions of various fragments have been discussed in terms of inter-fragment interactions. Results indicate that the CNT shares the important role in stabilizing the different parts of its derivatives. In addition, this report proves CNT as a fragment for FMO method.

Computational Analysis of Electron Transfer Kinetics for CO2 Reduction with Organic Photoredox Catalysts.

We present a fundamental description of the electron transfer (ET) step from substituted oligo(p-phenylene) (OPP) radical anions to CO2, with the larger goal of assessing the viability of underexplored, organic photoredox routes for utilization of anthropogenic CO2. This work varies the electrophilicity of para-substituents to OPP and probes the dependence of rate coefficients and interfragment interactions on the substituent Hammett parameter, σp, using constrained density functional theory (CDFT) and energy decomposition analysis (EDA). Large electronic couplings across substituents indicates an adiabatic electron transfer process for reactants at contact. As one might intuitively expect, free energy changes dominate trends in ET rate coefficients in most cases, and rates increase with substituent electron-donating ability. However, we observe an unexpected dip in rate coefficients for the most electron-donating groups, due to the combined impact of flattening free energies and a steep increase in reorganization energies. Our analysis shows that, with decreasing σp, flattening OPP LUMO levels lower the marginal increase in free energy. EDA reveals trends in electrostatics and charge transfer interactions between the catalyst and substrate fragments that influence free energy changes across substituents. Reorganization energies do not exhibit a direct dependence on σp and are largely similar across systems, with the exception of substituents containing lone pairs of electrons that exhibit significant deformation upon electron transfer. Our study therefore suggests that while a wide range of ET rates are observed, there is an upper limit to rate enhancements achievable by only tuning the substituent electrophilicity.

Complexity Reduction in Density Functional Theory Calculations of Large Systems: System Partitioning and Fragment Embedding.

With the development of low order scaling methods for performing Kohn-Sham density functional theory, it is now possible to perform fully quantum mechanical calculations of systems containing tens of thousands of atoms. However, with an increase in the size of the system treated comes an increase in complexity, making it challenging to analyze such large systems and determine the cause of emergent properties. To address this issue, in this paper, we present a systematic complexity reduction methodology which can break down large systems into their constituent fragments and quantify interfragment interactions. The methodology proposed here requires no a priori information or user interaction, allowing a single workflow to be automatically applied to any system of interest. We apply this approach to a variety of different systems and show how it allows for the derivation of new system descriptors, the design of QM/MM partitioning schemes, and the novel application of graph metrics to molecules and materials.

Theoretical study on noncovalent interaction of molecular tweezers by Zn(II) salphen-azo-crown ether triads receptor.

A novel zinc(II)-salphen-azo-benzo-15-crown-5 triad receptor was studied theoretically as ditopic recognition of hydrophobic amino acid. And density functional theory was used to investigate the Zn(II) salphen-crown ether complex (L1), complex L2 (L1 with the alkaline metal cation Na+), and the corresponding 1:1 sandwich complex (complex L with tryptophan). In this work, geometrical optimization was carried out using ωB97XD functional and def2-SVP basis set for all atoms. The absorption spectra and excited-states were calculated using time-dependent density functional theory and ωB97XD/def2-TZVP level. The absorption spectra data show some significantly shifts in the absorption band due to the present of Na+ or tryptophan. In addition, interfragment interactions between receptor L and tryptophan were analyzed in detail by Independent Gradient Model and topological properties of Bader's atoms in molecules theory, which is found to contribute to forming the metal-ligand bonds, intermolecular H-bond, and van der Waals interaction in 1:1 sandwich complex. The above results demonstrate that the L2 complex is a ditopic receptor to be utilized to recognize amphiphilic molecule - tryptophan.

Potential energy surfaces and nonadiabatic transitions in the asymptotic regions of ICN photodissociation to study the interference effects in the F1 and F2 spin-rotation levels of the CN products.

One of the most spectacular yet unsolved problems for the ICN -band photodissociation is the non-statistical spin-rotation F1 = N + 1/2 and F2 = N - 1/2 populations for each rotation level N of the CN fragment. The F1 /F2 population difference function f(N) exhibits strong N and λ dependences with an oscillatory behavior. Such details were found to critically depend on the number of open-channel product states, namely, whether both I (2 P3/2 ) and I (2 P1/2 ) are energetically available or not as the dissociation partner. First, in the asymptotic region, the exchange and dipole-quadrupole inter-fragment interactions were studied in detail. Then, as the diabatic basis, we took the appropriate symmetry adapted products of the electronic and rotational wavefunctions for the F1 and F2 levels at the dissociation limits. We found that the adiabatic Hamiltonian exhibits Rosen-Zener-Demkov type nonadiabatic transitions reflecting the switch between the exchange interaction and the small but finite spin-rotation interaction within CN at the asymptotic region. This non-crossing type nonadiabatic transition occurs with the probability 1/2, that is, at the diabatic limit through a sudden switch of the quantization axis for CN spin S from the dissociation axis to the CN rotation axis N. We have derived semiclassical formulae for f(N) and the orientation parameters with a two-state model including the 3A' and 4A' electronic states, and with a four-state model including the 3A' through 6A' electronic states. These two kinds of interfering models explain general features of the F1 and F2 level populations observed by Zare's group and Hall's group, respectively. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Metal–ligand bond directionality in the M2–NH3 complexes (M = Cu, Ag and Au)

ABSTRACTThe metal–ligand bonds in the M2–NH3 complexes (M = Au, Ag and Cu) are directional and the M–M–N angles tend to be linear. Natural energy decomposition analysis (NEDA) and localised molecular orbital energy decomposition analysis (LMOEDA) approaches indicate that the metal-ligand bonds in these complexes are mainly electrostatic in nature, however, the electrostatic is not the cause of the linearity of M–M–N arrangements. Instead, NEDA shows that the charge transfer and core repulsion are mainly responsible for the directionality of these bonds. In the LMOEDA point of view, the repulsion term is the main reason for the linearity of these complexes. Interacting quantum atoms (IQA) analysis shows that inter-atomic and inter-fragment interactions favour the nonlinear arrangements; however, these terms are compensated by the atomic self-energies, which stabilise the linear structure.

Computational investigation of non-covalent interactions in 1-butyl 3-methylimidazolium/bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide [bmim][Tf2N] in EMD and NEMD.

Non-covalent interactions (NCIs) play a crucial role in the behavior and properties of ionic liquids (ILs). These interactions are particularly important for non-equilibrium properties such as the change in viscosity due to shearing forces (shear viscosity). Therefore, a detailed understanding of these interactions can improve our understanding of these important classes of liquids. Here, we have employed quantum mechanical energy decomposition analysis (EDA) and NCI analysis to investigate a series of representative 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([bmim][Tf2N]) ion pairs extracted from classical equilibrium and non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. EDA based on symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) for the complete monomers, as well as fragment SAPT (FSAPT), for the functional fragments has been carried out. In general, the electrostatic component comprises ≈80% of the intermolecular interaction, and significant contributions from other components (induction and dispersion) are also observed, especially for interactions involving bifurcated hydrogen bonds. The FSAPT analysis suggests that caution is warranted when employing simplified assumptions for non-bonded interactions, e.g., focusing only on hydrogen bonds between functional fragments, since this view may not provide a complete picture of the complicated interactions between the ions. In non-equilibrium molecular dynamics, the total interaction energies of some fragments have a significant qualitative change as the shear rate increases. Our results indicate that the inter-fragment interactions play a fundamental role in the viscous behavior of ILs, suggesting that the exclusive use of geometric criteria to analyze inter-molecular interactions in these systems is not sufficient to investigate shear-thinning effects.

Molecules-in-molecules fragment-based method for the calculation of chiroptical spectra of large molecules: Vibrational circular dichroism and Raman optical activity spectra of alanine polypeptides.

The molecules-in-molecules (MIM) fragment-based method has recently been adapted to evaluate the chiroptical (vibrational circular dichroism [VCD] and Raman optical activity [ROA]) spectra of large molecules such as peptides. In the MIM-VCD and MIM-ROA methods, the relevant higher energy derivatives of the parent molecule are assembled from the corresponding derivatives of smaller fragment subsystems. In addition, the missing long-range interfragment interactions are accounted at a computationally less expensive level of theory (MIM2). In this work we employed the MIM-VCD and MIM-ROA fragment-based methods to explore the evolution of the chiroptical spectroscopic characteristics of 310 -helix, α-helix, β-hairpin, γ-turn, and β-extended conformers of gas phase polyalanine (chain length n=6-14). The different conformers of polyalanine show distinctive features in the MIM chiroptical spectra and the associated spectral intensities increase with evolution of system size. For a better understanding the site-specific effects on the vibrational spectra, isotopic substitutions were also performed employing the MIM method. An increasing redshift with the number of isotopically labeled 13 C=O functional groups in the peptide molecule was seen. For larger polypeptides, we implemented the two-step-MIM model to circumvent the high computational expense associated with the evaluation of chiroptical spectra at a high level of theory using large basis sets. The chiroptical spectra of α-(alanine)20 polypeptide obtained using the two-step-MIM model, including continuum solvation effects, show good agreement with the full calculations and experiment. This benchmark study suggests that the MIM-fragment approach can assist in predicting and interpreting chiroptical spectra of large polypeptides.

An energy decomposition analysis for intramolecular non-covalent interaction in solvated environment

In this work, the intra-EDA method, which is a recently developed energy decomposition analysis scheme for intramolecular non-covalent interaction is extended from gas phase to solvated environment. It is the first analysis scheme that performs analysis for intramolecular interaction in solution. By fragmentation scheme, a molecule is divided into intramolecular interacting fragments and environmental fragments via single bond homolysis breaking. The solvent effect is taken into account by implicit solvation model. Intramolecular interaction free energy is estimated as the separated treatment of inter-fragment interactions in dielectric environment. The analysis results highlight the importance of solvent effects to intramolecular non-covalent interaction.

Subsystem Analysis for the Fragment Molecular Orbital Method and Its Application to Protein-Ligand Binding in Solution.

A subsystem analysis is derived incorporating interfragment interactions into the fragment properties, such as energies or charges. The relative stabilities of three alanine isomers, the α-helix, the β-turn, and the extended form are studied and the differences in fragment properties are elucidated. The analysis is further elaborated for studies of binding energies. The binding of the Trp-cage protein (PDB: 1L2Y ) to two ligands is studied in detail. Binding energies defined for each fragment can be used as a convenient descriptor for analyzing contributions to binding in solution.

Self-consistent field for fragmented quantum mechanical model of large molecular systems.

Fragment-based linear scaling quantum chemistry methods are a promising tool for the accurate simulation of chemical and biomolecular systems. Because of the coupled inter-fragment electrostatic interactions, a dual-layer iterative scheme is often employed to compute the fragment electronic structure and the total energy. In the dual-layer scheme, the self-consistent field (SCF) of the electronic structure of a fragment must be solved first, then followed by the updating of the inter-fragment electrostatic interactions. The two steps are sequentially carried out and repeated; as such a significant total number of fragment SCF iterations is required to converge the total energy and becomes the computational bottleneck in many fragment quantum chemistry methods. To reduce the number of fragment SCF iterations and speed up the convergence of the total energy, we develop here a new SCF scheme in which the inter-fragment interactions can be updated concurrently without converging the fragment electronic structure. By constructing the global, block-wise Fock matrix and density matrix, we prove that the commutation between the two global matrices guarantees the commutation of the corresponding matrices in each fragment. Therefore, many highly efficient numerical techniques such as the direct inversion of the iterative subspace method can be employed to converge simultaneously the electronic structure of all fragments, reducing significantly the computational cost. Numerical examples for water clusters of different sizes suggest that the method shall be very useful in improving the scalability of fragment quantum chemistry methods.

On the Critical Effect of the Metal (Mo vs. W) on the [3+2] Cycloaddition Reaction of M3 S4 Clusters with Alkynes: Insights from Experiment and Theory.

Whereas the cluster [Mo3 S4 (acac)3 (py)3 ](+) ([1](+) , acac=acetylacetonate, py=pyridine) reacts with a variety of alkynes, the cluster [W3 S4 (acac)3 (py)3 ](+) ([2](+) ) remains unaffected under the same conditions. The reactions of cluster [1](+) show polyphasic kinetics, and in all cases clusters bearing a bridging dithiolene moiety are formed in the first step through the concerted [3+2] cycloaddition between the C≡C atoms of the alkyne and a Mo(μ-S)2 moiety of the cluster. A computational study has been conducted to analyze the effect of the metal on these concerted [3+2] cycloaddition reactions. The calculations suggest that the reactions of cluster [2](+) with alkynes feature ΔG(≠) values only slightly larger than its molybdenum analogue, however, the differences in the reaction free energies between both metal clusters and the same alkyne reach up to approximately 10 kcal mol(-1) , therefore indicating that the differences in the reactivity are essentially thermodynamic. The activation strain model (ASM) has been used to get more insights into the critical effect of the metal center in these cycloadditions, and the results reveal that the change in reactivity is entirely explained on the basis of the differences in the interaction energies Eint between the cluster and the alkyne. Further decomposition of the Eint values through the localized molecular orbital-energy decomposition analysis (LMO-EDA) indicates that substitution of the Mo atoms in cluster [1](+) by W induces changes in the electronic structure of the cluster that result in weaker intra- and inter-fragment orbital interactions.