Benchmarking the DFT methodology for assessing antioxidant-related properties: quercetin and edaravone as case studies.

The overall objective was to identify an accurate computational electronic method to virtually screen phenolic compounds through their antioxidant and free-radical scavenging activity. The impact of a key parameter of the density functional theory (DFT) approach was studied. Performances of the 21 most commonly used exchange-correlation functionals are thus detailed in the evaluation of the main energetic parameters related to the activities of two prototype antioxidants, namely quercetin and edaravone, is reported.

Proton transfer in oxidized adenosine self-aggregates.

The UV-vis and the IR spectra of derivativized adenosine in dichloromethane have been recorded during potentiostatic oxidation at an optically transparent thin layer electrode. Oxidized adenosine shows a broad Zundel like absorption extending from 2800 up to 3600 cm(-1), indicating that a proton transfer process is occurring. Theoretical computations predict that proton transfer is indeed favored in oxidized 1:1 self-association complexes and allow to assign all the observed transient spectroscopic signals.