A complete assignment of the vibrational spectra of sucrose in aqueous medium based on the SQM methodology and SCRF calculations.

In the present study, a complete assignment of the vibrational spectra of sucrose in aqueous medium was performed combining Pulay's Scaled Quantum Mechanics Force Field (SQMFF) methodology with self-consistent reaction field (SCRF) calculations. Aqueous saturated solutions of sucrose and solutions at different molar concentrations of sucrose in water were completely characterized by infrared, HATR, and Raman spectroscopies. In accordance with reported data of the literature for sucrose, the theoretical structures of sucrose penta and sucrose dihydrate were also optimized in gas and aqueous solution phases by using the density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The solvent effects for the three studied species were analyzed using the solvation PCM/SMD model and, then, their corresponding solvation energies were predicted. The presence of pure water, sucrose penta-hydrate, and sucrose dihydrate was confirmed by using theoretical calculations based on the hybrid B3LYP/6-31G(∗) method and the experimental vibrational spectra. The existence of both sucrose hydrate complexes in aqueous solution is evidenced in the IR and HATR spectra by means of the characteristic bands at 3388, 3337, 3132, 1648, 1375, 1241, 1163, 1141, 1001, 870, 851, 732, and 668cm(-1) while in the Raman spectrum, the groups of bands in the regions 3159-3053cm(-1), 2980, 2954, and 1749-1496cm(-1) characterize the vibration modes of those complexes. The inter and intra-molecular H bond formations in aqueous solution were studied by Natural Bond Orbital (NBO) and Atoms in Molecules theory (AIM) investigation.