Stability of an Amide-Hydrogen Bond in an Apolar Environment

Abstract

Free-energy changes for dissociating an N-H ⋯ O=C bond to N-H (aqueous solution) and C=O (aqueous solution) are not significantly different if the initial amide-hydrogen bond is in an aqueous or an apolar solvent. Literature data lead to the same conclusion for O-H ⋯ O=C hydrogen bonds. Evidently the intrinsic interaction between donor and acceptor groups is not sensitive to the adjacent molecular environment. This is of interest in regard to unfolding of ordered protein conformations. © 1968, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.