Extending the semi-empirical PM6 method for carbon oxyacid pKa prediction to sulfonic acids: Application towards congener-specific estimates for the environmentally and toxicologically relevant C1 through C8 perfluoroalkyl derivatives

Abstract

A positive bias in the semi-empirical PM6 method for estimating pKa values of sulfonic acids was corrected by a correlation developed between non-adjusted PM6 pKa values and the corresponding experimentally obtained/estimated acidity constants for a range of representative alkyl, aryl, and halogen substituted sulfonic acids. Application of this correction to PM6 values allows for extension of this computational method to a new acid functional group