Local Structure Study of Liquid Phase Ethylene Glycol and 1,3-propanediol through Density Functional Theory

Using density functional Theory, we studied local structure of liquid ethylene glycol and 1,3-propanediol. For both liquid, making intramolecular hydrogen bonding is not preferred, because relative energy between with and without intramolecular hydrogen bond is only -1.95kcal/mol, which is far less than intermolecular hydrogen bonding energy, about -7.5kcal/mol. Also, hydrogen bond induce polarization of hydroxyl group and make $2^{nd}$ hydrogen bond more stronger. This effect was small in intramolecular hydrogen bond of ethylene glycol. When considering energy per hydrogen bond, making only one intermolecular hydrogen bond for ethylene glycol pair is energetically favored, while two intermolecular hydrogen bond can be formed in 1,3-propanediol pair.