Over the past ten years, synthetic oligomers and the way that they fold in solution have been of great interest. We investigate synthetic oligomers comprising of benzene rings connected by peptide bonds, which can be designed to have medical functions. The torsions that occur around the backbone of these molecules control their shape, which in turn controls their biological function. Therefore, our current focus is on the torsions related to the backbone bonds and how the nature of benzene substituents influences these internal motions.

Presented here is a computational study of ortho-methoxy benzamide derivatives with side chains on the amide nitrogen systematically grown. The torsional profiles related to the backbone dihedral angles are obtained using ab initio calculations and subsequently applied in force field parameterization. In addition, we discuss the conformational distribution obtained from molecular dynamics simulations based on modified force field, for both the model compounds and related oligomers in aqueous solution. This approach helps us study the effects of side chain lengths and charge on the flexibility of the backbone, therefore on the conformational distribution of related synthetic oligomers.