Structural,magnetic, and vibrational properties of stoichiometric clusters of CrN

We performed density‐functional‐theoretic calculations to investigate the structural, magnetic and vibrational properties of the stoichiometric clusters (CrN)_n ( ). We show that the building block of the ground‐state structures of these clusters is a square CrNCrN unit; the only exception with n > 2 occurs for (CrN)₃, but this cluster has an isomer not very far in energy from the ground state consisting of a pair of CrNCrN squares sharing a CrN bond. In the smaller CrN, (CrN)₂, and (CrN)₃ clusters the magnetic moments of the N atoms are non‐negligible and antiparallel to those of the Cr atoms, but for the larger species (CrN)₄, (CrN)₅, (CrN)₆, and (CrN)₉ the cluster magnetic moments are almost entirely due to the Cr atoms. Lack of imaginary vibrational frequencies in the predicted ground‐state structures of (CrN)_n ( ) confirms that they are mechanically stable equilibrium states. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

DFT studies on hydrogen‐bonding,Stacking, and XH···π‐Bonded systems in presence of external electric field

Effect of external electric field on interaction energy as well as stability of the hydrogen‐bonding, stacking, and O? H π‐bonded systems are analyzed in the light of density functional theory (DFT) and conceptual DFT. Interaction energy and stability measured in terms of global hardness and highest occupied molecular orbital energy of the considered systems are observed to be sensitive toward the strength and direction of the applied external electric field. The curvature of the potential energy surfaces gets changed in presence of an external electric field. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Emerging polymorphism in nanostructured TiO2: Quantum chemical comparison of anatase,rutile, and brookite clusters

Density functional theory (DFT) and time‐dependent DFT calculations have been performed on a set of 34 titanium dioxide clusters ((TiO2)_n with n ≤ 125) to investigate structural and electronic properties of nanostructured TiO₂ (nano‐TiO₂) materials. The investigated clusters include models of the three low‐energy polymorphic forms of TiO₂ anatase, rutile, and brookite. A systematic comparison of clusters of increasing size show clear trends for emerging bulk properties in the investigated systems as the surface‐to‐bulk ratio changes from small clusters dominated by undercoordinated surface atoms to more realistic model nanocrystals with significant bulk components. Differences and similarities in terms of atomic coordination, structural stability, and electronic properties for the three different polymorphic forms of nano‐TiO₂ are discussed. The calculations provide evidence for emerging polymorphism with increasing cluster sizes so that the different TiO₂ forms can be clearly distinguished based on structural characteristics associated with the local bonding environment of the constituent atoms. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Efficient simulation of large materials clusters using the jaguar quantum chemistry program: Parallelization and wavefunction initialization

An outline of the improvements to the pseudospectral electronic structure program Jaguar is presented, showing efficient and robust performance of hybrid‐DFT calculations for large systems with thousands of basis functions, focusing on materials applications. The improvements include re‐engineered parallelization, the design of a fragment‐based initial guess generation method, and the validation of small eigenvalue cutoff values. An OpenMP/MPI hybrid parallelization has been implemented for the pseudospectral algorithm, which extends Jaguar's scalability to up to 256 cores in tests of TiO₂ clusters with 1295‐4961 basis functions. In the largest test case, the code delivers 84.4× speedup for 128 cores in total calculation time. In addition, a fragment‐based initial guess method has been constructed for large systems containing many transition metals, where the conventional (atomic) approach often fails. Overall, Jaguar is now capable of efficiently and robustly performing hybrid‐DFT geometrical optimizations for large systems with more than 600 atoms in reasonable runtimes. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Terbium Crown-Ether Complex as a Stable Photoprobe

Terbium ion-4'carboxybenzo-18crown-6-ether complex (TbCCE) photoprobe is a sensitive and stable luminescent photoprobe used to detect low (9.4 x10⁻⁹ mol L⁻¹) concentrations of nalbuphine (NAL) in serum and pharmaceutical formulations. Here we discuss molecular modeling of the interacting species using DFT and TD-DFT. The results reveal strong binding energy of TbCCE (−153.36 kJ/mol) and explain the results of Stern-Volmer bimolecular quenching analysis due to the presence of NAL in the proximity (at 2.403 Å apart from Tb ion) of the emissive TbCCE. Ab Initio molecular dynamic (AIMD) simulations are used to explain the dynamical changes of TbCCE molecular kinetic energy in its S₁ state induced by collision with NAL. The AIMD simulates collisions between interacting molecules, which are reflected in the observed quenching of the photoprobe. Kinetic energy changes during molecular motions in the S₁ state of TbCCE in presence of NAL indicate energy transfer process leading to quenching starting at 57 fs at NAL-TbCCE distance is ~ 1.6 Å. The excited state AIMD simulations carried out in this work suggest a new avenue for future research on luminescence quenching.     

Mechanisms for H2O decomposition on the Si(111)‐7 × 7 surface: A DFT cluster model study

The mechanisms for the complete decomposition of water molecules on the Si (111)‐7 × 7 surface were investigated theoretically. The reaction pathways for dissociation of four water molecules over the adatom and rest atom sites were calculated using the density functional theory (DFT) in conjunction with the B3LYP functional. The calculated results demonstrated that the initial O? H bond dissociation from the first H₂O to form the adsorbed OH species is more preferential on the adatom site (Si_a) than the rest atom site (Si_r) of Si (111)‐7 × 7. Four water molecules dissociate successively over the adatom site, backbonds of adatoms which are saturated by OH species can reasonably be the place of insertion of oxygen atoms, yielding a tetrahedral SiO₄ structure with one on top and three inserted oxygen atoms. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2010     

DFT performance for the hole transfer parameters in DNA π stacks

Recently, we showed that unoccupied Kohn‐Sham (KS) orbitals stemming from DFT calculations of a neutral system can be used to derive accurate estimates of the free energy and electronic couplings for excess electron transfer in DNA (Félix and Voityuk, J Phys Chem A 2008, 112, 9043). In this article, we consider the propagation of radical cation states (hole transfer) through DNA π‐stacks and compare the performance of different exchange‐correlation functionals to estimate the hole transfer (HT) parameters. Two different approaches are used: (1) calculations that use occupied KS orbitals of neutral π stacks of nucleobases, and (2) the time‐dependent DFT method which is applied to the radical cation states of these stacks. Comparison of the calculated parameters with the reference data suggests that the best results are provided by the KS scheme with hybrid functionals (B3LYP, PBE0, and BH&HLYP). The TD DFT approach gives significantly less accurate values of the HT parameters. In agreement with high‐level ab initio results, the KS scheme predicts that the hole in π stacks is confined to a single nucleobase; in contrast, the spin‐unrestricted DFT method considerably overestimates the hole delocalization in the radical cations. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2011     

Syntheses,Structures, and Properties of Oxovanadium(V) Complexes with Ketone and Ketolate Ligands

VOCl₃ and Spiro(adamantan‐2, 2′‐homoadamantan‐3‐one) form a stable 1 : 1 complex, which has been isolated and characterised. A X‐ray structure analysis reveals a close V=O···H‐C contact supporting the presence of an analogous interaction leading to C‐H activation in the corresponding CrO₂Cl₂ complex. For both systems such geometrical arrangements are predicted by means of DFT calculations. The reaction of Spiro(adamantan‐2, 2′‐homoadamantan‐3‐one‐4‐olate), L² , with VOCl₃ leads to a complex [ L² ₂VOCl], which can be converted to the corresponding triflate [ L² ₂VO(O₃SCF₃)] via treatment with AgO₃SCF₃. The latter is a mononuclear oxovanadium(V) complex with a bulky ligand sphere where one coordination site is accessible (as the triflate ligand is quite loosely bound), and as it is furthermore soluble in organic solvents, it seems an interesting complex to start from in future experiments.     

What are the spectroscopic properties of HFC‐32? Answers from DFT

Although coupled cluster theory coupled to large basis sets can reach impressive accuracies for thermochemical and spectroscopic properties, it is still limited to small/medium sized molecules. Density functional theory (DFT) represents the working option for systems composed of hundreds to thousands heavy atoms. In this context, investigations are required aimed at characterizing the performances of the different density functionals (DF). This work focuses on the study of DFT performances in the prediction of spectroscopic properties, with particular attention to the vibrational problem, by focusing on the CH₂F₂ molecule as a test case. An extensive and systematic investigation is performed on several DFT model chemistries by testing their predictions of molecular constants and vibrational frequencies and intensities against CCSD(T)/aug‐cc‐pCVQZ data. B3LYP, B3PW91, B97‐1, PBE0, TPSSh, M05, M05‐2X, and B2PLYP DFs are used in conjunction with a variety of basis sets. Anharmonic frequencies are derived from the VPT2 treatment of anharmonic‐ and hybrid CCSD(T)/DFT‐force fields. A software for VPT2 computations is also presented. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Analytical gradients for subsystem density functional theory within the slater‐function‐based amsterdam density functional program

We present a new implementation of analytical gradients for subsystem density‐functional theory (sDFT) and frozen‐density embedding (FDE) into the Amsterdam Density Functional program (ADF). The underlying theory and necessary expressions for the implementation are derived and discussed in detail for various FDE and sDFT setups. The parallel implementation is numerically verified and geometry optimizations with different functional combinations (LDA/TF and PW91/PW91K) are conducted and compared to reference data. Our results confirm that sDFT‐LDA/TF yields good equilibrium distances for the systems studied here (mean absolute deviation: 0.09 Å) compared to reference wave‐function theory results. However, sDFT‐PW91/PW91k quite consistently yields smaller equilibrium distances (mean absolute deviation: 0.23 Å). The flexibility of our new implementation is demonstrated for an HCN‐trimer test system, for which several different setups are applied. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Design of end-on cyanato bridged trinuclear Cu(II) Schiff base complex with salen type Schiff base ligand: synthesis,structural investigation and DFT study

One ONNO-donor tetradentate Schiff base ligand LH₂ was derived from the condensation of salicylaldehyde and 1,3-diaminopropane and reacted with Cu(NO₃)₂·6H₂O and NaNCO to yield one trinuclear complex with molecular formula [Cu₃L₂(µ_1,1-NCO)₂]. The synthesized complex was characterized by IR, UV–vis spectroscopy, and electrochemical analysis. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction study explores that the two terminal copper atoms adopt square pyramidal geometry, whereas the central copper atom situated at the inversion center is surrounded by four phenoxo oxygens and two end-on cyanato anions to adopt an octahedral geometry. The ONNO-tetradentate Schiff base ligand coordinates with the copper(II) ion via two oxygen atoms of the phenoxo-group and two nitrogen atoms from the imine moiety. A theoretical density functional theory (DFT) calculation was also carried out to supplement the experimental results. All the DFT calculations were done in gas phase.     

Exact electronic properties in the classically forbidden region of a metal surface

We derive exact properties of the inhomogeneous electron gas in the asymptotic classically forbidden region at a metal–vacuum interface within the framework of local effective potential energy theory. We derive a new expression for the asymptotic structure of the Kohn–Sham density functional theory (KS‐DFT) exchange‐correlation potential energy v_xc(r) in terms of the irreducible electron self‐energy. We also derive the exact asymptotic structure of the orbitals, density, the Dirac density matrix, the kinetic energy density, and KS exchange energy density. We further obtain the exact expression for the Fermi hole and demonstrate its structure in this asymptotic limit. The exchange‐correlation potential energy is derived to be v_xc(z → ∞) = ?α_KS,xc/z, and its exchange and correlation components to be v_x(z → ∞) = ?α_KS,x/z and v_c(z → ∞) = ?α_KS,c/z, respectively. The analytical expressions for the coefficients α_KS,xc and α_KS,x show them to be dependent on the bulk‐metal Wigner–Seitz radius and the barrier height at the surface. The coefficient α_KS,c = 1/4 is determined in the plasmon‐pole approximation and is independent of these metal parameters. Thus, the asymptotic structure of v_xc(z) in the vacuum region is image‐potential‐like but not the commonly accepted one of ?1/4z. Furthermore, this structure depends on the properties of the metal. Additionally, an analysis of these results via quantal density functional theory (Q‐DFT) shows that both the Pauli W_x(z → ∞) and lowest‐order correlation‐kinetic W(z → ∞) components of the exchange potential energy v_x(z → ∞), and the Coulomb W_c(z → ∞) and higher‐order correlation‐kinetic components of the correlation potential energy v_c(z → ∞), all contribute terms of O(1/z) to the structure. Hence correlations attributable to the Pauli exclusion principle, Coulomb repulsion, and correlation‐kinetic effects all contribute to the asymptotic structure of the effective potential energy at a metal surface. The relevance of the results derived to the theory of image states and to KS‐DFT is also discussed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2005     

Theoretical study on the electronic structures and optical properties of blue‐green and blue phosphorescent iridium(III) complexes with tetraphenylimidodiphosphinate ligand

The electronic structures and photophysical properties of five iridium(III) complexes Ir(tfmppy)₂(tpip) (1), Ir(dfppy)₂(tpip) (2), Ir(afCNppy)₂(tpip) (3), Ir(CNpyN₃)₂(tpip) (4), and Ir(2fphpta)₂(tpip) (5) [where tfmppy = 4‐trifluoromethylphenylpyridine; dfppy =4,6‐difluorophenylpyridine; afCNppy = 6‐fluoro‐4‐octyloxy‐5‐cyano‐phenylpyridine; CNpyN₃ = 2‐(4‐cyano‐phenyl)‐[1,2,3]‐triazole; 2fphpta=2‐(2,6‐difluoro‐phenyl‐[1,2,4]‐triazol‐3‐yl)‐pyridine; tpip=tetraphenylimido‐diphosphinate] have been investigated by using density functional theory (DFT) methods and time‐dependent DFT ones, aiming at elucidating the influences of different substituents and cyclometalated ligands on the emission properties and quantum yield. The calculated results revealed that the different substituents in 1 ‐ 3 have a great influence on the energy levels, in particular highest occupied molecular orbital. Meanwhile, we have also get a further insight into the reason for different phosphorescence quantum yields of the studied complexes. The higher quantum yield (Φ) reported for 1 was found to be closely related to both its smaller S₁–T₁ splitting energy ( ) and larger transition electric dipole moment ( ) upon the S₀ → S₁ transition. Complex 5 is expected to be a potential candidate for blue‐emitting material with good organic light‐emitting diodes performances. We propose that the optical properties of this class of materials can be tuned by the modifications of the cyclometalated ligands. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Theoretical calculation and prediction for experimental design to obtain spin crossover complexes

DFT methods were utilized to study SCO complexes. [Fe(2btz)₂(NCX)₂] (2btz = 2,2′‐bithiazoline, X = S ( 1 ) and Se ( 2 )), [Fe(phen)₂(NCX)₂] (phen = 1,10‐phenantroline, X = S ( 3 ) and Se ( 4 )), and [Fe(bpy)₂(NCS)₂] ( 5 ) (bpy = 2,2′‐bipyridine) compounds, which have experimentally shown SCO behavior, were calculated. B3LYP, B3LYP*, OPBE, and OLYP with 6‐31G* and 6‐311 + G** basis sets were employed to calculate the ΔE_HS/LS energy gap as a clue to find complexes with SCO behavior. It is found that calculated result by B3LYP* with c₃ = 0.14 and OPBE methods and 6‐31G* basis set are in agreement with experimentally observed SCO complexes. Then, newly designed Fe(N‐N)₂(X)₂ complexes, where N‐N are bidentate nitrogen donor chelating ligands and X= SCN^‐, SeCN^‐, Cl^‐, Br^‐, I^‐, were chosen to see their potential to be SCO compounds. ΔE_HS/LS for potential SCO complexes are estimated from 0.8 to 6.5 kcal/mol in B3LYP* and 0.6–5.7 kcal/mol in OPBE. These calculations suggest [Fe(bpy)₂(NCSe)₂], [Fe(5dmbpy)₂(NCS)₂], and [Fe(3‐BrPhen)₂(NCSe)₂] compounds have the ability to show SCO behavior. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Liu‐Parr power series expansion of the Pauli kinetic energy functional with the incorporation of shell‐inducing traits: Atoms

An approximate expression for the Pauli kinetic energy functional T_p is advanced in terms of the Liu‐Parr expansion [S. Liu, R.G. Parr, Phys. Rev. A 1997 , 55, 1792] which involves a power series of the one‐electron density. We use this explicit functional for T_p to compute the value of the noninteracting kinetic energy functional T_s of 34 atoms, from Li to Kr (and their positive and negative monoions). In particular, we examine the effect that a shell‐by‐shell mean‐square optimization of the expansion coefficients has on the kinetic energy values and explore the effect that the size of the expansion, given by the parameter n, has on the accuracy of the approximation. The results yield a mean absolute percent error for 34 neutral atoms of 0.15, 0.08, 0.04, 0.03, and 0.01 for expansions with n = 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, respectively (where ). We show that these results, which are the most accurate ones obtained to date for the representation of the noninteracting kinetic energy functional, stem from the imposition of shell‐inducing traits. We also compare these Liu‐Parr functionals with the exact but nonexplicit functional generated in the local‐scaling transformation version of DFT.     

The formation of a metallosupramolecular porous helicate through salicylaldehydethiosemicarbazone: Synthesis,Characterization, Cytotoxic activity,DNA binding and DFT calculations

The reaction of salicylaldehyde‐S‐methylisothiosemicarbazone in the presence of ethylenediamine base and iron (III)chloride generated unforeseen homotopic dinuclear triple‐stranded iron (III)helicate. The synthesized helicate was characterized by elemental analysis, IR, UV–Vis spectroscopy, magnetic moment measurement, and evaluated cytotoxic activities against K562, HL‐60 and THP‐1 leukemia cells. In addition, solid‐state structure has been determined by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction technique. In the complex, three dinucleating O, N, N, O donor ligands provide three diazine (═N─N═) bridges between the metal ions and facial O₃N₃ coordination spheres around them. The ligands are folded about the N ─ N single bond and coordinated to the two metal ions in a helical fashion to form the triple helical structure. In the crystal lattice, chains of centrosymmetric rings, which are connected to one another via π─π stacking interactions, are generated by C─H···O intermolecular interactions. The results are also confirmed by the density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The results obtained from the cytotoxicity test showed to be effective in low concentrations on the leukemia cells. An intercalative binding mode of helicate‐DNA complex was confirmed with the high intrinsic binding constant (K_b = 8×10⁶ M^?1) and competitive displacement assay of Ethidium bromide with high Ksv value.     

Electronic properties of Strandberg anions: A DFT study of [X2Mo5O23]n−, (X = PV,SVI, AsV,SeVI), and [(RP)2Mo5O21]4− (R = H,CH3, C2H5)

The electronic properties of the anions mentioned in the title polyanions were calculated by means of Density Functional Theory (DFT). The redox properties and the basicity of the external oxygen sites of those polyanions were analyzed. The results show that the redox properties of Strandberg anions depend on the nature of heteroatom X. The organic group bonded to the heteroatom modifies the redox property of the cluster. The oxygen basicities of the polyanions were analyzed by virtue of molecular electrostatic potential (MEP). The MEP distribution suggests that the most basic centers are triple‐bridging oxygen atoms, one of which is shared with two metal atoms and one heteroatom X in [P₂Mo₅O₂₃]^6? and [As₂Mo₅O₂₃]^6?. In [(RP)₂Mo₅O₂₁]^4?, the triple‐bridging oxygen atoms and the double‐bridging oxygen atoms bonded to two Mo atoms identified as the most basic centers. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2005     

Ability of fullerenes to act as η6 ligands in transition metal complexes. A comparative PM3(tm)–density functional theory study

High‐quality DFT calculations are employed to estimate the arene exchange energies for reactions of general formula: For C₆₀ and C₇₀ complexes of Cr(CO)₃, full geometry optimizations at the DFT level using moderately large basis sets were performed, while for the other systems a hybrid approach was developed in which the geometries were obtained at the PM3(tm) level and the energetics were evaluated at the DFT level. C₇₀ is shown to be a slightly better arene ligand than C₆₀; however, no enhancements of arene‐like bonding capabilities are seen for C₇₈ and C₈₄ relative to C₇₀. Explicit calculation of a series of exchange energies at the DFT level using both DFT and PM3(tm) geometries demonstrates that PM3(tm) geometries are sufficiently accurate for the calculation of energetics at a higher theoretical level, but PM3(tm) calculations are inadequate for a quantitative assessment of exchange energies. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 22: 1881–1886, 2001     

Bonding characters of M‐Cd4Te4 and M‐Cd3Te3 (M = Cr,Cu, Ag,Al, Cd,and Zn) clusters

At DFT/B3LYP/LANL2DZ theoretical level, conformations, bonding characters and Molecular Orbital (MO) of M‐Cd₄Te₄ and M‐Cd₃Te₃ (M = Cr, Cu, Ag, Al, Cd, and Zn) molecules are investigated. First, through analysis of conformations and bonding characters, we conclude that different doping atoms have different influence on doping structures. Al atom can form bonding with Cd atoms in doping molecules. Besides, as for M‐Cd₄Te₄ and M‐Cd₃Te₃ structures, there are different characters and conformations as to the same doping atoms. Second, MO is used to discuss characters of bonding. We believe that doping atoms influence the orbital characters and make the transition change. Moreover, different conformations for the same doping atoms induce different transitions. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2011