A theoretical study on cyclacenes: Analytical tight‐binding approach

We present a theoretical study of cyclacene molecules performed at tight‐binding level. The orbital energies and eigenvectors have been analytically computed, and exact expressions for the axial component of the total position spread and polarizability tensors have been obtained. In absence of dimerization, the system has a D_nh symmetry, where n is the number of hexagonal units. The energy bands present no gap at the Fermi level, and to this fact it corresponds a diverging (per‐electron) polarizability for in the direction of the system symmetry axis. The two (degenerate) components of the polarizability on the σ_h symmetry plane, conversely, remain finite for . The total position spread tensor presents a qualitatively different behavior, since all the three components of the position spread per electron remain finite for . The results are analyzed and discussed for both axial and planar components separately as these are affected differently with respect to the increasing system size. Both dipole polarizability and total position spread have been computed using an ab initio approach for the smallest systems, to compare the analytical tight‐binding expressions with a higher‐level theory.     

Design of neutral organic superacids using fulvene derivatives with di‐enol substituent

A new class of superacids was designed using enolic derivatives of fulvene. After deprotonation, bond rearrangement leads in a stable conjugate base with an aromatic cyclopentadienyl ring and a carboxyl group. The gas phase enthalpies ( ) of the deprotonation, as an index of acidity, were calculated employing the B3LYP method and 6‐311++G(d,p) and aug‐cc‐PVDZ basis sets. The acidity of these compounds without any electron withdrawing groups was more than H₂SO₄ in gas phase. The acidity increased by substituting electron withdrawing groups (? F, ? CN, and ?O) into the molecules so that we could achieve a cyano derivative of fulvene with = 250 kcal/mol.     

Electron‐density delocalization in many‐electron atoms confined by penetrable walls: A Hartree–Fock study

The electronic structure of several many‐electron atoms, confined within a penetrable spherical box, was studied using the Hartree–Fock (HF) method, coupling the Roothaan's approach with a new basis set to solve the corresponding one‐electron equations. The resulting HF wave‐function was employed to evaluate the Shannon entropy, , in configuration space. Confinements imposed by impenetrable walls induce decrements on when the confinement radius, R_c, is reduced and the electron‐density is localized. For confinements commanded by penetrable walls, exhibits an entirely different behavior, because when an atom starts to be confined, delivers values less than those observed for the free system, in the same way that the results presented by impenetrable walls. However, from a confinement radius, shows increments, and precisely in these regions, the spatial restrictions spread to the electron density. Thus, from results presented in this work, the Shannon entropy can be used as a tool to measure the electron density delocalization for many‐electron atoms, as the hydrogen atom confined in similar conditions.     

The electron delocalization range in stretched bonds

The electron delocalization range function EDR( (Janesko et al., J. Chem. Phys. 2014, 141, 144104) quantifies the width of the one‐particle density matrix about point , measuring aspects of delocalization. Here, we explore the EDR in stretched and compressed chemical bonds. The EDR illustrates how compressing chemical bonds localizes the one‐particle density matrix about the reference point, and captures aspects of fractional occupancy, and left‐right correlation in stretched covalent bonds.     

Ritz variational method for the high‐lying nonautoionizing doubly excited 1,3Fe states of two‐electron atoms

Energy eigenvalues of nonautoionizing doubly excited states originating from 2pnf ( ) configuration of two‐electron atoms have been calculated by expanding the basis set in explicitly correlated Hylleraas coordinates under the framework of Ritz variational method. A detailed discussion on the evaluation of correlated basis integrals is given. The energy eigenvalues of a number of these doubly excited states are being reported for the first time especially for the high lying states. The effective quantum numbers ( ) for the states mentioned above have been calculated by using the theory of quantum defect.     

Valence bonds in elongated boron clusters

A well‐defined class of planar or quasi‐planar elongated boron clusters, of type , serves as a basis to identify the valence bond picture of delocalized boron networks. The origin of the series is the cluster, which exhibits σ‐aromaticity. The cluster generating step is the repetitive expansion by three boron atoms in the direction of elongation. Specific electron counting rules are obtained for π‐bonding, peripheral σ‐bonding and multicenter inner σ‐bonding. A valence bond structure is introduced which explains the remarkable regularity in the bonding pattern. The analysis supports 4c‐2e bonds as an alternative to the common 3c‐2e bonds. The results are validated by symmetry induction and ab initio calculations.     

Photodetachment of hydrogen negative ion near inelastic surfaces: Arbitrary laser polarization direction

The photodetachment of hydrogen negative ion near different inelastic surfaces is investigated by the semiclassical closed orbit theory for arbitrary laser polarization direction . A two‐term formula of photodetachment cross section consisting of a smooth background term and an oscillatory term is derived. The oscillatory term contains an extra angular factor that describes the dependence of oscillations in total cross section on the laser polarization direction. It is observed that the amplitude of oscillations in cross section reaches maximum at when laser polarization is parallel to the z‐axis and it approaches zero as the laser polarization direction becomes perpendicular to the z‐axis. It is also observed that as the reflection coefficient , which accounts for the inelastic behavior of the surfaces, increases the amplitude of oscillation also increases. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Energies for cyclic and acyclic aggregations of adamantane and diamantane units sharing vertices,edges, or six‐membered rings

Diamondoids are hydrocarbons having a carbon scaffold comprised from polymer‐like composites of adamantane cages. This article describes computed total energies and “SWB‐tension” energies (often referred to as “strain” energies) for species having n adamantane or diamantane units sharing pairwise: one carbon atom (spiro‐[n]adamantane or spiro‐[n]diamantane); one C? C bond (one‐bond‐sharing‐[n]adamantane or one‐bond‐sharing‐[n]diamantane); or one chair‐shaped hexagon of carbon atoms (1234‐helical‐cata‐[n]diamantanes). Each of the five investigated polymer‐like types is considered either as an acyclic or a cyclic chain of adamantane‐ or diamantane‐unit cages. With increasing n values, SWB‐tension energies for acyclic aggregates are found to increase linearly, while the net SWB‐tension energies of cyclic aggregates often go thru a minimum at a suitable value of . In all five cases, a limiting common energy per unit ( ) is found to be approached by both cyclic and acyclic chains as , as revealed from plots of versus 1/n for acyclic chains and of versus 1/n² for cyclic chains. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Ro‐vibrational studies of diatomic molecules in a shifted Deng–Fan oscillator potential

Bound‐state spectra of shifted Deng‐Fan oscillator potential are studied by means of a generalized pseudospectral method. Very accurate results are obtained for both low as well as high states by a nonuniform optimal discretization of the radial Schrödinger equation. Excellent agreement with literature data is observed in both s‐wave and rotational states. Detailed variation of energies with respect to potential parameters is discussed. Application is made to the ro‐vibrational levels of representative diatomic molecules (H₂, LiH, HCl, CO). Nine states having are calculated with good accuracy along with 15 other higher states for each of these molecules. Variation of energies with respect to state indices n, show behavior similar to that in the Morse potential. Many new states are reported here for the first time. In short, a simple, accurate, and efficient method is presented for this and other similar potentials in molecular physics. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The H,H2+, and HeH2+ systems confined by an impenetrable spheroidal cavity: Revisited study via the Lagrange‐mesh approach

The one electron systems H, H , and HeH confined by an impenetrable spheroidal cavity are revisited in the frame of the Lagrange‐mesh method. The Born–Oppenheimer approximation where the nuclei are clamped at the foci is considered. Benchmark results of the total energy are obtained as a function of the interfocal distance R and the eccentricity of the cavity . Dipole oscillator strengths are calculated for the molecular ions H and HeH .     

Synthesizing quantum probability by a single chaotic complex‐valued trajectory

The current trajectory interpretation of quantum mechanics is based on an ensemble viewpoint that the evolution of an ensemble of Bohmian trajectories guided by the same wavefunction Ψ converges asymptotically to the quantum probability . Instead of the Bohm's ensemble‐trajectory interpretation, the present paper gives a single‐trajectory interpretation of quantum mechanics by showing that the distribution of a single chaotic complex‐valued trajectory is enough to synthesize the quantum probability. A chaotic complex‐valued trajectory manifests both space‐filling (ergodic) and ensemble features. The space‐filling feature endows a chaotic trajectory with an invariant statistical distribution, while the ensemble feature enables a complex‐valued trajectory to envelop the motion of an ensemble of real trajectories. The comparison between complex‐valued and real‐valued Bohmian trajectories shows that without the participation of its imaginary part, a single real‐valued trajectory loses the ensemble information contained in the wavefunction Ψ, and this explains the reason why we have to employ an ensemble of real‐valued Bohmian trajectories to recover the quantum probability . © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Prediction of the pH‐rate profile for dimethyl sulfide oxidation by hydrogen peroxide: The role of elusive H3O2+ Ion

Experimental kinetics of sulfide oxidation by hydrogen peroxide presents a pH‐dependent profile. In this article, it was carried out a detailed study of the mechanism and kinetics of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) oxidation by H₂O₂ in neutral, acid, and basic aqueous medium using ab initio calculations. The results point out that DMS oxidation in neutral aqueous medium occurs through its direct reaction with H₂O₂. In acid medium, cluster‐continuum model calculations shows that cluster is the best representation of the very reactive species. In basic medium, there is formation of the species. However, the pathway involving this species has high free energy barrier, making this pathway unfeasible. The theoretical pH‐rate profile is in good agreement with the experimental observations. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Dealing with the shifted and inverted Tietz–Hua oscillator potential using the J‐matrix method

The tridiagonal J‐matrix approach has been used to calculate the low and moderately high‐lying eigenvalues of the rotating shifted Tietz–Hua (RSTH) oscillator potential. The radial Schrödinger equation is solved efficiently by means of the diagonalization of the full Hamiltonian matrix, with the Laguerre or oscillator basis. Ro–vibrational bound state energies for 11 diatomic systems, namely , , , NO, CO, , , , , , and NO⁺, are calculated with high accuracy. Some of the energy states for molecules are reported here for the first time. The results of the last four molecules have been introduced for the first time using the oscillator basis. Higher accuracy is achieved by calculating the energy corresponding to the poles of the S‐matrix in the complex energy plane using the J‐matrix method. Furthermore, the bound states and the resonance energies for the newly proposed inverted Tietz–Hua IRSTH‐potential are calculated for the H₂‐molecule with scaled depth. A detailed analysis of variation of eigenvalues with n, quantum numbers is made. Results are compared with literature data, wherever possible. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Carbon–sulfur chains: A high‐resolution infrared and quantum‐chemical study of C3S and SC7S

In the course of a 5 μm high‐resolution infrared study of laser ablation products from carbon–sulfur targets, the ν₁ vibrational mode region of linear C₃S has been studied continuously from 2046 to 2065 cm^?1. Besides the prominent vibrational fundamental, the region was found to feature the , and even hot bands, the latter two of which were observed for the first time. Owing to the high signal‐to‐noise ratio obtained, the ν₁ mode of S could also be observed in natural abundance for the first time at high spectral resolution in the infrared. At 2061 cm^?1, hidden inside the branch of the C₃S ν₁ fundamental mode, a weak new band is observed which exhibits very tight line spacing and stems from a heavy both carbon and sulfur containing carrier. On the basis of high‐level quantum‐chemical calculations of selected carbon–sulfur chains and other carbon‐rich cumulenes, this feature is attributed to the ν₅ vibrational fundamental of linear SC₇S, which stands for the first gas‐phase spectroscopic detection of this long cumulenic chain.     

Theoretical study of metal‐free organic dyes based on different configurations for efficient dye‐sensitized solar cells

Considering different solar dyes configuration, four novel metal‐free organic dyes based on phenoxazine as electron donor, thiophene and cyanovinylene linkers as the ‐conjugation bridge and cyanoacrylic acid as electron acceptor were designed to optimize open circuit voltage and short circuit current parameters and theoretically inspected. Density functional theory and time‐dependent density functional theory calculations were used to study frontier molecular orbital energy states of the dyes and their optical absorption spectra. The results indicated that D2‐4 dyes can be suitable candidates as sensitizers for application in dye sensitized solar cells and among these three dyes, D3 showed a broader and more bathochromically shifted absorption band compared to the others. The dye also showed the highest molar extinction coefficient. This work suggests optimizing the configuration of metal‐free organic dyes based on simple D‐ ‐A configuration containing alkyl chain as substitution, starburst conformation, and symmetric double D‐ ‐A chains would produce good photovoltaic properties.     

Fast and accurate determination of the relative binding affinities of small compounds to HIV‐1 protease using non‐equilibrium work

The fast pulling ligand (FPL) out of binding cavity using non‐equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) simulations was demonstrated to be a rapid, accurate and low CPU demand method for the determination of the relative binding affinities of a large number of HIV‐1 protease (PR) inhibitors. In this approach, the ligand is pulled out of the binding cavity of the protein using external harmonic forces, and the work of pulling force corresponds to the relative binding affinity of HIV‐1 PR inhibitor. The correlation coefficient between the pulling work and the experimental binding free energy of shows that FPL results are in good agreement with experiment. It is thus easier to rank the binding affinities of HIV‐1 PR inhibitors, that have similar binding affinities because the mean error bar of pulling work amounts to . The nature of binding is discovered using the FPL approach. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Theoretical investigation of geometry and stability of small lithium‐iodide LinI (n = 2–6) clusters

We present theoretical investigation of the structural characteristics and stabilities of neutral and positively charged Li_nI (n = 2‐6) species. The structural isomers were found by using a randomized algorithm to search for minima structures, followed by B3LYP optimizations; the single‐point RCCSD(T)/cc‐pwCVTZ(‐PP) calculations were performed in order to compute relative energies, binding energies per atom, adiabatic and vertical ionization energies, and dissociation energies. Stability was compared to the pure lithium clusters; there is a typical odd‐even alternation; iodine doped clusters are more stable than pure lithium clusters. Lithium “cage” transfers its valence electron to the iodine atom to form neutral and cationic clusters. An electron departures the lithium cage upon ionization. An important reason for the larger stability of closed‐shell species is the existence of the HOMO 3c/2e natural bond orbitals. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A DFT study of reactions of methyldiazonium ion with DNA/RNA nucleosides: Investigating effect of sugar moiety on methylation pattern of bases

Methyldiazonium ion ( ) is an ultimate carcinogen that can methylate multiple sites in DNA/RNA. In present contribution, density functional theory calculations using the B3LYP and M06‐2X functionals and the 6‐31G(d,p) and aug‐cc‐pVDZ basis sets are carried out to study methylation reactions of at the different nucleophilic sites of DNA/RNA bases and their nucleosides. Total 12 nucleophilic sites, that is, the N2, N3, N7, and O6 sites of guanine; the N1, N3, N6, and N7 sites of adenine; O2 and N3 sites of cytosine and the O2 and O4 sites of thymine and uracil have been considered for study. Thus, a total of 30 reactions have been studied here. The polarizable continuum model is used for solvation calculations. The N7 site of guanine, N7(G), is found to be most reactive in all the reactions studied here, which is in agreement with experiment. However, the calculated reactivity of toward the N7(G) site in aqueous media follows the order: guanine > deoxyguanosine > guanosine. The reactivities of many other sites including the O6(G), O2(C), and N3(A) sites are also modified in going from DNA/RNA bases to their nucleosides and from DNA to RNA nucleosides. Thus, we note that the presence of sugar moiety significantly modifies the methylation pattern of bases caused by . © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Position and momentum information‐theoretic measures of the pseudoharmonic potential

In this study, the information‐theoretic measures in both the position and momentum spaces for the pseudoharmonic potential using Fisher information, Shannon entropy, Renyi entropy, Tsallis entropy, and Onicescu information energy are investigated analytically and numerically. The results obtained are applied to some diatomic molecules. The Renyi and Tsallis entropies are analytically obtained in position space using Srivastava–Niukkanen linearization formula in terms of the Lauricella hypergeometric function. Also, they are obtained in the momentum space in terms of the multivariate Bell polynomials of Combinatorics. We observed that the Fisher information increases with n in both the position and momentum spaces, but decreases with for all the diatomic molecules considered. The Shannon entropy also increases with increasing n in the position space and decreases with increasing . The variations of the Renyi and Tsallis entropies with are also discussed. The exact and numerical values of the Onicescu information energy are also obtained, after which the ratio of information‐theoretic impetuses to lengths for Fisher, Shannon, and Renyi are obtained. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Discrete charge patterns in a Holstein‐SSH DNA lattice

DNA nonlinear charge transport is addressed in a combined Holstein–Su–Schrieffer–Heeger (HSSH) model. In the adiabatic approximation the dynamics of the system is shown to be governed by a modified discrete nonlinear Schrödinger (MDNLS) equation, where charge‐lattice coupling parameters are obvious. Attention is paid to the effective coupling parameter, , between charge and internal molecular vibrations, which importantly influences the stability/instability features of the plane wave, solution to the MDNLS equation. Region of instability are remarkably reduced, therefore predicting that increasing could progressively quench charge transport. This is confirmed by numerical simulations on the generic HSSH model, where only the charge density is excited and drives the dynamics of the global system. Polarons, as well as longitudinal and transversal nonlinear waves, are obtained and the dependence of charge transport on DNA conformation is discussed. Accordingly, the longtime evolution of the found polarons is studied and we observe a progressive extinction of its temporal evolution as increases. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.