Quantum‐based models of charge‐dependent potential energy surfaces: Three‐state models

Quantum‐based models of how potential energies depend on charge are developed from a three‐state model, at the level of neglecting state‐to‐state overlap. The energy as a function of charge is defined as proposed previously (Valone and Atlas, J Chem Phys 2004, 120, 7262). With this definition, addition of a third state smooths the derivatives of the energy model with respect to charge at integer values of charge that are in the interior of the allowed charge range. These derivatives are related to the chemical potential. At the dissociation limit, this model converges to established limits. Another dependence is proposed that uses two different charges simultaneously. The concepts are illustrated, with calculations on an OH molecule. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2008     

Studies on structure and conformational stability of free canonical 2′‐deoxyribonucleosides: Approximate SCC‐DFTB and LMP2 methods

The molecular structure of free canonical 2′‐deoxyribonucleosides have been studied by applying the electron‐correlated local second‐order Møller–Plesset perturbation theory (LMP2) and self‐consistent‐charge density‐functional tight‐binding (SCC‐DFTB) methods. The variation of structural parameters for C2, C3 endo and exo conformations, and anti, syn orientation of the base unit with furanose ring have been discussed. The relative energies have been calculated for the anti and syn conformations of dT, dC, dG, and dA. Conformational analysis has been performed using the results of the LMP2 and SCC‐DFTB methods. Chemical hardness and chemical potential have been used to study the conformational stability of the conformers. The maximum hardness principle is obeyed for the furanose ring conformations and not for the nucleosides. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2004     

Resonance states of atomic anions

We study destabilization of an atom in its ground state with decrease of its nuclear charge. By analytic continuation from bound to resonance states, we obtain complex energies of unstable atomic anions with nuclear charge that is less than the minimum “critical” charge necessary to bind N electrons. We use an extrapolating scheme with a simple model potential for the electron, which is loosely bound outside the atomic core. Results for O^2? and S^2? are in good agreement with earlier estimates. Alternatively, we use the Hylleraas basis variational technique with three complex nonlinear parameters to find accurately the energy of two‐electron atoms as the nuclear charge decreases. Results are used to check the less accurate one‐electron model. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quant Chem 82: 255–261, 2001     

Theoretical studies on the effects of methods and parameterization on the calculated free energy of hydration for small molecules

Free energies of hydration (FEH) have been computed for 13 neutral and nine ionic species as a difference of theoretically calculated Gibbs free energies in solution and in the gas phase. In‐solution calculations have been performed using both SCIPCM and PCM polarizable continuum models at the density functional theory (DFT)/B3LYP and ab initio Hartree–Fock levels with two basis sets (6‐31G* and 6‐311++G**). Good linear correlation has been obtained for calculated and experimental gas‐phase dipole moments, with an increase by ～30% upon solvation due to solute polarization. The geometry distortion in solution turns out to be small, whereas solute polarization energies are up to 3 kcal/mol for neutral molecules. Calculation of free energies of hydration with PCM provides a balanced set of values with 6‐31G* and 6‐311++G** basis sets for neutral molecules and ionic species, respectively. Explicit solvent calculations within Monte Carlo simulations applying free energy perturbation methods have been considered for 12 neutral molecules. Four different partial atomic charge sets have been studied, obtained by a fit to the gas‐phase and in‐solution molecular electrostatic potentials at in‐solution optimized geometries. Calculated FEH values depend on the charge set and the atom model used. Results indicate a preference for the all‐atom model and partial charges obtained by a fit to the molecular electrostatic potential of the solute computed at the SCIPCM/B3LYP/6‐31G* level. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2004     

Influence of molecular structure on the C-N bond strength in the nitroalkane series: II. Nitroethane,fluoronitroethanes, chloronitroethanes,and fluorochloronitroethanes

The equilibrium geometric parameters, enthalpies of formation of molecular and radical species, and dissociation energies of the C-N bond at 0 and 298 K were determined by the B3LYP density functional method for nitroethane, fluoronitroethanes, chloronitroethanes, and mixed fluorochloronitroethanes. Trends in variation of the geometric and electronic parameters of the molecules, enthalpies of formation, and dissociation energies were discussed.Translated from Zhurnal Obshchei Khimii, Vol. 74, No. 11, 2004, pp. 1835–1841.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by Khrapkovskii, Chachkov, Shamov.For communication I, see [1].This revised version was published online in April 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

An Exchange Charge Model for Covalent Bonds in Simple Homonuclear Diatomic Molecules

The point charge in Parr's simple bond charge model is replaced by the exchange charge, which can be evaluated according to a simple ab initio method. The calculated exchange charge correlate well with the experimental values of force constants and dissociation energies for homonuclear diatomic molecules H₂, Li₂, F₂, Na₂ and Cl₂.     

Electronegativity based on the simple bond charge model

A single physical interpretation of the various electronegativity scales of Pauling, Mulliken and Gordy is suggested, based on the simple bond charge (SBC) model of Parr and Borkman for the covalent bond. With a charge partition determined from vibrational frequencies, the SBC model is shown to account for the covalent bond energy in single-bonded homonuclear diatomic molecules and diamond-type crystals. The binding energy to the atom of a bond-electron in the single-bonded homonuclear diatomic molecules agrees with Mulliken's electroaffinity, and provides a definition for electronegativity. Gordy's empirical relation between the bond-stretching force constant and electronegativity is explained. It is then suggested that the physical effect underlying Pauling's thermochemical formula for electronagativity is the location of the bond charge in the heteronuclear molecule. The deviation of Pauling's formula from experiment in the case of the alkali hydrides can then be explained.     

Organic Photovoltaics: Elucidating the Ultra‐Fast Exciton Dissociation Mechanism in Disordered Materials

Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) offer the opportunity for cheap, lightweight and mass‐producible devices. However, an incomplete understanding of the charge generation process, in particular the timescale of dynamics and role of exciton diffusion, has slowed further progress in the field. We report a new Kinetic Monte Carlo model for the exciton dissociation mechanism in OPVs that addresses the origin of ultra‐fast (<1 ps) dissociation by incorporating exciton delocalization. The model reproduces experimental results, such as the diminished rapid dissociation with increasing domain size, and also lends insight into the interplay between mixed domains, domain geometry, and exciton delocalization. Additionally, the model addresses the recent dispute on the origin of ultra‐fast exciton dissociation by comparing the effects of exciton delocalization and impure domains on the photo‐dynamics.This model provides insight into exciton dynamics that can advance our understanding of OPV structure–function relationships.     

Simple and exact approach to the electronic polarization effect on the solvation free energy: formulation for quantum-mechanical/molecular-mechanical system and its applications to aqueous solutions

We present a simple and exact numerical approach to compute the free energy contribution δμ in solvation due to the electron density polarization and fluctuation of a quantum-mechanical solute in the quantum-mechanical/molecular-mechanical (QM/MM) simulation combined with the theory of the energy representation (QM/MM-ER). Since the electron density fluctuation is responsible for the many-body QM-MM interactions, the standard version of the energy representation method cannot be applied directly. Instead of decomposing the QM-MM polarization energy into the pairwise additive and non-additive contributions, we take sum of the polarization energies in the QM-MM interaction and adopt it as a new energy coordinate for the method of energy representation. Then, it is demonstrated that the free energy δμ can be exactly formulated in terms of the energy distribution functions for the solution and reference systems with respect to this energy coordinate. The benchmark tests were performed to examine the numerical efficiency of the method with respect to the changes in the individual properties of the solvent and the solute. Explicitly, we computed the solvation free energy of a QM water molecule in ambient and supercritical water, and also the free-energy change associated with the isomerization reaction of glycine from neutral to zwitterionic structure in aqueous solution. In all the systems examined, it was demonstrated that the computed free energy δμ agrees with the experimental value, irrespective of the choice of the reference electron density of the QM solute. The present method was also applied to a prototype reaction of adenosine 5'-triphosphate hydrolysis where the effect of the electron density fluctuation is substantial due to the excess charge. It was demonstrated that the experimental free energy of the reaction has been accurately reproduced with the present approach.     

Electrostatic Energies in the 1,4‐Dichlorobenzene Polymorph Crystals: the Role of Charge Density Overlap Effects in Crystal Packing Analysis

Electrostatic and polarization energies for the three known polymorphic crystal structures of 1,4‐dichlorobenzene, as well as for one particularly stable virtual crystal structure generated by computer search, were calculated by a new accurate numerical integration method over static molecular charge densities obtained from high level ab initio molecular‐orbital calculations. Results are compared with those from standard empirical atom‐atom force fields. The new electrostatic energies, which include charge density overlap (penetration) effects, are seen to be much larger than and sometimes of opposite sign to those derived from point‐charge models. None of the four polymorphs is substantially more stable than the others on electrostatic‐energy grounds. Molecule‐molecule electrostatic energies have been calculated for the more important molecular pairs in each of the four structures; trends are found to be very different from those indicated by point‐charge energies or by total energies estimated with a parametric atom‐atom force field. Conclusions based exclusively on analysis of intermolecular atom contacts and point‐charge electrostatics may need to be modified in the light of the new kind of calculation.     

Theoretical Insights into the Mechanism of Carbon Monoxide (CO) Release from CO‐Releasing Molecules

We used density functional theory to investigate the capacity for carbon monoxide (CO) release of five newly synthesized manganese‐containing CO‐releasing molecules (CO‐RMs), namely CORM‐368 ( 1 ), CORM‐401 ( 2 ), CORM‐371 ( 3 ), CORM‐409 ( 4 ), and CORM‐313 ( 5 ). The results correctly discriminated good CO releasers ( 1 and 2 ) from a compound unable to release CO ( 5 ). The predicted Mn? CO bond dissociation energies were well correlated (R²≈0.9) with myoglobin (Mb) assay experiments, which quantified the formation of MbCO, and thus the amount of CO released by the CO‐RMs. The nature of the Mn? CO bond was characterized by natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis. This allowed us to identify the key donor–acceptor interactions in the CO‐RMs, and to evaluate the Mn? CO bond stabilization energies. According to the NBO calculations, the charge transfer is the major source of Mn? CO bond stabilization for this series. On the basis of the nature of the experimental buffers, we then analyzed the nucleophilic attack of putative ligands (L′=HPO₄^2?, H₂PO₄^?, H₂O, and Cl^?) at the metal vacant site through the ligand‐exchange reaction energies. The analysis revealed that different L′‐exchange reactions were spontaneous in all the CO‐RMs. Finally, the calculated second dissociation energies could explain the stoichiometry obtained with the Mb assay experiments.     

Evidence that alkyl substitution provides little stabilization to radicals: the C-C bond test and the nonbonded interaction contradiction

Although the C-H bond dissociation energies of alkanes have been widely employed as measures of radical stability, it is shown here that the assumptions needed for that conclusion are incompatible with experimental and computational data related to C-C bond dissociation energies. Calculations at the QCISD(T)/6-311+G(d,p) level on model systems show that 1,3 nonbonded interactions in alkanes are repulsive, whereas the conventional radical stabilization analysis of bond dissociation energies requires that they become more attractive with increasing steric bulk. This result puts a severe limit on the role that radical stabilization can play and indicates that another factor must be responsible for the observed variation in the C-H bond dissociation energies of alkanes.     

Theoretical investigations of the dissociation of charged protein complexes in the gas phase

A series of calculations, varying from simple electrostatic to more detailed semi-empirical based molecular dynamics ones, were carried out on charged gas phase ions of the cytochrome c(') dimer. The energetics of differing charge states, charge partitionings, and charge configurations were examined in both the low and high charge regimes. As well, preliminary free energy calculations of dissociation barriers are presented. It is shown that one must always consider distributions of charge configurations, once protein relaxation effects are taken into account, and that no single configuration dominates. All these results also indicate that in the high charge limit, the dissociation of protein complex ions is governed by electrostatic repulsion from the net charges, the consequences of which are enumerated and discussed. There are two main trends deriving from this, namely that charges will move so as to approximately maintain constant surface charge density, and that the lowest barrier to dissociation is the one that produces fragment ions with equal charges. In particular, it is shown that the charge-to-mass ratio of a fragment ion is not the key physical parameter in predicting dissociation products. In fact, from the perspective of the division of total charge, many dissociation pathways reported to be "asymmetric" in the literature should be more properly labelled as "symmetric" or "near-symmetric". The Coulomb repulsion model assumes that the timescale for charge transfer is faster than that for protein structural changes, which in turn is faster than that for complex dissociation.     

Geometric and electronic structures of multiple-decker one-end open sandwich clusters: Eu(n)(C8H8)n- (n = 1-4)

We have measured the photoelectron spectra of the multiple-decker 1:1 sandwich clusters of Eu(n)(COT)n- (n = 1-4; COT = 1,3,5,7-cyclooctatetraene), synthesized in the gas phase, and studied theoretically the bonding scheme, charge distribution, valence orbital energies, and photodetachment energies. We calculated the ground electronic state X- and the first excited electronic state A-, both of which have strong ionic bonding and a characteristic charge distribution. Moreover, we found that the valence orbital energies of Eu (6s) and COT (L delta) depend strongly on cluster size and their positions in the clusters. With the calculated vertical detachment energies for these valence orbitals, we assigned the peaks in the experimental photoelectron spectra and analyzed the origin of their interesting behavior by employing simple point charge models. From these analyses, it became clear that the characteristic behavior of the spectra is due to the strong ionic bonding and the charge distribution. In addition, using the point charge models, we estimated the vertical detachment energies of the one-dimensional polymer [Eu(COT)]infinity-.     

Density functional theory studies on the dissociation energies of metallic salts: relationship between lattice and dissociation energies

The formation and physicochemical properties of polymer electrolytes strongly depend on the lattice energy of metal salts. An indirect but efficient way to estimate the lattice energy through the relationship between the heterolytic bond dissociation and lattice energies is proposed in this work. The heterolytic bond dissociation energies for alkali metal compounds were calculated theoretically using the Density Functional Theory (DFT) of B3LYP level with 6‐311+G(d,p) and 6‐311+G(2df,p) basis sets. For transition metal compounds, the same method was employed except for using the effective core potential (ECP) of LANL2DZ and SDD on transition metals for 6‐311+G(d,p) and 6‐311+G(2df,p) calculations, respectively. The dissociation energies calculated by 6‐311+G(2df,p) basis set combined with SDD basis set were better correlated with the experimental values with average error of ca. ±1.0% than those by 6‐311+G* combined with the LANL2DZ basis set. The relationship between dissociation and lattice energies was found to be fairly linear (r>0.98). Thus, this method can be used to estimate the lattice energy of an unknown ionic compound with reasonably high accuracy. We also found that the dissociation energies of transition metal salts were relatively larger than those of alkaline metal salts for comparable ionic radii. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 22: 827–834, 2001     

The adsorption of CO on charged and neutral Au and Au2: a comparison between wave-function based and density functional theory

Quantum theoretical calculations are presented for CO attached to charged and neutral Au and Au(2) with the aim to test the performance of currently applied density functional theory (DFT) by comparison with accurate wave-function based results. For this, we developed a compact sized correlation-consistent valence basis set which accompanies a small-core energy-consistent scalar relativistic pseudopotential for gold. The properties analyzed are geometries, dissociation energies, vibrational frequencies, ionization potentials, and electron affinities. The important role of the basis-set superposition error is addressed which can be substantial for the negatively charged systems. The dissociation energies decrease along the series Au(+)-CO, Au-CO, and Au(-)-CO and as well as along the series Au(2)(+)-CO, Au(2)-CO, and Au(2)(-)-CO. As one expects, a negative charge on gold weakens the carbon oxygen bond considerably, with a consequent redshift in the CO stretching frequency when moving from the positively charged to the neutral and the negatively charged gold atom or dimer. We find that the different density functional approximations applied are not able to correctly describe the rather weak interaction between CO and gold, thus questioning the application of DFT to CO adsorption on larger gold clusters or surfaces.