Application of London-type dispersion corrections to the solid-state density functional theory simulation of the terahertz spectra of crystalline pharmaceuticals

The effects of applying an empirical dispersion correction to solid-state density functional theory methods were evaluated in the simulation of the crystal structure and low-frequency (10 to 90 cm(-1)) terahertz spectrum of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, naproxen. The naproxen molecular crystal is bound largely by weak London force interactions, as well as by more prominent interactions such as hydrogen bonding, and thus serves as a good model for the assessment of the pair-wise dispersion correction term in systems influenced by intermolecular interactions of various strengths. Modifications to the dispersion parameters were tested in both fully optimized unit cell dimensions and those determined by X-ray crystallography, with subsequent simulations of the THz spectrum being performed. Use of the unmodified PBE density functional leads to an unrealistic expansion of the unit cell volume and the poor representation of the THz spectrum. Inclusion of a modified dispersion correction enabled a high-quality simulation of the THz spectrum and crystal structure of naproxen to be achieved without the need for artificially constraining the unit cell dimensions.     

A combined density functional theory and coupled cluster method investigation of the structural properties and stabilities of radical CH(2)CP and its isomers

The doublet potential energy surface of radical system [C(2), H(2), P] is investigated at the UB3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) and UCCSD(T)/6-311++G(2df,2p) (single-point) levels. Eight chainlike and three-membered ring structures are located as energy minima connected by 10 interconversion transition states. At the final UCCSD(T)/6-311++G(2df,2p)//UB3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level with zero-point vibrational energy correction, species CH(2)CP is found to be thermodynamically the most stable isomer followed by HCCPH, H-cCPC-H, cPCC-H(H), H-cCCP-H, cis-CC(H)PH, trans-CC(H)PH, and CCPH(2) at 11.01, 12.57, 40.07, 43.63, 50.25, 56.82, and 65.36 kcal/mol, respectively. The computed results indicate that the chainlike isomers CH(2)CP and HCCPH and cyclic radical H-cCPC-H possess considerable kinetic stability at extra low pressures and temperatures. Interestingly, radical CCPH(2), whose energy is the highest in all predicted CH(2)CP isomers, can be also regarded as a kinetically stable species with the smallest isomerization barrier of 22.26 kcal/mol at extra low pressures and temperatures. Therefore, considering higher kinetic stability, in addition to the microwave spectroscopy characterized isomer CH(2)CP in previous experiments, the species HCCPH, H-cCPC-H, and CCPH(2) should be considered as excellent candidates for possible experimental observation. Furthermore, the structural nature of stable radical isomers is discussed based on bonding characteristics, single electron spin distribution, and comparison with their analogues.     

Time-dependent density functional theory investigation of the absorption, fluorescence, and phosphorescence spectra of solvated coumarins

Using time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) and the polarizable continuum model, we have computed the electronic transitions of a large panel of coumarin dyes in their enol, keto, cationic, and anionic forms. Several processes have been studied: absorption, fluorescence, 0-0 phosphorescence, and triplet-triplet excitations. For each process, detailed comparison with experimental data has been carried out. Using the PBE06-31+G(d) scheme, it turns out that for a given electronic transition the experimental shifts resulting from the substitution of the coumarin core are nicely reproduced. Indeed, once a simple statistical correction is applied, the mean absolute errors on the absorption and fluorescence wavelengths are limited to 8 nm (0.09 eV) and 9 nm (0.07 eV), respectively. A valuable correlation between the experimental and theoretical phosphorescence auxochromic displacements has also been unravelled. The differences between the wavelengths of the various electronic processes of a given dye tend to be fairly predicted, especially for the fluorescence-phosphoresence shifts that are strongly overestimated by TD-DFT.     

Argon-matrix-isolation Raman spectra and density functional study of 1,3-butadiene conformers

s-trans, s-cis and gauche conformers of 1,3-butadiene have been studied using density functional theory and the coupled-cluster method using double substitutions (CCD). Matrix isolation Raman and IR data for the minor conformer were obtained and are used in combination with the theoretical results to resolve earlier ambiguities in vibrational assignments. Based on high-quality Hessians, new harmonic stretching force constants are reported for the carbon backbone of s-trans-1,3-butadiene. For the minor conformer the best unscaled root mean square error of the calculated frequencies for the s-cis and gauche geometries are 17.5 cm⁻¹ and 7.4 cm⁻¹, respectively, primarily due to a better agreement of the gauche results for the vibrations at 983 cm⁻¹, 596 cm⁻¹ and 470 cm⁻¹ which depend strongly on the torsional angle. Although this points towards the gauche form rather than the s-cis form, the calculated transition dipole moment directions at the CCD/6-311G(d,p) level confirm the earlier conclusion that the minor conformer has C _{2 v} symmetry in the matrix. It is concluded that either the better agreement between the frequencies calculated for the gauche form and the observed values is coincidental, or that the molecule is indeed nonplanar in the matrix and tunnels very rapidly between the two mirror-image forms (or its lowest vibrational level lies above the barrier). Received: 1 July 1998 / Accepted: 26 October 1998 / Published online: 15 February 1999     

Time-dependent density functional theory investigation of the electronic spectra of hexanuclear chalcohalide rhenium(III) clusters

The UV-vis spectra of the hexanuclear chalcohalide rhenium(III) clusters of formula [Re(6)S(8)X(6)](4-) (X(-) = Cl(-), Br(-), I(-)) were investigated at the time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) level employing B3LYP, PBE1PBE, and the double-hybrid B2PLYP functional in combination with the LANL2DZ basis set. We were able to reproduce the red shift experimentally observed when the halide changes from chloride to iodide. However, some discrepancies between experimental results and theory were found. First, we did not observe a remarkable dependence of the experimental ill-resolved bands on the solvent. Indeed, similar spectra were obtained taken CH(2)Cl(2) or CH(3)CN as solvents into account. Second, all calculations explained the origin of the band peaked at the low-energy region in contraposition with the one experimentally assumed by R. Long et al. (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1996, 118, 4603), and theoretically made available by Arratia-Pe?rez et al. (J. Chem. Phys. 1999, 110, 2529). These authors have proposed a ligand-to-cluster charge transfer (LCCT) for all title complexes. Our findings undoubtedly allow such origin to be discarded. While the HGGA functionals lead to a cluster-to-halide ligand charge transfer (CLCT), an intracluster charge transfer (ICCT) has been considered by employing B2PLYP. This contribution showed B2PLYP in the presence of the solvent to be the best performer in studying the UV-vis spectra of large complexes of rhenium(III) containing the Re-S bond. We strongly recommended the use of the double-hybrid B2PLYP in studying UV-vis spectrum of rhenium complexes of size making the computational cost affordable. We expect that our work stimulates new experimental and theoretical investigations of the title complexes to confirm our assignment.     

Optoelectronic properties of benzotrithiophene isomers: A density functional theory study

Benzotrithiophene (BTT) isomers were investigated using density functional theory (DFT) and time‐dependent DFT (TD‐DFT) with the aim to explore their structures, linear optical properties, vertical and adiabatic ionization potentials (IP_v and IP_a), electron affinities (EA_v and EA_a), and reorganization energies (λ). The computed bond lengths and bond angles at the B3LYP/6–311+G (d, p) level of theory are in good agreement with experimental crystal structures of the known BTTs. These molecules are planar with zero dihedral angle, making them an ideal backbone for high charge mobility. The UV–visible spectra of BTT isomers are in the range 280–360 nm. All BTT isomers have low hole/electron reorganization energies, which is the main characteristic of good hole/electron transporting materials, and these isomers in turn have potential applications in the field of organic materials.     

Theoretical investigation of the molecular structure,vibrational spectra,and molecular docking of tramadol using density functional theory

The optimized molecular structures, harmonic vibrational wavenumbers, and the corresponding vibrational assignments of (1S,2S)-tramadol and (1R,2R)-tramadol are computationally examined using the B3LYP density functional theory method together with the standard 6–311++G(d,p) and def2-TVZP basis sets. The optimized structures show that phenolic rings of both 1R,2R and 1S,2S tramadol adopt planar geometry, which are slightly distorted due to the substitution at the meta-position; and the six-membered cyclohexane adopts a slightly distorted chair conformation. The 1S,2S enantiomer is energetically more favorable than 1R,2R with the energy differences of 1.32 and 1.03 kcal/mol obtained at B3LYP/6–311++G(d,p) and B3LYP/Def2-TVZP levels, respectively. The analysis of the binding pocket in the silico molecular docking with the m-opioid receptor shows that it originated two clusters with the 1S,2S enantiomer and one cluster with the 1R,2R enantiomer of tramadol. The results point to a more stable complex of the m-opioid receptor with the 1R,2R enantiomer of tramadol.     

Matrix infrared spectra and density functional theory calculations of molybdenum hydrides

Laser-ablated Mo atoms react with H2 upon condensation in excess argon, neon, and hydrogen. The molybdenum hydrides MoH, MoH2, MoH4, and MoH6 are identified by isotopic substitution (H2, D2, HD, H2 + D2) and by comparison with vibrational frequencies calculated by density functional theory. The MoH2 molecule is bent, MoH4 is tetrahedral, and MoH6 appears to have the distorted trigonal prism structure.     

Absorption spectra of blue-light-emitting oligoquinolines from time-dependent density functional theory

Recently, it has been discovered that a series of four conjugated oligomers, oligoquinolines, exhibits many desirable properties of organic materials for developing high-performance light-emitting diodes: good blue color purity, high brightness, high efficiency, and high glass-transition temperatures. In this work, we investigate the optical absorption of oligoquinolines in the gas phase and chloroform (CHCl3) solution, respectively, using time-dependent density functional theory with the adiabatic approximation for the dynamical exchange-correlation potential. Our calculations show that the first peak of optical absorption corresponds to the lowest singlet excited state, whereas several quasi-degenerate excited states contribute to the experimentally observed higher-frequency peak. We find that, compared with the gas phase, there is a moderate red shift in excitation energy in solution due to the solute-solvent interaction simulated using the polarizable continuum model. Our results show that the lowest singlet excitation energies of oligoquinolines in chloroform solution calculated with the adiabatic hybrid functional PBE0 are in a good agreement with experiments. Our simulated optical absorption agrees well with the experimental data. Finally, analysis of the natural transition orbitals corresponding to the excited states in question underscores the underlying electronic delocalization properties.     

The response of selected isomers of B80 buckyball toward NH3 adsorption: a density functional theory investigation

Density functional theory calculations at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) and B3LYP/6-31+G(d) levels were carried out for the adsorption of NH₃ on three symmetric isomers of B₈₀ {C ₁, T _h, I _h}. To investigate the binding features of B₈₀ isomers with NH₃, different studies including the structural and electronic parameters, the ¹⁴N electric field gradient tensors and the atoms in molecules (AIM) properties were considered. The calculated parameters by these investigations can be used as powerful tools to find out some of the unknown aspects of electronic structures of the boron buckyball and its isomers. According to previous studies, boron buckyball as an amphoteric and a hard molecule has two distinct reactive sites defined as cap and frame which act as an acid and a base, respectively. Regarding the obtained results in this study, all the isomers had the same exposure when NH₃ molecule reacted with the external wall of B₈₀. For instance, the stability of N–B bond in the cap site was significantly more than the stability of N–B bond in the frame. Moreover, the adsorption of NH₃ on frame site showed a considerable reduction in HOMO–LUMO energy gap. According to AIM theory, an electrostatic nature was observed for N–B interaction. Concerning the selected isomers of buckyball, the capability of the NH₃–B₈₀ complexes to localize electron at the N–B bond critical points depend on the reaction sites significantly. In general, ¹⁴N nuclear quadruple coupling constants and asymmetry parameter reveal a remarkable effect of NH₃ adsorption on electronic structure of the B₈₀.     

Doping effects on structural and electronic properties of ladderanes and ladder polysilanes: a density functional theory investigation

Doping effects on the structural and electronic properties of ladderanes and ladder polysilanes have been studied using density functional theory. Two types of doping: substitution with isoelectronic atoms or heteroatoms (or radicals), have been used to design low band gap ladderanes. It is found that the B-doped [n]-ladderanes and 1,2 P-doped [n]-silaladderanes exhibit a very noticeable bent conformation, whereas the 1,2 and 1,3 N-doped ladderanes, P-doped ladderanes, and silaladderanes keep the relatively straight ladder shapes. The isoelectronic atom doping reduces the HOMO-LUMO (H-L) gaps of [n]-ladderanes but increases those of [n]-silaladderanes with n > 5. The present results show that isoelectronic atom doping is not an effective way to decrease the H-L gaps of ladderanes and silaladderanes. Heteroatom doping has a more pronounced effect than the isoelectronic atom doping. The HOMOs of heteroatom-doped ladderanes and silaladderanes are destabilized and LUMOs are stabilized, leading to significant reduction of H-L gaps. Most of the B-, N-, and P-doped [n]-silaladderanes we designed have H-L gaps below 1.5 eV. Therefore, it is expected that these silaladderanes are promising candidates of conductive or semiconductive materials. The heteroatom doping is a viable approach to reduce H-L gaps for the silaladderanes. In addition, it is found that nine different density functionals, including B3LYP, SVWN LDA, four pure GGAs, and three hybrid GGAs, as well as the time-dependent B3LYP method, all lead to the same predictions on the H-L gaps of ladderanes, silaladderanes, as well as their doped derivatives.     

Ab initio and density functional theory studies of peri- and regioselectivity in 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of 1,2-diazepine with nitrile oxide

The first systematic study of all dipolarophile sites of 1,2-diazepine towards nitrile oxide as dipole via 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions has been carried out. To this end, the structural and energetic aspects of seventy-two isomers were determined by means of ab initio and density functional theory methods at different levels of accuracy were performed on all peri- and regio-isomeric forms. The agreement between the calculated and the experimental geometries, regio- and periselectivity of the studied reaction is good in all instances. The dipole condensation with the norcaradiene dipolarophile has been considered seemingly for the first time. The bis-cycloadduct 3a,3b,7,10a-tetrahydro-10 H-[1,2] oxazolo [4,5-d] [1,2,4] oxadiazolo [4,5-b] [1,2] diazepine is the most stable one as predicted by all methods used in this work. However, the tautomerization study of all forms of 1,2-diazepine seems to rule out the existence of the tautomeric form that provides the above mentioned cycloadduct. Consequently, the bis-cycloadduct 5,10-dioxa-1,2,4,11-tetrazatricyclo[7,3,1,0^2,6]trideca-3,7,11-triene is the favored product of this reaction.     

Prediction of iron K-edge absorption spectra using time-dependent density functional theory

Iron K-edge X-ray absorption pre-edge features have been calculated using a time-dependent density functional approach. The influence of functional, solvation, and relativistic effects on the calculated energies and intensities has been examined by correlation of the calculated parameters to experimental data on a series of 10 iron model complexes, which span a range of high-spin and low-spin ferrous and ferric complexes in O(h) to T(d) geometries. Both quadrupole and dipole contributions to the spectra have been calculated. We find that good agreement between theory and experiment is obtained by using the BP86 functional with the CP(PPP) basis set on the Fe and TZVP one of the remaining atoms. Inclusion of solvation yields a small improvement in the calculated energies. However, the inclusion of scalar relativistic effects did not yield any improved correlation with experiment. The use of these methods to uniquely assign individual spectral transitions and to examine experimental contributions to backbonding is discussed.     

Tuning nonlinear optical and optoelectronic properties of vinyl coupled triazene chromophores: a density functional theory and time-dependent density functional theory investigation

Triazenes are a unique class of polyazo compounds containing three consecutive nitrogen atoms in an acyclic arrangement and are promising NLO candidates. In the present work, a series of 15 donor-π-acceptor type vinyl coupled triazene derivatives (VCTDs) with different acceptors (-NO(2), -CN, and -COOH) have been designed, and their structure, nonlinear response, and optoelectronic properties have been studied using density functional theory and time-dependent density functional theory methods. B3LYP/6-311g(d,p) optimized geometries of the designed candidates show delocalization from the acceptor to donor through a π-bridge. Molecular orbital composition analysis reveals that HOMO is stabilized by the π-bridge, whereas acceptors play a major role in the stabilization of LUMO. Among the three acceptors, nitro derivatives are found to be efficient NLO candidates, and tri- and di-substituted cyano and carboxylic acid derivatives also show reasonably good NLO response. The effect of solvation on these properties has been studied using PCM calculations. From TDDFT calculations, the computed absorption spectra of these candidates lie in the range of 350-480 nm in the gas phase and have positive solvatochromism. The ground-state stabilization interactions are accounted from NBO calculations. In an effort to substantiate the thermal stability of the designed candidates, computations have been done to identify the weak interactions in the systems through NCI and AIM analysis. In summary, 10 out of 15 designed candidates are found to have excellent NLO and optoelectronic properties.     

Investigation of the low-frequency vibrations of crystalline tartaric acid using terahertz spectroscopy and solid-state density functional theory

The room temperature and cryogenic terahertz (THz) spectra (10-95 cm(-1)) of l-tartaric acid and dl-tartaric acid were investigated. At 293 K, the l-tartaric acid spectrum showed four absorption features at 36.4, 61.6, 78.7, and 87.3 cm(-1) in the experimental spectrum. Once cooled to 78 K, these features narrowed and shifted to 35.9, 63.4, 81.1, and 90.1 cm(-1). The THz spectrum of dl-tartaric acid is significantly different, containing only a single absorption at 79.9 cm(-1) at room temperature, which shifts to 82.9 cm(-1) at 78 K. Solid-state density functional theory calculations [B3LYP/6-311G(2d,2p)] were performed to simulate the crystalline structure of both molecular solids and to assign the observed spectral features to specific atomic motions. The THz spectrum of l-tartaric acid is particularly interesting in that it contains a theoretically unaccounted for spectral feature that may arise from second-order phonon processes and also exhibits an anomalous red-shifting absorption feature with cooling that is shown to originate from negative thermal expansion of the crystal.     

Transient resonance Raman and density functional theory investigation of the 4-acetamidophenylnitrenium ion

This paper reports a transient resonance Raman and density functional theory study of the 4-acetamidophenylnitrenium ion in a mostly aqueous solvent. The transient Raman bands combined with results from density functional theory calculations indicate that the spectrum should be assigned to the singlet state of the 4-acetamidophenylnitrenium ion. The 4-acetamidophenylnitrenium ion was found to have a substantial iminocyclohexadienyl character comparable to previously studied para-phenyl-substituted phenylnitrenium ions and noticeable charge on both the acetamido and nitrenium moieties. The structure and properties of the 4-acetamidophenylnitrenium ion are compared to those of other arylnitrenium ions. We briefly discuss the chemical reactivity and selectivity of the para-acetamido-substituted phenylnitrenium ions compared to para-phenyl- or para-alkoxy-substituted phenylnitrenium ions.     

Using density functional theory to interpret the infrared spectra of flexible cyclic phosphazenes

The cyclic phosphazene trimer P(3)N(3)(OCH(2)CF(3))(6)and the related cyclic tetramer P(4)N(4)(OCH(2)CF(3))(8) have been synthesized, isolated and their vapor-phase absorption spectra recorded at moderate resolution using an FTIR spectrometer. The interpretation of these spectra is achieved primarily by comparison with the results of high-precision density functional calculations, which enable the principal absorption features to be assigned and conclusions to be drawn regarding the geometries and conformations adopted by both molecules. These in turn allow interesting comparisons to be made with analogous cyclic halo-phosphazenes (such as P(3)N(3)Cl(6)) and other related ring compounds. The highly flexible nature of the two cyclic phosphazenes precludes a complete theoretical study of their potential energy hypersurfaces and a novel alternative approach involving the analysis of a carefully selected subset of the possible molecular conformations has been shown to produce satisfactory results. The two cyclic phosphazene oligomers have been proposed as the major low-to-medium temperature pyrolysis products of the parent polyphosphazene (PN(OCH(2)CF(3))(2))(n), and the identification of vibrational absorption features characteristic of each molecule will enable future studies to test the validity of this proposition.     

Noncovalent interactions in paired DNA nucleobases investigated by terahertz spectroscopy and solid-state density functional theory

Cocrystallized adenine and thymine derivatives, along with the pure monomeric crystals, were investigated by terahertz spectroscopy and solid-state density functional theory (DFT). The methylated nucleobase derivatives crystallize in planar hydrogen-bonded adenine-thymine pairs similar to the manner found in DNA. The spectra obtained for 1-methylthymine, 9-methyladenine, and the 1:1 cocrystal in the range of 10-100 cm(-1) clearly demonstrate that absorptions in this spectral range originate from the uniquely ordered assembly and the intermolecular interactions found in each individual crystal system. The quality of spectral reproduction for the DFT simulations of each system was clearly improved by the inclusion of an empirical correction term for London-type dispersion forces to the calculations. Notably, it was found that these weak dispersion forces in the adenine-thymine cocrystal were necessary to produce a properly converged crystal structure and meaningful simulation of the terahertz vibrational spectrum.