An HF and DFT ab initio Study on the Mechanism of ortho‐Directed Lithiation of Hydric and Nonhydric Aromatic Compounds Incorporating Aggregation and Discrete Solvation: The Role of N,N,N′,N′‐Tetramethylethane‐1,2‐diamine (TMEDA) in Lithiation Reactions

An HF and DFT ab initio study was set up to decipher the roles of aggregation and solvation in the ortho‐directed lithiation of aromatics (hydric and nonhydric), as well as to shed light on the much debated question of precomplexation in the mechanism of lithiation. Ab initio (HF/6‐31‐G*) calculations on the lithiation of non‐hydric aromatics have uncovered several competitive routes operating as a function of the aggregation state of the organolithium base used. Specifically, two competitive routes were found for the lithiation of the anisole model 2 by organolithium dimers 1‐dim , namely the so‐called cyclic‐dimer and open‐dimer routes, whereas, for organolithium tetramers 1‐tet , the corresponding cyclic route is the only one operative, and, for monomers 1‐mon , several optional routes seem to be available. Precomplexation is, in all cases, a requirement. According to the computational data presented, the mysterious rate acceleration experimentally observed for lithiations carried out in TMEDA can be assigned to an aggregation effect on the intermediate open‐dimer species, which subsidiarily give rise to several so‐called s‐monomer routes, of which the dimerization‐driven s‐monomer route s‐m_3b is the one having the lowest energy barrier. The relevant species characteristic of both the open‐dimer and s‐monomer routes are the so‐called open dimers, i.e., high‐energy intermediates (actually, spiro dimeric aggregates), resulting from cleavage‐induced associative complexation of the aromatic substrate upon the fully solvated organolithium dimer. DFT calculations (B3LYP/6‐31+G*) also revealed that the peri‐lithiation (i.e., Li at C(8)) of 1‐naphthol model 3 is a slow process taking place preferentially through the open‐dimer route.     

NIR‐Absorbing π‐Extended Azulene: Non‐Alternant Isomer of Terrylene Bisimide

The first planar π‐extended azulene that retains aromaticity of odd‐membered rings was synthesized by [3+3] peri‐annulation of two naphthalene imides at both long‐edge sides of azulene. Using bromination and subsequent nucleophilic substitution by methoxide and morpholine, selective functionalization of the π‐extended azulene was achieved. Whilst these new azulenes can be regarded as isomers of terrylene bisimide they exhibit entirely different properties, which include very narrow optical and electrochemical gaps. DFT, TD‐DFT, as well as nucleus‐independent chemical shift calculations were applied to explain the structural and functional properties of these new π scaffolds. Furthermore, X‐ray crystallography confirmed the planarity of the reported π‐scaffolds and aromaticity of their azulene moiety.     

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.     

Density functional calculations of NMR chemical shifts and ESR g-tensors

An overview is given on recent advances of density functional theory (DFT) as applied to the calculation of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) chemical shifts and electron spin resonance (ESR) g-tensors. This is a new research area that has seen tremendous progress and success recently; we try to present some of these developments. DFT accounts for correlation effects efficiently. Therefore, it is the only first-principle method that can handle NMR calculations on large systems like transition-metal complexes. Relativistic effects become important for heavier element compounds; here we show how they can be accounted for. The ESR g-tensor is related conceptually to the NMR shielding, and results of g-tensor calculations are presented. DFT has been very successful in its application to magnetic properties, for metal complexes in particular. However, there are still certain shortcomings and limitations, e.g., in the exchange-correlation functional, that are discussed as well. Received: 24 October 1997 / Accepted: 19 December 1997     

Highly Selective “Turn‐On” Fluorescent and Colorimetric Sensing of Fluoride Ion Using 2‐(2‐Hydroxyphenyl)‐2,3‐dihydroquinolin‐4(1 H)‐one based on Excited‐State Proton Transfer

A simple, highly selective and sensitive colorimetric system for the detection of fluoride ion in an aqueous medium has been developed using 2‐(2‐hydroxyphenyl)‐2,3‐dihydroquinolin‐4(1 H)‐one. This system allows selective “turn‐on” fluorescence detection of fluoride ion, which is found to be dependent upon guest basicity. An excited‐state proton transfer is proposed to be the signaling mechanism, which is rationalized by DFT and TD‐DFT calculations. The present sensor can also be applied to detect fluoride levels in real water samples.     

Accurate density functional theory description of binding constants and NMR chemical shifts of weakly interacting complexes of C60 with corannulene‐based molecular bowls

Density functional calculations on “catch and release” complexes of C₆₀ with corannulene derived molecular bowls show that computationally obtained ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) chemical shifts can be used as a reliable predictor of binding constants. A wide range of functionals was benchmarked against accurate ab initio calculations to ensure a credible representation of the weak forces that dominate the interactions in these systems. The most reliable density functional theory (DFT) results were then calibrated using experimentally observed NMR data. Careful analysis and comparison of a wide range of commonly used density functionals shows that the explicit inclusion of dispersion corrections is currently the only reliable way to accurately describe the systems investigated in our study. Moreover, we are able to show that the B97‐D and ωB97X‐D functionals are not only able to reproduce ab initio benchmark calculations, but they do so accurately with a moderately sized basis sets and without the problems of numerical integration we encountered with other functionals in this study. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

How dependent are molecular and atomic properties on the electronic structure method? Comparison of Hartree‐Fock,DFT, and MP2 on a biologically relevant set of molecules

This article compares molecular properties and atomic properties defined by the quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) obtained from three underlying levels of theory: MP2(full), density functional theory (DFT) (B3LYP), and Hartree‐Fock (H‐F). The same basis set (6‐311++G(d,p)) has been used throughout the study. The calculations and comparisons were applied to a set of 30 small molecules representing common fragments of biological molecules. The molecular properties investigated are the energies and the electrostatic moments (up to and including the quadrupoles), and the atomic properties include electron populations (and atomic charge), atomic dipolar and quadrupolar polarizations, atomic volumes, and corrected and raw atomic energies. The Cartesian distance between dipole vectors and the Frobenius distance between the quadrupole tensors calculated at the three levels of theory provide a measure of their correlation (or lack thereof). With the exception of energies (atomic and molecular), it is found that both DFT and H‐F are in excellent agreement with MP2, especially with regards to the electrostatic mutipoles up to the quadrupoles, but DFT and MP2 agree better in almost all studied properties (with the exception of molecular geometries). QTAIM properties whether obtained from H‐F, DFT(B3LYP), or MP2 calculations when used in the construction of empirical correlations with experiment such as quantitative structure‐activity‐(or property)‐relationships (QSAR/QSPR) are equivalent (because the properties calculated at the three levels are very highly correlated among themselves with r² typically >0.95, and therefore preserving trends). These results suggest that the massive volume of results that were published in the older literature at the H‐F level is valid especially when used to study trends or in QSAR or QSPR studies, and, as long as our test set of molecules is representative, there is no pressing need to re‐evaluate them at other levels of theory except when inadequate basis sets were used by today's standards. Extensive tabulation of molecular and atomic properties at the three theoretical levels is available in the Supporting Information, including optimized geometries, molecular energies, virial ratios, molecular electrostatic moments up to and including hexadecapoles, atomic populations, atomic volumes, atomic electrostatic moments up to and including the quadrupoles, and atomic energies. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2010     

Barrier heights of hydrogen‐transfer reactions with diffusion quantum monte carlo method

Hydrogen‐transfer reactions are an important class of reactions in many chemical and biological processes. Barrier heights of H‐transfer reactions are underestimated significantly by popular exchange–correlation functional with density functional theory (DFT), while coupled‐cluster (CC) method is quite expensive and can be applied only to rather small systems. Quantum Monte‐Carlo method can usually provide reliable results for large systems. Performance of fixed‐node diffusion quantum Monte‐Carlo method (FN‐DMC) on barrier heights of the 19 H‐transfer reactions in the HTBH38/08 database is investigated in this study with the trial wavefunctions of the single‐Slater–Jastrow form and orbitals from DFT using local density approximation. Our results show that barrier heights of these reactions can be calculated rather accurately using FN‐DMC and the mean absolute error is 1.0 kcal/mol in all‐electron calculations. Introduction of pseudopotentials (PP) in FN‐DMC calculations improves efficiency pronouncedly. According to our results, error of the employed PPs is smaller than that of the present CCSD(T) and FN‐DMC calculations. FN‐DMC using PPs can thus be applied to investigate H‐transfer reactions involving larger molecules reliably. In addition, bond dissociation energies of the involved molecules using FN‐DMC are in excellent agreement with reference values and they are even better than results of the employed CCSD(T) calculations using the aug‐cc‐pVQZ basis set. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Ground- and excited-state properties of inorganic solids from full-potential density-functional calculations

The development in theoretical condensed-matter science based on density-functional theory (DFT) has reached a level where it is possible, from “parameter-free” quantum mechanical calculations to obtain total energies, forces, vibrational frequencies, magnetic moments, mechanical and optical properties and so forth. The calculation of such properties are important in the analyses of experimental data and they can be predicted with a precision that is sufficient for comparison with experiments. It is almost impossible to do justice to all developments achieved by DFT because of its rapid growth. Hence, it has here been focused on a few advances, primarily from our laboratory. Unusual bonding behaviors in complex materials are conveniently explored using the combination of charge density, charge transfer, and electron-localization function along with crystal-orbital Hamilton-population analyses. It is indicated that the elastic properties of materials can reliably be predicted from DFT calculations if one takes into account the structural relaxations along with gradient corrections in the calculations. Experimental techniques have their limitations in studies of the structural stability and pressure-induced structural transitions in hydride materials whereas the present theoretical approach can be applied to reliably predict properties under extreme pressures. From the spin-polarized, relativistic full-potential calculations one can study novel materials such as ruthenates, quasi-one-dimensional oxides, and spin-, charge-, and orbital-ordering in magnetic perovskite-like oxides. The importance of orbital-polarization correction to the DFT to predict the magnetic anisotropy in transition-metal compounds and magnetic moments in lanthanides and actinides are emphasized. Apart from the full-potential treatment, proper magnetic ordering as well as structural distortions have to be taken into account to predict correctly the insulating behavior of transition-metal oxides. The computational variants LDA and GGA fail to predict insulating behavior of Mott insulators whereas electronic structures can be described correctly when correlation effects are taken into account through LDA+U or similar approaches to explain their electronic structures correctly. Excited-state properties such as linear optical properties, magneto-optical properties, XANES, XPS, UPS, BIS, and Raman spectra can be obtained from accurate DFT calculations.     

Spectrum–Structure Relationship in Carbohydrate Vibrational Circular Dichroism and Its Application to Glycoconjugates

Preliminary reports of the nature of the vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) peak at around 1145 cm^?1, which is characteristic of axial glycosidic sugars and is called the glycoside band (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004 , 126, 9496), have been throughly examined. Through systematic carbohydrate measurements, it was found that the sign of the glycoside band reflects not only the anomeric configuration but also the pyranose conformation. Isotope and theoretical studies characterized its vibrational mode as C1–H1 deformation coupled with C1–O1 stretching, which indicates its applicability to more‐complicated glycoconjugates. In this study, for the first time, carbohydrate VCD spectra were reliably predicted by means of density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The VCD technique was applied to glycopeptides, and simultaneous analysis of both the carbohydrate and aglycan parts was carried out.     

QMX: A versatile environment for hybrid calculations applied to the grafting of Al2Cl3Me3 on a silica surface

We present a new software to easily perform QM:MM and QM:QM' calculations called QMX. It follows the subtraction scheme and it is implemented in the Atomic Simulation Environment (ASE). Special attention is paid to couple molecular calculations with periodic boundaries approaches. QMX inherits the flexibility and versatility of the ASE package: any combination of methods namely force field, semiempirical, first principle, and ab initio, can be used as hybrid potential energy surface (PES). Its ease of use is demonstrated by considering the adsorption of Al₂Cl₃Me₃ on silica surface and by combining different levels of theory (from standard DFT to MP2 calculations) for the so‐called High Level cluster with standard PW91 density functional theory calculations for the Low Level environment. It is shown that the High Level cluster must contain the silanol group close to the aluminum atoms. The bridging adsorption is favored by 58 kJ mol^?1 at the MP2:PW91 level with respect to the terminal position. Using large clusters at the MP2:PW91 level, it is shown that PW91 calculations are sufficient for structure optimization but that embedded methods are required for accurate energy profiles. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Acceleration of catalyst discovery with easy,fast, and reproducible computational alchemy

The expense of quantum chemistry calculations significantly hinders the search for novel catalysts. Here, we provide a tutorial for using an easy and highly cost‐efficient calculation scheme, called alchemical perturbation density functional theory (APDFT), for rapid predictions of binding energies of reaction intermediates and reaction barrier heights based on the Kohn‐Sham density functional theory (DFT) reference data. We outline standard procedures used in computational catalysis applications, explain how computational alchemy calculations can be carried out for those applications, and then present benchmarking studies of binding energy and barrier height predictions. Using a single OH binding energy on the Pt(111) surface as a reference case, we use computational alchemy to predict binding energies of 32 variations of this system with a mean unsigned error of less than 0.05 eV relative to single‐point DFT calculations. Using a single nudged elastic band calculation for CH₄ dehydrogenation on Pt(111) as a reference case, we generate 32 new pathways with barrier heights having mean unsigned errors of less than 0.3 eV relative to single‐point DFT calculations. Notably, this easy APDFT scheme brings no appreciable computational cost once reference calculations are performed, and this shows that simple applications of computational alchemy can significantly impact DFT‐driven explorations for catalysts. To accelerate computational catalysis discovery and ensure computational reproducibility, we also include Python modules that allow users to perform their own computational alchemy calculations.     

Impact of replacement of the central benzene ring in anthracene by a heterocyclic ring on electronic excitations and reorganization energies in anthratetrathiophene molecules

The impact of changing the central benzene ring on the electronic excitations and reorganization energies (λ) of the anthratetrathiophene (ATT) molecules is studied by density functional theory (DFT) and time‐dependent DFT (TD‐DFT) quantum chemical calculations. The effect of changing the position of the sulfur atom at the periphery of anthracene on the optical and charge transfer properties is also studied. The calculated results suggest that the HOMO, LUMO, HOMO–LUMO energy gap, ionization potential (IP), electron affinity (EA), hole extraction potential (HEP), electron extraction potential (EEP), and reorganization energies (λ) are affected by replacing the central ring with different heterocyclic rings and the position of the sulfur atom. In addition, all molecules show good hole‐ and electron‐transport properties. This work may be helpful for future design and preparation of high‐performance charge‐transport materials.     

Toward the complete range separation of non‐hybrid exchange–correlation functional

In this study, we use a very simple scheme to achieve range separation of a total exchange–correlation functional. We have utilized this methodology to combine a short‐range pure density functional theory (DFT) functional with a corresponding long‐range pure DFT, leading to a “Range‐separated eXchange–Correlation” (RXC) scheme. By examining the performance of a range of standard exchange–correlation functionals for prototypical short‐ and long‐range properties, we have chosen B‐LYP as the short‐range functional and PBE‐B95 as the long‐range counterpart. The results of our testing using a more diverse range of data sets show that, for properties that we deem to be short‐range in nature, the performance of this prescribed RXC‐DFT protocol does resemble that of B‐LYP in most cases, and vice versa. Thus, this RXC‐DFT protocol already provides meaningful numerical results. Furthermore, we envisage that the general RXC scheme can be easily implemented in computational chemistry software packages. This study paves a way for further refinement of such a range‐separation technique for the development of better performing DFT procedures. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A Joint Theoretical and Experimental Study of the Behavior of the DIDS Inhibitor and its Derivatives

4,4′‐Diisothiocyanostilbene‐2,2′‐disulfonic acid (DIDS) is a well‐known ion‐exchange inhibitor targeting cardiac functions and indirectly impeding both radio‐ and chemo‐resistance. A joint computational and experimental study is presented to provide deeper insights into DIDS and other members of this family of compounds. To this end, we applied state‐of‐the‐art density functional theory (DFT) and time‐dependent DFT methods, in addition to measuring the optical properties. The experimental data show that such compounds are highly sensitive to their environment and that the optical properties change within as little time as 7 h. However, the optical properties of DIDS are similar in various acidic/basic environments, which were confirmed by pK_a computations on both cis and trans isomers. The protonation analysis also highlights that the singly protonated form of DIDS behaves like a proton sponge compound. The experimentally observed redshift that can be seen when going from water to DMSO was reproduced solely by using the solvation model based on density, although the polarization continuum model and implicit/explicit hybrid schemes were also tested. The characteristic broadening of the absorption peak in water and the vibronic fine structure in DMSO were also reproduced thanks to vibronic coupling simulations associated with the solvent reorganization energy. For other stilbene derivatives, a correlation is found between the maximum absorption wavelength and the Hammett parameters.     

Evaluation of Weak Interactions in [2]Pseudorotaxanes

Viologens readily thread bis‐p‐phenylene crown ethers to form [2]pseudorotaxanes. However, the binding of sterically hindered 3,3′‐dimethylviologens is very weak. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicated that the additional energy cost of “flattening” is substantial, 55 kJ mol^?1, and prevents the formation of a stable host–guest complex. The structures of [2]pseudorotaxanes determined by X‐ray crystallography are in good agreement with the NMR characterisation and DFT results. Their association constants and thermodynamic parameters in solution were measured by using a dilution method and, for the first time, by host–guest nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) correlations. The NOE approach was subsequently applied to study the sterically hindered analogues and it was shown that the binding in 3,3′‐dimethyl‐N,N‐dibenzyl [2]pseudorotaxane is by 8.5 kJ mol^?1 weaker than in its regular analogue. The proposed technique helps to quantify weak interactions in [2]pseudorotaxanes and can be applied to other host‐guest complexes.     

On Ethylene Polymerisation with Aluminium and Scandium Complexes: DFT and Post‐HF Calculations

Summary: The performance of Density Functional Theory (DFT) methods in predicting ethylene polymerisation and/or oligomerisation activity in selected aluminium and scandium based complexes was studied using both DFT and post‐Hartree‐Fock CCSD(T) calculations. Whereas previous reports have drawn attention to the underestimation of the barrier for the β‐hydrogen termination process for a few aluminium based species, we found that the same holds for the corresponding scandium complexes. New, however, is the observation that apart from underestimating the energy barrier connected to β‐hydrogen termination, the insertion of ethylene is also severely underestimated by the DFT methods applied compared to post‐Hartree‐Fock calculations up to the CCSD(T) level.

Structure of the diketiminate complex referred to in the text.     

Study of the effect of the ligand structure on the catalytic activity of Pd@ ligand decorated halloysite: Combination of experimental and computational studies

Taking advantage of computational chemistry, the best diamine for the synthesis of a multi‐dentate ligand from the reaction with 3‐(trimethoxysilyl) propylisocyanate (TEPI) was selected. Actually, predictive Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations provided the right diamino chain, i.e. ethylenediamine, capable to sequester a palladium atom, together with the relatively polar solvent toluene, and then undergo the experiments as a selective catalytic agent. The ligand was then prepared and applied for the decoration of the halloysite (Hal) outer surface to furnish an efficient support for the immobilization of Pd nanoparticles. The resulting catalyst exhibited high catalytic activity for hydrogenation of nitroarenes. Moreover, it showed high selectivity towards nitro functional group. The study of the catalyst recyclability confirmed that the catalyst could be recycled for several reaction runs with only slight loss of the catalytic activity and Pd leaching. Hot filtration test also proved the heterogeneous nature of the catalysis.