From Atomistic Surface Chemistry to Nanocrystals of Functional Chalcogenides

Synthesis and utilization of nanocrystals are highly active fields of current research, but they require a thorough understanding of the underlying crystal surfaces. In this Minireview, we span the arc from surfaces to free nanocrystals, and onward to their chemical synthesis, using as examples lead selenide (PbSe), tin telluride (SnTe), and their direct chemical relatives. Besides experimental insights, we highlight the increasingly influential role played by quantum‐chemical simulations of surfaces and nanocrystals. What can theory do today, or possibly tomorrow; where are its limits? Answering these questions, and skillfully linking them to experiments, could open up new atomistically (that is, chemically) guided perspectives for nanosynthesis.     

Atoms-In-Molecules’ Faces of Chemical Hardness by Conceptual Density Functional Theory

The chemical hardness concept and its realization within the conceptual density functional theory is approached with innovative perspectives, such as the electronegativity and hardness equalization of atoms in molecules connected with the softness kernel, in order to examine the structure–reactivity equalization ansatz between the electronic sharing index and the charge transfer either in the additive or geometrical mean picture of bonding. On the other hand, the maximum hardness principle presents a relation with the chemical stability of the hardness concept. In light of the inverse relation between hardness and polarizability, the minimum polarizability principle has been proposed. Additionally, this review includes important applications of the chemical hardness concept to solid-state chemistry. The mentioned applications support the validity of the electronic structure principles regarding chemical hardness and polarizability in solid-state chemistry.     

Theoretical Study of the N-NO2 Bond Dissociation Energies for Energetic Materials with Density Functional Theory

The N-NO2 bond dissociation energies （BDEs） for 7 energetic materials were computed by means of accurate density functional theory （B3LYP, B3PW91 and B3P86） with 6-31G＊＊ and 6-311G＊＊ basis sets. By comparing the computed energies and experimental results, we find that the B3P86/6-311G＊＊ method can give good results of BDE, which has the mean absolute deviation of 1.30kcal/mol. In addition, substituent effects were also taken into account. It is noted that the Hammett constants of substituent groups are related to the BDEs of the N-NO2 bond and the bond dissociation energies of the energetic materials studied decrease when increasing the number of NO2 group.     

Towards an order-N DFT method

One of the most important steps in a Kohn-Sham (KS) type density functional theory calculation is the construction of the matrix of the KS operator (the “Fock” matrix). It is desirable to develop an algorithm for this step that scales linearly with system size. We discuss attempts to achieve linear scaling for the calculation of the matrix elements of the exchange-correlation and Coulomb potentials within a particular implementation (the Amsterdam density functional, ADF, code) of the KS method. In the ADF scheme the matrix elements are completely determined by 3D numerical integration, the value of the potentials in each grid point being determined with the help of an auxiliary function representation of the electronic density. Nearly linear scaling for building the total Fock matrix is demonstrated for systems of intermediate size (in the order of 1000 atoms). For larger systems further development is desirable for the treatment of the Coulomb potential. Received: 30 March 1998 / Accepted: 6 July 1998 / Published online: 15 September 1998     

The Becke Fuzzy Cells Integration Scheme in the Amsterdam Density Functional Program Suite

In this article, we document a new implementation of the fuzzy cells scheme for numerical integration in polyatomic systems [Becke, J. Chem. Phys. 1998, 88, 2547] and compare its efficiency and accuracy with respect to an integration scheme based on the Voronoi space partitioning. We show that the accuracy of both methods is comparable, but that the fuzzy cells scheme is better suited for geometry optimization. For this method, we also introduce the locally dense grid concept and present a proof‐of‐concept application. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Design of Stereoelectronically Promoted Super Lewis Acids and Unprecedented Chemistry of Their Complexes

A new family of stereoelectronically promoted aluminum and scandium super Lewis acids is introduced on the basis of state‐of‐the‐art computations. Structures of these molecules are designed to minimize resonance electron donation to central metal atoms in the Lewis acids. Acidity of these species is evaluated on the basis of their fluoride‐ion affinities relative to the antimony pentafluoride reference system. It is demonstrated that introduced changes in the stereochemistry of the designed ligands increase acidity considerably relative to Al and Sc complexes with analogous monodentate ligands. The high stability of fluoride complexes of these species makes them ideal candidates to be used as weakly coordinating anions in combination with highly reactive cations instead of conventional Lewis acid–fluoride complexes. Further, the interaction of all designed molecules with methane is investigated. All studied acids form stable pentavalent‐carbon complexes with methane. In addition, interactions of the strongest acid of this family with very weak bases, namely, H₂, N₂, carbon oxides, and noble gases were investigated; it is demonstrated that this compound can form considerably stable complexes with the aforementioned molecules. To the best of our knowledge, carbonyl and nitrogen complexes of this species are the first hypothetical four‐coordinated carbonyl and nitrogen complexes of aluminum. The nature of bonding in these systems is studied in detail by various bonding analysis approaches.     

The dependence on and continuity of the energy and other molecular properties with respect to the number of electrons

It was recently shown that the size consistency of the energy implies that, for any system with a rational number of electrons, the energy is given by the weighted average of the two systems with the nearest integer numbers of electrons. Specifically, E[N+P/Q] = (1−P/Q)E[N] + (P/Q)E[N+1]. This paper extends that analysis, showing that the same result holds for irrational numbers of electrons. This proves that the energy is a continuous function of the number of electrons, and justifies differentiation with respect to electron number, providing a rigorous justification or the density-functional theoretic approaches to chemical concepts like the electronegativity and the Fukui function. Similar results hold for properties other than the energy. Specific emphasis is placed on molecular response properties associated with the density-functional theory of chemical reactivity.     

Comparative DFT study of N2 and no adsorption on vanadium clusters Vn (n = 2–13)

Using gradient‐corrected density functional theory, we have comparatively studied the adsorption properties of diatomic molecules N₂ and NO on vanadium clusters up to 13 atoms. Spontaneous dissociation is found for N₂ adsorbing on V_n with n = 4–6, 12, and for NO with n = 3–12, respectively, whereas for the rest of the clusters, N₂ (NO) molecularly adsorbs on the cluster for all the possible sites. The incoming N₂ retains the magnetism of V_n except for V₂ and V₆ whose moments are quenched from 2 μ_B to zero. Consequently, the moments of V_nN₂ (n = 2–13) show even/odd oscillation between 0 and 1 μ_B. On the adsorption of NO, the magnetic moments of V_n with closed electronic shell are raised to 1 μ_B at n = 4, 8, and 10, and 3 μ_B at n = 12, whereas for open shell clusters, their magnetic moments increase for n = 5 and 9 and decrease for n = 2, 3, 5–7, 11, and 13 by 1 μ_B. These findings are rationalized by combinatory analysis from several aspects, for example, the geometry and stability of bare clusters, charge transfer induced by the adsorption, feature of frontier orbitals, and spin density distribution. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

烷基烯酮二聚体（AKD）与乙醇反应活性的分析及反应物结构的表征

利用密度泛函理论（DFT）的方法和Gaussian 03程序软件包研究了烷基酮二聚体（AKD）与乙醇的反应活性.用B3LYP的方法,在6-311G＋＋（d,p）水平上对AKD进行了稳定结构的优化,计算得到了Mulliken电荷分布、能量和前沿分子轨道特征等.结果表明AKD内酯环上C（54）有较高的正电荷,能够与亲核试剂...     

Halogen bonds with benzene: An assessment of DFT functionals

The performance of an extensive set of density functional theory functionals has been tested against CCSD(T) and MP2 results, extrapolated to the complete basis set (CBS) limit, for the interaction of either DCl or DBr (D = H, HCC, F, and NC) with the aromatic system of benzene. It was found that double hybrid functionals explicitly including dispersion, that is, B2PLYPD and mPW2PLYPD, provide the better agreement with the CCSD(T)/CBS results on both energies and equilibrium geometry, indicating the importance of dispersive contributions in determining this interaction. Among the less expensive functionals, the better performance is provided by the ωB97X and M062X functionals, while the ωB97XD and B97D functionals are shown to work very well for bromine complexes but not so well for chlorine complexes. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Chemical reactivity of the compressed noble gas atoms and their reactivity dynamics during collisions with protons

Attempts are made to gain insights into the effect of confinement of noble gas atoms on their various reactivity indices. Systems become harder, less polarizable and difficult to excite as the compression increases. Ionization also causes similar effects. A quantum fluid density functional technique is adopted in order to study the dynamics of reactivity parameters during a collision between protons and He atoms in different electronic states for various projectile velocities and impact parameters. Dynamical variants of the principles of maximum hardness, minimum polarizability and maximum entropy are found to be operative.     

Partition potential for hydrogen bonding in formic acid dimers

The ground-state energy and density of 4 low-energy conformations of the formic acid dimer were calculated via partition density functional theory (PDFT). The differences between isolated and PDFT monomer densities display similar deformation patterns for primary and secondary hydrogen bonds (HBs) among all 4 dimers. In contrast, the partition potential shows no transferable features in the bonding regions. These observations highlight the global character of the partition potential and the cooperative effect that occurs when a dimer is bound via more than 1 HB. We also provide numerical confirmation of the intuitive (but unproven) observation that fragment deformation energies are larger for systems with larger binding energies.     

A density functional theory study on lewis acid‐catalyzed transesterification of β‐oxodithioesters

The detailed mechanisms of the Lewis acid‐catalyzed transesterification of β‐oxodithioesters at a solvent‐free condition were studied using density functional theory. Five possible reaction pathways, including one noncatalyzed (channel 1) and four Lewis acid‐catalyzed channels (SnCl₂‐catalyzed channels 2 and 3 and SnCl₂·2H₂O‐catalyzed channels 4 and 5), were investigated. Our calculated results indicate that the energy barriers of the catalyzed channels are significantly lower than that of channel 1. Channel 5, which has an energy barrier of 33.70 kcal/mol as calculated at the B3LYP/[6‐31G(d, p)+LANL2DZ] level, is the most energy‐favorable channel. Moreover, one water molecule of SnCl₂·2H₂O participated in the transesterification in channel 5. Thus, we report a novel function of the SnCl₂·2H₂O catalyst, which is quite different from the function of the conventional nonhydrated Lewis acid SnCl₂. To understand the function of these two Lewis acid catalysts better, the global reactivity indexes and natural bond orbital charge were analyzed. This work helps in understanding the function of the Lewis acid in transesterification, and it can provide valuable insight for the rational design of new Lewis acid catalysts. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Predicting Trigger Bonds in Explosive Materials through Wiberg Bond Index Analysis

Understanding the explosive decomposition pathways of high‐energy‐density materials (HEDMs) is important for developing compounds with improved properties. Rapid reaction rates make the detonation mechanisms of HEDMs difficult to understand, so computational tools are used to predict trigger bonds—weak bonds that break, leading to detonation. Wiberg bond indices (WBIs) have been used to compare bond densities in HEDMs to reference molecules to provide a relative scale for the bond strength to predict the activated bonds most likely to break to trigger an explosion. This analysis confirms that X?NO₂ (X=N,C,O) bonds are trigger linkages in common HEDMs such as TNT, RDX and PETN, consistent with previous experimental and theoretical studies. Calculations on a small test set of substituted tetrazoles show that the assignment of the trigger bond depends upon the functionality of the material and that the relative weakening of the bond correlates with experimental impact sensitivities.     

4-羟甲基吡啶－水红移氢键的密度泛函理论研究

使用密度泛函理论B3LYP方法和6-311++G**基函数对4-羟甲基吡啶与水形成的1:1和1:2（摩尔比）氢键复合物进行了理论计算研究,分别得到稳定的4-羟甲基吡啶－H₂O和4-羟甲基吡啶－(H₂O)₂氢键复合物3个和8个。经基组重叠误差和零点振动能校正后,最稳定的1:1和1:2氢键复合物的相互作用能分别为-20.536和-44.246 kJ/mol。振动分析显示O-H···N(O)氢键的形成使复合物中O-H键对称伸缩振动频率红移(减小)。自然键轨道分析表明,4-羟甲基吡啶与水形成最稳定的1:1和1:2氢键复合物时,分子间电荷转移分别为0.02642 e 和0.03813 e 。含时密度泛函理论TD-B3LYP/ 6-311++G**计算显示,相对于4-羟甲基吡啶单体分子,氢键H-OH···N和H-OH···OH的形成分别使最大吸收光谱波长兰移8~16纳米和红移4~11纳米。     

相对论量子化学新进展

本文详细阐述了相对论量子化学的基本概念和原理,在此基础上评述了相对论量子化学领域的最新进展。指出,不靠数学技巧,而仅凭"用原子（分子片）合成分子"这一思想就可以大大简化分子的相对论计算,使四分量完全相对论和二分量准相对论方法在简洁性、计算精度、计算效率诸方面达到完全一致;作者发展的新一代准相对论方法XQR（exact matrix quasi-relativistic theory）不仅准确、简单,而且是联系相对论Dirac方程和非相对论Schrodinger方程的"无缝桥梁"。这是概念上的一大突破。可以说,化学（和普通物理）中的相对论问题已经得到解决。本文还展望了相对论量子化学未来的发展方向。