Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have excellent catalytic activity in liquid phase reaction, especially in aerobic oxidation of cumene. In previous work, the conversion of cumene was 41.8% and the selectivity of cumene hydroperoxide was 71.5%, which was catalyzed by CNTs. But a small amount of impurity Zn2+ totally blocked up the aerobic oxidation of cumene that catalyzed by CNTs, which is an unexpected discovery. By analyzing the catalytic mechanism of CNTs, the inhibition effect of Zn2+ is locked on the abstraction of H atom from cumene. The inhibition of Zn2+ is confirmed in two effects by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Firstly, due to the strongly coordination of active oxygen species (ROS) by Zn2+, the energy barrier of initial reaction increases to 1.90 eV, which is nearly 4 times higher than that of the only ROS promoted-process. Secondly, the interaction of Zn2+ and RO· or ROO· to inhibits the chain propagation reaction of free radicals. This work precisely demonstrates that the inhibition effect of Zn2+ on initial reaction of cumene. The most significant thing is that the effect of metallic heteroatoms is not negligible in organic oxidation reaction.

This work investigates possible improvements in the accuracy of semiempirical quantum chemistry (SQC) methods for the prediction of standard enthalpy of formation (Δ_f H^o) through the use of artificial neural network (ANN) with molecular descriptors. A total number of 142 organic compounds with enough structural diversity has been considered in the training set. Standard enthalpy of formation for the selected compounds at the semiempirical PM3 and PM6 quantum chemistry methods is collected from literature, and is calculated by using semiempirical PM7 method in this work. The multiple stepwise regression is first employed to screen effective molecular descriptors, which are highly correlated with the error terms of the standard enthalpy of formation compared with experimental values. The obtained 7 effective molecular descriptors are then used as input set to establish three 7-11-1 neural network-based correction models to improve the accuracy of SQC methods. By using the developed correction models, the mean absolute errors (MAE) for Δ_f H^oof PM3, PM6, and PM7 methods are reduced from 22.36, 18.60, 17.27to 9.86, 9.83, 8.95, respectively in kJ/mol. Meanwhile, the results of the test set show that the neural network does not have the problem of over-fitting. Detailed analysis of the 7 effective molecular descriptors indicates that the major source to the correction models is from the electron withdrawing effect. The developed ANN models for the three selected SQC methods provide an efficient method for the quick and accurate prediction of thermodynamic properties.

We seek to explain why the hydrogen bond possesses unusual strength in small water clusters that account for many of the complex behaviors of water. We have investigated and visualized the donation of covalent character from covalent (sigma) to hydrogen-bonds, by calculating the eigenvector coupling properties of QTAIM, stress tensor σ(r) and Ehrenfest Force F(r) on the F(r) molecular graph. The next generation 3-D bond-path framework sets are presented and only the F(r) bond-path framework sets reproduce the earlier finding on the coupling between covalent (sigma) and hydrogen-bonds that possess a degree of covalent character. The directional character of the covalent (sigma) and hydrogen-bonds 3-D bond-path framework sets for the F(r) explains differences found in the earlier results from QTAIM and the stress tensor σ(r).

We located ‘hidden’ S-character chirality in formally achiral glycine using a vector-based interpretation of the total electronic charge density distribution. We induced the formation of stereoisomers in glycine by the application of an electric field. Control of chirality was indicated from the proportionate response to a non-structurally distorting electric field. The bond-flexing was determined to be a measure of bond strain, which could be a factor of three lower or higher, depending on the direction of the electric field, than in the absence of the electric field. The bond-anharmonicity was found to be approximately independent of the electric field. We also compared the formally achiral glycine with the chiral molecules alanine and lactic acid, quantifying the preferences for the S and R stereoisomers. The proportional response of the chiral discrimination to the magnitude and direction of the applied electric field indicated use of the chirality discrimination as a molecular similarity measure.

Accurate restricted Hartree-Fock (RHF) wave-functions are used to investigate information theoretic properties of the model problem of two interacting electrons confined within an infinite spherical potential of radius R. Benchmark quality calculations are performed to characterise this system via a range of information measures as a function of the tunable parameter R, across the full electron correlation regime (low to high correlation; small R to large R). Both the Shannon information entropy and a statistical complexity measure provide quantitative insight regarding the onset of the formation of a ‘Wigner molecule’ state for this system.

In this study, three novel sensitizers with the donor-acceptor-π-spacer-acceptor D-A’-π-A) structure were designed based on the benzothiadiazole (BTD) surrounded by two thiophenes in each side (T4) mono-functionalized by an acid phosphonic (A) T4BTD-A dye by insertion of vinyl and cyanide CN electron-withdrawing moiety in a different position. Their geometrical, electronic and photovoltaic parameters were predicted using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) calculations, via the functional BHandH in combination with the Poples basis set 6-311G(d) for small atoms and pseudo-potential basis set LANL2DZ for Titanium atom at the chloroform solvent medium via the implicit CPCM model. Results showed that the inclusion of the C=C and the CN moieties exhibits a decrease in the HOMO–LUMO gap, and a redshift in the absorption spectra. The photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) for the T4BTD-A dye was estimated to be about 6.57 % under the standard AM 1.5G solar radiation, which is in excellent agreement with its measured value of 6.40 %, suggesting that our calculations scheme is consistent. Moreover, the predicted PCE value after elongation of T4BTD-A by C=C and CN has increased to 7.11 % and (7.82 %, 8.09 %) respectively. Our results revealed that the addition of CN electron-withdrawing moiety enhances the PCE of the studied dyes, while the position of CN moiety has a slight effect on the PCE of the studied dyes. Additionally, our calculation suggests that the CCCN1 and CCCN2 are good candidates as efficient sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cell DSSCs applications.

To analyze the evolution of a chemical property along the reaction path, we have to extract all the necessary information from a set of electronic structure computations. However, this process is time-consuming and prone to human error. Here we introduce IRC-Analysis, a new extension in Eyringpy, to monitor the evolution of chemical properties along the intrinsic reaction coordinate, including complete reaction force analysis. IRC-Analysis collects the entire data set for each point on the reaction coordinate, eliminating human error in data capture and allowing the study of several chemical reactions in seconds, regardless of the complexity of the systems. Eyringpy has a simple input format, and no programming skills are required. A tracer has been included to visualize the evolution of a given chemical property along the reaction coordinate. Several properties can be analyzed at the same time. This version can analysis the evolution of bond distances and angles, Wiberg bond indices, natural charges, dipole moments, and orbital energies (and related properties).

Interatomic potentials laid at the heart of molecular physics. They are a bridge between the spectroscopic and structural properties of molecular systems. In this paper, a century-old review from 1920 to 2020, of functional forms used to analytically represent potential energy as a function of interatomic distance for diatomic systems is presented. With such a purpose fifty functions were selected. For all of them, motivation and the main mathematical features are discussed. Our goal is to provide a chronological pathway to the reader, even with little knowledge on the subject, to understand how to calculate each parameter that composes the interatomic potentials, as well as obtain spectroscopic constants from them. Comparative evaluation for the N2, CO, and HeH+ systems in their ground electronic states are also presented.

The idea of designing unprecedented materials made of superatomic building blocks, motivated the present study on endohedral M@C20H20 (M = Li, Na, Mg+) species. Ground and excited electronic structures of M@C20H20 (M = Li, Na, Mg+) were analyzed by means of high-level quantum calculations. In their ground states, one electron occupies a defuse superatomic s-orbital that lies around the C20H20 cage. These entities populate higher angular momentum p-, d-, f-, g-superatomic orbitals in their low-lying electronic states. The proposed superatomic Aufbau shell model for Li@C20H20 and Na@C20H20 is 1s, 1p, 1d, 2s, 1f, 2p, 2d, 1g, 2f slightly different from that of Mg@C20H20+ which is 1s, 1p, 1d, 2s, 1f, 2p, 2d, 1g, 3s, 2f, 2g, 3p. These introduced superatomic orbital series resemble the Aufbau principle of solvated electron precursors.

The emission of carbon dioxide in large amounts is commonly believed to be the main cause of global climate changes. Development of CO2 capture processes is still a big current challenge. Some anions have been studied for the gas sequestration process due their great affinity to CO2. In this work, electronic structure calculations were performed at the MP2/aug-cc-pvtz level to compute the interaction between 20 anions and CO2. A CBS scheme, using extrapolated energies, was also employed for both gas phase and solvent calculations. The reactions between the anions and CO2 were therefore studied in four different conditions (gas phase, toluene, tetrahydrofuran and water). The trends observed for the reaction thermodynamics with the MP2 method is similar to that observed previously with the B3LYP-D3 and M06-2X functionals. The reactions in the gas phase are highly exothermic and do not involve any activation energy. The solvent effect reduces the exothermicity and induces an intrinsic activation barrier. The negative charge is dispersed in the adduct, leading to a weaker interaction in a polar solvent. Then, increasing the medium polarity, the energy difference between the adduct and the reactants decreases. We also observed a limit for solvent stabilization in the low dielectric constant range. For example, the results obtained with tetrahydrofuran are closer to those obtained with water than to those obtained with toluene. Considering both the thermodynamics of the reaction and the differential solvent effects, we were able to indicate anions derived from alkyl sulfides as the most convenient for CO2 sequestration among the set here considered.

Multi-reference configuration interaction, MR-CI (including extensivity corrections, named +Q) calculations have been performed on S0 to S3 states of cyclohexa-2,4-diene-1-thione (thione 24) and cyclohexa-2,5-diene-1-thione (thione 25), which are thione isomers of thiophenol. Several types of uncontracted MR-CIS and MR-CISD wavefunctions have been employed, comprising MR-CI expansions as large as ~ 374 x 106 configuration state functions. The nature of the studied excited states has been characterized. Vertical excitation energies (ΔE) and oscillator strengths (f) have been computed. The most intense transitions (S0→S2 for 24 and S0→S3 for 25) do not change with the wavefunction, although a variation as large as ~ 1 eV has been obtained for the S3 state of 24. On the other hand, ΔE changes at most ~ 0.15 eV for 25, as the wavefunction changes. The S1 state of both thiones has nπ* character and is in the visible region. For 24 S2 and S3 are ππ* and nπ* states, respectively, while for 25 the reverse order has been obtained. S2 and S3 are in the range from ~ 3.5 to 5.2 eV, at the highest level (MR-CI+Q). It is the first time that the excited states of the title molecules are studied. The computed results agree with the experimental onsets of photoreactions of thiones 24 and 25 found by Reva et. al. (Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2015, 17, 4888).

A systematic benchmark of phosphorus and fluorine NMR chemical shifts predictions at six different density functional theory (DFT) / the gauge-including atomic orbital (GIAO) methods was conducted. Two databases were compiled: one consists of 35 phosphorus-containing molecules, which cover the most common intra-molecular bonding environments of trivalent and pentavalent phosphorus atoms; the other is composed of 46 fluorine-containing molecules. The characteristics of each DFT/GIAO method with different solvent models were demonstrated in details. The application of linear regression between the calculated isotropic shielding constants and experimental chemical shifts was applicable to improve the prediction accuracy. And, the best methods with the SMD and CPCM implicit solvent models for 31P chemical shifts predictions, are able to yield a root-mean-square deviation (RMSDs) of 5.58 ppm and 5.42 ppm, respectively; for 19F, the corresponding lowest prediction errors with these two applied solvent models are 4.43 ppm and 4.12 ppm. The developed scaling factors fitted from linear regression are applicable to enhance the chance of successful structural elucidations of phosphorus or fluorine-containing compounds, as an efficient complement to 13C, 1H, 11B and 15N chemical shifts predictions.

C-radical borylation is an significant approach for the construction of carbon−boron bond. Photochemical borylation of aryl halides successfully applied this strategy. However, precise mechanisms, such as the generation of aryl radicals and the role of base additive(TMDAM) and water, remain controversy in these reactions. In this study, photochemical borylation of aryl halides has been researched by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Indeed, the homolytic cleavage of the C−X bond under irradiation with UV-light is a key step for generation of aryl radicals. Nevertheless, the generation of aryl radicals may also undergo the process of single electron transfer and the heterolytic carbon-halogen bond cleavage sequence, and the latter is favorable during the reaction.

Understanding the surface chemistry of nanostructured TiO2 has long been a priority to improve photochemical device efficiency. Faceted nanoparticles, characterized by known facets not at thermodynamically ideal ratios, are particularly challenging to model due to the large number of chemical and computational parameters that must be chosen for which there is no experimental guidance. This research supplies a modeling framework for faceted TiO2 nanoparticles that provides rationale for such decisions. By performing full DFT optimization and characterization on a series of inter-related anatase TiO2 nanoparticles displaying {101}, (001), and {010} facets with sizes up to 202 TiO2 units, parameter space is mapped with regard to particle size, shape, defects, and optimization protocol. Specifically, it is shown that pre-optimization is necessary in order to achieve a sufficiently delocalized electronic structure, and the increased reorganization afforded by removing higher coordinated Ti atoms compensates the high formation energy of creating these defects. Furthermore, by characterizing differently shaped nanoparticles with the same number of TiO2 units, this research provides direct observation of shape effects on nanoparticles.

The effect of a directional electric-field on the bonding of the undoped and sulphur doped diarylethene (DTE) switch molecule is investigated using next generation QTAIM (NG-QTAIM). We introduce chemical bonding concepts in the form of the least and most preferred directions of charge density accumulation relative to the associated bond-path, namely the precessions K and Kʹ that are demonstrated to be much more responsive to the electric-field than the Laplacian ∇2ρ(rb). A concept of bond fatigue is presented in terms of the tendency for a bond-path to rupture that provides directional versions of familiar bonding QTAIM concepts. Examples are included where the applied directional electric-field reduces the tendency towards bond-path rupture and also the converse. A brief discussion is undertaken of applications of the precessions K and Kʹ including switches, ring opening reactions and molecular rotary motors in the presence of fields that cause a redistribution of ρ(r).

Non covalent biliproteins are found in a growing number of living organisms and even in viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2. Unlike the well described covalent biliproteins, such as the phytochromes, they present a vast structural and functional diversity, and often with limited experimental information. A very important tool (and sometimes the only one available) to study these systems is the UV-Vis spectrum, which is modulated both by conformational changes of the biliverdin chromophore and specific interactions with the apoprotein. In this work we present a theoretical study of the microscopic determinants of the UV-Vis spectrum of these compounds through the use of hybrid QM(TD-DFT)/MM techniques and molecular dynamics simulations. Comparing our results with existing experimental data, we prove that it is possible to predict spectroscopic properties, such as relative position and intensity ratio of main bands, with affordable methods, and to provide a microscopic explanation of them. This systematic information can be very useful for the study of described biliproteins or for those yet unknown.

Due to it is potential application in the field of high energy density materials, how to stabilize cyclopentazolate anion (cyclo-N5-) has attracted many interests theoretically and experimentally. Therefore, a series of ion salts containing [cyclo-N5]- were synthesized and studied. The instability of [cyclo-N5]- is caused by the five lone pairs of electrons localized on five neighbored N atoms. In this work, we expect if the [cyclo-N5]- can be stabilized by the coordination with acidic ligands, by weakening the multi repulsion from the lone pairs to stabilize the [cyclo-N5]-. The two compounds of [N5(BH3)5]-, and [N5(AgCN)5]- have been designed and compared based on the Lewis acid-base theory. [N5(H2O)5]- is designed to evaluate the effect of hydrogen bond in the stabilization. For all the structures, we study the bonding properties and thermal stabilities based on the analysis of electronic structures and Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics (CPMD) simulations. The results indicate it is a effective method to stabilize [cyclo-N5]- by introducing the Lewis acid. Our insights on [cyclo-N5]- compounds with high thermal stability under ambient conditions will provide a new idea for the research and synthesis of new high energetic [cyclo-N5]- series compounds.

The transformation mechanism and kinetics of 2-chloro-1,1,2-trifluoroethyl-difluoromethyl-ether (CTDE, CHF2OCF2CHFCl) triggered by OH radicals were researched by DFT methods and canonical variational transition state theory. The computational rate constant including small-curvature tunneling correction was in commendable agreement with the experimental data. Two hydrogen abstraction channels to form the alkyl radicals of C·F2OCF2CHFCl and CHF2OCF2C·FCl were observed, and the formation of CHF2OCF2C·FCl was more favorable than C·F2OCF2CHFCl in kinetics and thermodynamics. Subsequent evolution of CHF2OCF2C·FCl in the presence of NO and O2 indicated that the organic nitrate (CHF2OCF2CONO2FCl) was the stable product. The dechlorinate of alkoxy radical (CHF2OCF2C(O·)FCl) was the most favorable degradation channel and the estimated ozone depletion potential for CTDE relative to CFC-11 was 0.0204, which could lead to a consequence of ozone depletion. Computed atmospheric lifetime for CTDE was 3.69 years by considering the combined contributions from OH radicals and Cl atoms. The total radiative forcing and global warming potential of CTDE were respectively 0.547 W m-2 ppbv and 628.58 (100 years) at 298 K, suggesting that the contribution of CTDE to the greenhouse effect is moderate.