scholarly journals Modeling and characterization of exciplexes in photoredox CO2 reduction: Insights from quantum chemistry and fluorescence spectroscopy

Author(s):  
Kareesa Kron ◽  
Jonathan Ryan Hunt ◽  
Jahan Dawlaty ◽  
Shaama Mallikarjun Sharada

Interactions between excited state arenes and amines can lead to the formation of structures with distinct emission behavior. These excited state complexes or exciplexes can reduce the ability of the arene to participate in other reactions, such as CO2 reduction, or increase the likelihood of degradation via Birch reduction. Exciplex geometries are necessary to understand photophysical behavior and probe degradation pathways but are challenging to calculate. We establish a detailed computational protocol for calculation, verification, and characterization of exciplexes. Using fluorescence spectroscopy, we first demonstrate the formation of exciplexes between excited state oligo-(p-phenylene) (OPP), shown to successfully carry out CO2 reduction, and triethylamine (TEA). Time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) is employed to optimize the geometries of these exciplexes, which are validated by comparing both emission energies and their solvatochromism with experiment. Excited state energy decomposition analysis confirms the predominant role played by charge transfer interactions in the red-shift of emissions relative to the isolated excited state OPP*. We find that although the exciplex emission frequency depends strongly on solvent dielectric, the extent of charge separation in an exciplex does not. Our results also suggest that the formation of solvent-separated ionic radical states upon complete electron transfer competes with exciplex formation in higher dielectric solvents, thereby leading to reduced exciplex emission intensities in fluorescence experiments.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Vasquez ◽  
Agnieszka Dybala-Defratyka

<p></p><p>Very often in order to understand physical and chemical processes taking place among several phases fractionation of naturally abundant isotopes is monitored. Its measurement can be accompanied by theoretical determination to provide a more insightful interpretation of observed phenomena. Predictions are challenging due to the complexity of the effects involved in fractionation such as solvent effects and non-covalent interactions governing the behavior of the system which results in the necessity of using large models of those systems. This is sometimes a bottleneck and limits the theoretical description to only a few methods.<br> In this work vapour pressure isotope effects on evaporation from various organic solvents (ethanol, bromobenzene, dibromomethane, and trichloromethane) in the pure phase are estimated by combining force field or self-consistent charge density-functional tight-binding (SCC-DFTB) atomistic simulations with path integral principle. Furthermore, the recently developed Suzuki-Chin path integral is tested. In general, isotope effects are predicted qualitatively for most of the cases, however, the distinction between position-specific isotope effects observed for ethanol was only reproduced by SCC-DFTB, which indicates the importance of using non-harmonic bond approximations.<br> Energy decomposition analysis performed using the symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) revealed sometimes quite substantial differences in interaction energy depending on whether the studied system was treated classically or quantum mechanically. Those observed differences might be the source of different magnitudes of isotope effects predicted using these two different levels of theory which is of special importance for the systems governed by non-covalent interactions.</p><br><p></p>


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon B. Bizzarro ◽  
Colin K. Egan ◽  
Francesco Paesani

<div> <div> <div> <p>Interaction energies of halide-water dimers, X<sup>-</sup>(H<sub>2</sub>O), and trimers, X<sup>-</sup>(H<sub>2</sub>O)<sub>2</sub>, with X = F, Cl, Br, and I, are investigated using various many-body models and exchange-correlation functionals selected across the hierarchy of density functional theory (DFT) approximations. Analysis of the results obtained with the many-body models demonstrates the need to capture important short-range interactions in the regime of large inter-molecular orbital overlap, such as charge transfer and charge penetration. Failure to reproduce these effects can lead to large deviations relative to reference data calculated at the coupled cluster level of theory. Decompositions of interaction energies carried out with the absolutely localized molecular orbital energy decomposition analysis (ALMO-EDA) method demonstrate that permanent and inductive electrostatic energies are accurately reproduced by all classes of XC functionals (from generalized gradient corrected (GGA) to hybrid and range-separated functionals), while significant variance is found for charge transfer energies predicted by different XC functionals. Since GGA and hybrid XC functionals predict the most and least attractive charge transfer energies, respectively, the large variance is likely due to the delocalization error. In this scenario, the hybrid XC functionals are then expected to provide the most accurate charge transfer energies. The sum of Pauli repulsion and dispersion energies are the most varied among the XC functionals, but it is found that a correspondence between the interaction energy and the ALMO EDA total frozen energy may be used to determine accurate estimates for these contributions. </p> </div> </div> </div>


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samaneh Pasban ◽  
Heidar Raissi

AbstractHexakis (m-phenylene ethynylene) (m-PE) macrocycles, with aromatic backbones and multiple hydrogen-bonding side chains, had a very high propensity to self-assemble via H-bond and π–π stacking interactions to form nanotubular structures with defined inner pores. Such stacking of rigid macrocycles is leading to novel applications that enable the researchers to explored mass transport in the sub-nanometer scale. Herein, we performed density functional theory (DFT) calculations to examine the drug delivery performance of the hexakis dimer as a novel carrier for doxorubicin (DOX) agent in the chloroform and water solvents. Based on the DFT results, it is found that the adsorption of DOX on the carrier surface is typically physisorption with the adsorption strength values of − 115.14 and − 83.37 kJ/mol in outside and inside complexes, respectively, and so that the essence of the drug remains intact. The negative values of the binding energies for all complexes indicate the stability of the drug molecule inside and outside the carrier's cavities. The energy decomposition analysis (EDA) has also been performed and shown that the dispersion interaction has an essential role in stabilizing the drug-hexakis dimer complexes. To further explore the electronic properties of dox, the partial density of states (PDOS and TDOS) are calculated. The atom in molecules (AIM) and Becke surface (BS) methods are also analyzed to provide an inside view of the nature and strength of the H-bonding interactions in complexes. The obtained results indicate that in all studied complexes, H-bond formation is the driving force in the stabilization of these structures, and also chloroform solvent is more favorable than the water solution. Overall, our findings offer insightful information on the efficient utilization of hexakis dimer as drug delivery systems to deliver anti-cancer drugs.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 2727-2736 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego M Andrada ◽  
Nicole Holzmann ◽  
Thomas Hamadi ◽  
Gernot Frenking

Fifteen cyclic and acylic carbenes have been calculated with density functional theory at the BP86/def2-TZVPP level. The strength of the internal X→p(π) π-donation of heteroatoms and carbon which are bonded to the C(II) atom is estimated with the help of NBO calculations and with an energy decomposition analysis. The investigated molecules include N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs), the cyclic alkyl(amino)carbene (cAAC), mesoionic carbenes and ylide-stabilized carbenes. The bonding analysis suggests that the carbene centre in cAAC and in diamidocarbene have the weakest X→p(π) π-donation while mesoionic carbenes possess the strongest π-donation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (36) ◽  
pp. 20533-20540
Author(s):  
Gustavo Cárdenas ◽  
Álvaro Pérez-Barcia ◽  
Marcos Mandado ◽  
Juan J. Nogueira

The interactions that control the permeation of cisplatin through a DOPC bilayer are unveiled by a QM/MM EDA scheme.


2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (35) ◽  
pp. 13491-13492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Girolamo Casella ◽  
Célia Fonseca Guerra ◽  
Silvia Carlotto ◽  
Paolo Sgarbossa ◽  
Roberta Bertani ◽  
...  

Correction for ‘New light on an old debate: does the RCN–PtCl2 bond include any back-donation? RCN ← PtCl2 backbonding vs. the IR νCN blue-shift dichotomy in organonitriles–platinum(ii) complexes. A thorough density functional theory – energy decomposition analysis study’ by Girolamo Casella et al., Dalton Trans., 2019, DOI: 10.1039/c9dt02440a.


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