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Four kinds of magic-size CdS clusters and two different regular CdS quantum dots have been studied by x-ray total scattering technique and pair distribution function method. Results for the regular CdS quantum dots could be modelled as a mixed phase of atomic structures based on the two bulk crystalline phases, which is interpreted as representing the effects of stacking disorder. However, the results for the magic-size clusters were significantly different. On one hand, the short-range features in the pair distribution function reflect the bulk, indicating that these structures are based on the same tetrahedral coordination found in the bulk phases (and therefore excluding new types of structures such as cage-like arrangements of atoms). But on the other hand, the longer- range atomic structure clearly does not reflect the layer structures found in the bulk and the regular quantum dots. We compare the effects of two ligands, phenylacetic acid and oleic acid, showing that in two cases the ligand has little effect on the atomic structure of the magic-size nanocluster and in another it has a significant effect., Comment: 8 pages in the main paper, 6 figures in the main paper, 7 pages in the electronic supporting information, 4 figures in the electronic supporting information

The sixth blind test of organic crystal-structure prediction (CSP) methods has been held, with five target systems: a small nearly rigid molecule, a polymorphic former drug candidate, a chloride salt hydrate, a co-crystal, and a bulky flexible molecule. This blind test has seen substantial growth in the number of submissions, with the broad range of prediction methods giving a unique insight into the state of the art in the field. Significant progress has been seen in treating flexible molecules, usage of hierarchical approaches to ranking structures, the application of density-functional approximations, and the establishment of new workflows and "best practices" for performing CSP calculations. All of the targets, apart from a single potentially disordered Z` = 2 polymorph of the drug candidate, were predicted by at least one submission. Despite many remaining challenges, it is clear that CSP methods are becoming more applicable to a wider range of real systems, including salts, hydrates and larger flexible molecules. The results also highlight the potential for CSP calculations to complement and augment experimental studies of organic solid forms.

In Part I of this two-part investigation we described a methodology for the development of robust, analytic, many-body atom-atom potentials for small organic molecules from first principles and demonstrated how the CamCASP program can be used to derive the damped, distributed multipole models for pyridine. Here we demonstrate how the theoretical ideas for the short-range models described in Part I, which are implemented in the CamCASP suite of programs, can be used to develop a series of many-body potentials for the pyridine system. Even the simplest of these potentials exhibit r.m.s. errors of only about 0.6kJ mol-1 for the low-energy pyridine dimers, significantly surpassing the best empirical potentials. Our best model is shown to support eight stable minima, four of which have not been reported in the literature before. Further, the functional form can be made systematically more elaborate so as to improve the accuracy without a significant increase in the human-time spent in their generation. We investigate the effects of anisotropy, rank of multipoles, and choice of polarizability and dispersion models., Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, part 2 of a two part work

Creating accurate, analytic atom--atom potentials for small organic molecules from first principles can be a time-consuming and computationally intensive task, particularly if we also require them to include explicit polarization terms, which are essential in many systems. In this first part of a two-part investigation, we describe how the {\sc CamCASP} suite of programs can be used to generate such potentials using some of the most accurate electronic structure methods currently applicable. In particular, we derive the long-range terms from monomer properties, and determine the short-range anisotropy parameters by a novel and robust method based on the iterated stockholder atom approach. We use the techniques described here to develop distributed multipole models for the electrostatic, polarization and dispersion interactions in the pyridine dimer. In the second part of this work we will apply these methods to develop a series of many-body potentials for the pyridine system., Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, part I of a two part paper

The charge-transfer (CT) together with the polarization energy appears at second and higher orders in symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT). At present there is no theoretically compelling way of isolating the charge-transfer energy that is simultaneously basis-set independent and applicable for arbitrary intermolecular separation. We argue that the charge-transfer can be interpreted as a tunneling phenomenon, and can therefore be defined via regularized SAPT. This leads to a physically convincing, basis-independent definition of the charge-transfer energy that captures subtleties of the process, such as the asymmetry in the forward and backward charge transfer, as well as secondary transfer effects. With this definition of the charge-transfer the damping needed for polarization models can be determined with a level of confidence hitherto not possible., Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures