Search

Molecular solar thermal (MOST) systems combine solar energy conversion, storage, and release in simple one‐photon one‐molecule processes. Here, we address the electrochemically triggered energy release from an azothiophene‐based MOST system by photoelectrochemical infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (PEC‐IRRAS) and density functional theory (DFT). Specifically, the electrochemically triggered back‐reaction from the energy rich (Z)‐3‐cyanophenylazothiophene to its energy lean (E)‐isomer using highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) as the working electrode was studied. Theory predicts that two reaction channels are accessible, an oxidative one (hole‐catalyzed) and a reductive one (electron‐catalyzed). Experimentally it was found that the photo‐isomer decomposes during hole‐catalyzed energy release. Electrochemically triggered back‐conversion was possible, however, through the electron‐catalyzed reaction channel. The reaction rate could be tuned by the electrode potential within two orders of magnitude. It was shown that the MOST system withstands 100 conversion cycles without detectable decomposition of the photoswitch. After 100 cycles, the photochemical conversion was still quantitative and the electrochemically triggered back‐reaction reached 94 % of the original conversion level.

We developed three bathochromic, green‐light activatable, photolabile protecting groups based on a nitrodibenzofuran (NDBF) core with D‐π‐A push–pull structures. Variation of donor substituents (D) at the favored ring position enabled us to observe their impact on the photolysis quantum yields. Comparing our new azetidinyl‐NDBF (Az‐NDBF) photolabile protecting group with our earlier published DMA‐NDBF, we obtained insight into its excitation‐specific photochemistry. While the “two‐photon‐only” cage DMA‐NDBF was inert against one‐photon excitation (1PE) in the visible spectral range, we were able to efficiently release glutamic acid from azetidinyl‐NDBF with irradiation at 420 and 530 nm. Thus, a minimal change (a cyclization adding only one carbon atom) resulted in a drastically changed photochemical behavior, which enables photolysis in the green part of the spectrum., What a difference one atom makes: Azetidine (az) and dimethylamino (DMA) donor moieties differ only by one carbon atom in their molecular formula, but in the present study we observed huge differences in their impact on the photochemistry of D‐π‐A caging groups. Restriction of the degrees of movement freedom—due to the four‐membered ring—leads to a photocage that can be used within the “green gap” for the release of biologically relevant leaving groups (e.g., glutamic acid).

Community efforts in the computational molecular sciences (CMS) are evolving toward modular, open, and interoperable interfaces that work with existing community codes to provide more functionality and composability than could be achieved with a single program. The Quantum Chemistry Common Driver and Databases (QCDB) project provides such capability through an application programming interface (API) that facilitates interoperability across multiple quantum chemistry software packages. In tandem with the Molecular Sciences Software Institute and their Quantum Chemistry Archive ecosystem, the unique functionalities of several CMS programs are integrated, including CFOUR, GAMESS, NWChem, OpenMM, Psi4, Qcore, TeraChem, and Turbomole, to provide common computational functions, i.e., energy, gradient, and Hessian computations as well as molecular properties such as atomic charges and vibrational frequency analysis. Both standard users and power users benefit from adopting these APIs as they lower the language barrier of input styles and enable a standard layout of variables and data. These designs allow end-to-end interoperable programming of complex computations and provide best practices options by default.

Photoactivatable compounds for example photoswitches or photolabile protecting groups (PPGs, photocages) for spatiotemporal light control, play a crucial role in different areas of research. For each application, parameters such as the absorption spectrum, solubility in the respective media and/or photochemical quantum yields for several competing processes need to be optimized. The design of new photochemical tools therefore remains an important task. In this study, we exploited the concept of excited‐state‐aromaticity, first described by N. Colin Baird in 1971, to investigate a new class of photocages, based on cyclic, ground‐state‐antiaromatic systems. Several thio‐ and nitrogen‐functionalized compounds were synthesized, photochemically characterized and further optimized, supported by quantum chemical calculations. After choosing the optimal scaffold, which shows an excellent uncaging quantum yield of 28 %, we achieved a bathochromic shift of over 100 nm, resulting in a robust, well accessible, visible light absorbing, compact new photocage with a clean photoreaction and a high quantum product (ϵ⋅Φ) of 893 M−1 cm−1 at 405 nm., The concept of excited state aromaticity was used to design a new class of photolabile protecting groups, based on cyclic, ground‐state‐antiaromatic systems. Supported by theoretical calculations, several thio‐ and nitrogen functionalized compounds were synthesized, characterized and further optimized, resulting in a well accessible, visible light absorbing, new photocage with a high uncaging cross section of 893 M−1 cm−1 at 405 nm.

The oxadi-π-methane rearrangement of 2,4-cyclohexadienones to bicyclic ketones was found to proceed with high enantioselectivity (92-97% ee) in the presence of catalytic amounts of a chiral Lewis acid (15 examples, 52-80% yield). A notable feature of the transformation is the fact that it proceeds on the singlet hypersurface and that no triplet intermediates are involved. Rapid racemic background reactions were therefore avoided, and the catalyst loading could be kept low (10 mol %). Computational studies suggest that the enantioselectivity is determined within a Lewis acid bound singlet intermediate via a conical intersection. The utility of the method was demonstrated by a concise synthesis of the natural product trans-chrysanthemic acid.

N‐Heteropolycycles are attractive as materials in organic electronic devices. However, a detailed understanding of the low‐energy electronic excitation characteristics of these species is still lacking. In this work, the matrix isolation technique is applied to obtain high‐resolution absorbance spectra for a series of tetracene and core‐substituted N‐analogues. The experimental electronic excitation spectra obtained for matrix‐isolated molecules are then analysed with the help of quantum‐chemical calculations. Additional lower energy excitation bands in the spectrum of the core‐substituted N‐derivatives of tetracene could be explained in terms of intensity borrowing from dipole‐forbidden transitions due to Herzberg–Teller vibronic coupling. In the case of tetracene, evidence for the additional formation of London dimers (J aggregates) is found at higher tetracene concentrations in the matrix., Step into the matrix: N‐Heteropolycycles are attractive as materials in organic electronic devices, but there is a lack of a detailed understanding of the low‐energy electronic excitation characteristics of these species. The matrix isolation technique enables detailed analysis of low‐energy electronic transitions of tetracene and N‐substituted tetracenes.

The effective fragment potential (EFP) method for the efficient inclusion of solvation effects is combined with the algebraic diagrammatic construction (ADC) scheme for the second- and third-order polarisation propagator. The accuracy of these newly developed EFP-ADC(2) and EFP-ADC(3) methods is tested with respect to supermolecular ADC calculations for a selected set of small solutesolvent complexes. The EFP model for solvation introduces only marginal errors in the excitation energies and oscillator strengths of singlet as well as triplet states, which are strictly localized on the chromophore, significantly below the intrinsic errors of the parent ADC(2) and ADC(3) methods. It is only when delocalization of electron density on the solvent molecules occurs that the error in the excitation energies increases, a well-known behavior of environment models in general. Overall, EFP-ADC schemes prove to be reliable computational approaches to simulate electronic absorption spectra in solution.

We present open-source implementations of the linear-scaling Fast Multipole Method (FMM) within the Polarizable Embedding (PE) model for efficient treatment of large polarizable environments in computational spectroscopy simulations. The implementations are tested for accuracy, efficiency, and usability on model systems as well as more realistic biomolecular systems. We explain how FMM parameters affect the calculation of molecular properties and show that PE calculations employing FMM can be carried out in a black-box manner. The efficiency of the linear-scaling approach is demonstrated by simulating the UV/Vis spectrum of a chromophore in an environment of more than one million polarizable sites. Our implementations are interfaced to several open-source quantum chemistry programs, making computational spectroscopysimulations within the PE model and FMM available to a large variety of methods and a broad user base.

A hitherto unexplored class of molecules for molecular force probe applications are expanded porphyrins. This work proves that mechanical force is an effective stimulus to trigger the interconversion between Hückel and Möbius topologies in [28]hexaphyrin, making these expanded porphyrins suitable to act as conformational mechanophores operating at mild (sub‐1 nn) force conditions. A straightforward approach based on distance matrices is proposed for the selection of pulling scenarios that promote either the planar Hückel topology or the three lowest lying Möbius topologies. This approach is supported by quantum mechanochemical calculations. Force distribution analyses reveal that [28]hexaphyrin selectively allocates the external mechanical energy to molecular regions that trigger Hückel–Möbius interconversions, explaining why certain pulling scenarios favor the Hückel two‐sided topology and others favor Möbius single‐sided topologies. The meso‐substitution pattern on [28]hexaphyrin determines whether the energy difference between the different topologies can be overcome by mechanical activation., Use the force: The Hückel and Möbius topology of [28]hexaphyrin can be mechanically locked by applying an external pulling force to different meso positions in a sub‐nano‐Newton force regime. The mechanical energy is distributed to a specific region in the molecule to trigger the interconversion.

Herein we describe a modular, convergent synthesis of substituted benzo[a]benzo[6,7]‐indolo[2,3‐h]carbazoles (BBICZs) using a bidirectional gold‐catalyzed cyclization reaction as a key step. A building block strategy enabled the easy variation of substituents at different positions of the core structure and a general analysis of substitution effects on the materials properties of the target compounds. All BBICZs were fully characterized and their optical and electronic properties were studied experimentally as well as by computational methods. Organic thin‐film transistors based on eight selected derivatives were fabricated by vacuum deposition and charge‐carrier mobilities up to 1 cm2/Vs were measured.

Chemistry - a European journal 27(64), 15889-15897 (2021). doi:10.1002/chem.202102938, Published by Wiley-VCH, Weinheim

The ultrafast photoisomerization of model azobenzene macrocycles was studied by transient absorption spectroscopy. Our results reveal a strong dependence of the dynamics and the overall molecular properties on the geometric constraints and the intramolecular strain.

Ultrafast transient absorption and quantum chemistry calculations are combined to demonstrate singlet fission in newly functionalized TIPS-Tetracenes. The coupling strength (but not the energy gap) between Si and ’(TT) states gauges singlet fission efficiency and rate.

In the original formulation, frozen-density embedding theory [T. A. Wesolowski and A. Warshel, J. Phys. Chem. 97, 8050–8053 (1993); T. A. Wesolowski, Phys. Rev. A 77, 012504 (2008)] concerns multi-level simulation methods in which variational methods are used to obtain the embedded NA-electron wavefunction. In this work, an implicit density functional for the total energy is constructed and used to derive a general expression for the total energy in methods in which the embedded NA electrons are treated non-variationally. The formula is exact within linear expansion in density perturbations. Illustrative numerical examples are provided.In the original formulation, frozen-density embedding theory [T. A. Wesolowski and A. Warshel, J. Phys. Chem. 97, 8050–8053 (1993); T. A. Wesolowski, Phys. Rev. A 77, 012504 (2008)] concerns multi-level simulation methods in which variational methods are used to obtain the embedded NA-electron wavefunction. In this work, an implicit density functional for the total energy is constructed and used to derive a general expression for the total energy in methods in which the embedded NA electrons are treated non-variationally. The formula is exact within linear expansion in density perturbations. Illustrative numerical examples are provided.

The synthesis, photophysical and electrochemical characterization, theoretical calculations and photovoltaic studies of a push-pull dye with an unconventional nonplanar tetrathiahelicene π−spacer between the donor-acceptor groups, are reported. The molecule exhibits suitable HOMO LUMO levels to be used in DSSC. The presence of the donor-acceptor helical architecture allows the internal charge transfer and subsequent electron injection to the conduction band of TiO2 leading to the good photocurrent value of 4.6 mA cm−2.

In this article we describe the OpenMolcas environment and invite the computational chemistry community to collaborate. The open-source project already includes a large number of new developments realized during the transition from the commercial MOLCAS product to the open-source platform. The paper initially describes the technical details of the new software development platform. This is followed by brief presentations of many new methods, implementations, and features of the OpenMolcas program suite. These developments include novel wave function methods such as stochastic complete active space self-consistent field, density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) methods, and hybrid multiconfigurational wave function and density functional theory models. Some of these implementations include an array of additional options and functionalities. The paper proceeds and describes developments related to explorations of potential energy surfaces. Here we present methods for the optimization of conical intersections, the simulation of adiabatic and nonadiabatic molecular dynamics, and interfaces to tools for semiclassical and quantum mechanical nuclear dynamics. Furthermore, the article describes features unique to simulations of spectroscopic and magnetic phenomena such as the exact semiclassical description of the interaction between light and matter, various X-ray processes, magnetic circular dichroism, and properties. Finally, the paper describes a number of built-in and add-on features to support the OpenMolcas platform with postcalculation analysis and visualization, a multiscale simulation option using frozen-density embedding theory, and new electronic and muonic basis sets.

The first discussion of basis sets consisting of exponentially decaying Coulomb Sturmian functions for modelling electronic structures is presented. The proposed basis set construction selects Coulomb Sturmian functions using separate upper limits to their principle, angular momentum and magnetic quantum numbers. Their common Coulomb Sturmian exponent is taken as a fourth parameter. The convergence properties of such basis sets are investigated for second and third row atoms at the Hartree-Fock level. Thereby important relations between the values of the basis set parameters and the physical properties of the electronic structure are recognised. For example, an unusually large limit for the angular momentum quantum number in unrestricted Hartree-Fock calculations can be linked to the breaking of spherical symmetry in such cases. Furthermore, a connection between the optimal, i.e. minimum-energy, Coulomb Sturmian exponent and the average Slater exponents values obtained by Clementi and Raimondi (E. Clementi and D. L. Raimondi, J. Chem. Phys. 38, 2686 (1963)) is made. These features of Coulomb Sturmian basis sets emphasise their ability to correctly reproduce the physical features of Hartree-Fock wave functions., 16 pages, 14 figures, supporting info

The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled “An unconventional helical push-pull system for solar cells” (Dova et al., 2019). This article provides: a) the cyclic voltammogram plots in solution of helical push-pull sensitizers and the corresponding precursors; b) the visualization of the leading natural transition orbital (NTO) pairs obtained by theoretical calculation of frontiers orbitals; c) J/V curves of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) sensitized by the dyes, without 3a,7a-dihydroxy-5b-cholic acid (CDCA) as co-adsorbent agent; d) 1H and 13C NMR spectra of dyes.

Exciton-polaron induced aggregation (EPIA) in organic host materials for blue Phosphorescent Organic Light Emitting Diodes (PhOLEDs) is driven by a non-radiative decay of electronically excited positive polarons resulting in a local heating of the amourphous host matrix. The released heat triggers morphological changes, i. e. molecular aggregation between neighboring host molecules. The resulting aggregates, which our calculations identify as carbazolyl dimers, lead to decreased PhOLED efficiency. Statistical assessment of some host-only morphologies reveals a structure-dependent propensity for molecular aggregation corroborating the identified EPIA mechanism. Our findings provide a fresh look at established molecular design rules and will help to improve blue PhOLED host materials to enhance blue PhOLED device lifetimes.

International audience; X-ray absorption and Auger electron spectroscopies are demonstrated to be powerful tools to unravel the electronic structure of solvated ions. In this work for the first time, we use a combination of these methods in the tender X-ray regime. This allowed us to address electronic transitions from deep core levels, to probe environmental effects, specifically in the bulk of the solution since the created energetic Auger electrons possess large mean free paths, and moreover, to obtain dynamical information about the ultrafast delocalization of the core-excited electron. In the considered exemplary aqueous KCl solution, the solvated isoelectronic K+ and Cl– ions exhibit notably different Auger electron spectra as a function of the photon energy. Differences appear due to dipole-forbidden transitions in aqueous K+ whose occurrence, according to the performed ab initio calculations, becomes possible only in the presence of solvent water molecules.

Implementation, benchmarking, and representative applications of the new FDE-ADC(3) method for describing environmental effects on excited states as a combination of frozen density embedding (FDE) and the algebraic-diagrammatic construction scheme for the polarization propagator of third order (ADC(3)) are presented. Results of FDE-ADC(3) calculations are validated with respect to supersystem calculations on test systems with varying molecule-environment interaction strengths from dispersion up to multiple hydrogen bonds. The overall deviation compared to the supersystem calculations is as small as 0.029 eV for excitation energies, which is even smaller than the intrinsic error of ADC(3). The dependence of the accuracy on the choice of method and functional for the calculation of the environment and the nonelectrostatic part of the system-environment interaction is evaluated. In three representative examples, the FDE-ADC method is applied to investigate larger systems and to analyze excited state properties using visualization of embedded densities and orbitals.

As a minimal model of the chromophore of rhodopsin proteins, the penta-2,4-dieniminium cation (PSB3) poses a challenging test system for the assessment of electronic-structure methods for the exploration of ground- and excited-state potential-energy surfaces, the topography of conical intersections, and the dimensionality (topology) of the branching space. Herein, we report on the performance of the approximate linear-response coupled-cluster method of second order (CC2) and the algebraic-diagrammatic-construction scheme of the polarization propagator of second and third orders (ADC(2) and ADC(3)). For the ADC(2) method, we considered both the strict and extended variants (ADC(2)-s and ADC(2)-x). For both CC2 and ADC methods, we also tested the spin-component-scaled (SCS) and spin-opposite-scaled (SOS) variants. We have explored several ground- and excited-state reaction paths, a circular path centered around the S1/S0 surface crossing, and a 2D scan of the potential-energy surfaces along the branching space. We find that the CC2 and ADC methods yield a different dimensionality of the intersection space. While the ADC methods yield a linear intersection topology, we find a conical intersection topology for the CC2 method. We present computational evidence showing that the linear-response CC2 method yields a surface crossing between the reference state and the first response state featuring characteristics that are expected for a true conical intersection. Finally, we test the performance of these methods for the approximate geometry optimization of the S1/S0 minimum-energy conical intersection and compare the geometries with available data from multireference methods. The present study provides new insight into the performance of linear-response CC2 and polarization-propagator ADC methods for molecular electronic spectroscopy and applications in computational photochemistry.

International audience; A summary of the technical advances that are incorporated in the fourth major release of the Q-Chem quantum chemistry program is provided, covering approximately the last seven years. These include developments in density functional theory methods and algorithms, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) property evaluation, coupled cluster and perturbation theories, methods for electronically excited and open-shell species, tools for treating extended environments, algorithms for walking on potential surfaces, analysis tools, energy and electron transfer modelling, parallel computing capabilities, and graphical user interfaces. In addition, a selection of example case studies that illustrate these capabilities is given. These include extensive benchmarks of the comparative accuracy of modern density functionals for bonded and non-bonded interactions, tests of attenuated second order Moller-Plesset (MP2) methods for intermolecular interactions, a variety of parallel performance benchmarks, and tests of the accuracy of implicit solvation models. Some specific chemical examples include calculations on the strongly correlated Cr-2 dimer, exploring zeolite-catalysed ethane dehydrogenation, energy decomposition analysis of a charged ter-molecular complex arising from glycerol photoionisation, and natural transition orbitals for a Frenkel exciton state in a nine-unit model of a self-assembling nanotube.

Plants dissipate excess excitation energy as heat by non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). NPQ has been thought to resemble in vitro aggregation quenching of the major antenna complex, light harvesting complex of photosystem II (LHC-II). Both processes are widely believed to involve a conformational change that creates a quenching centre of two neighbouring pigments within the complex. Using recombinant LHC-II lacking the pigments implicated in quenching, we show that they have no particular role. Single crystals of LHC-II emit strong, orientation-dependent fluorescence with an emission maximum at 680 nm. The average lifetime of the main 680 nm crystal emission at 100 K is 1.31 ns, but only 0.39 ns for LHC-II aggregates under identical conditions. The strong emission and comparatively long fluorescence lifetimes of single LHC-II crystals indicate that the complex is unquenched, and that therefore the crystal structure shows the active, energy-transmitting state of LHC-II. We conclude that quenching of excitation energy in the light-harvesting antenna is due to the molecular interaction with external pigments in vitro or other pigment–protein complexes such as PsbS in vivo, and does not require a conformational change within the complex.

Source at https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.9b00758. We present a modular open-source library for polarizable embedding (PE) named CPPE. The library is implemented in C++, and it additionally provides a Python interface for rapid prototyping and experimentation in a high-level scripting language. Our library integrates seamlessly with existing quantum chemical program packages through an intuitive and minimal interface. Until now, CPPE has been interfaced to three packages, Q-Chem, Psi4, and PySCF. Furthermore, we show CPPE in action using all three program packages for a computational spectroscopy application. With CPPE, host program interfaces only require minor programming effort, paving the way for new combined methodologies and broader availability of the PE model.

Excited-state intramolecular hydrogen transfer (ESIHT) is a fundamental reaction relevant to chemistry and biology. Malonaldehyde is the simplest example of ESIHT, yet only little is known experimentally about its excited-state dynamics. Several competing relaxation pathways have been proposed, including internal conversion mediated by ESIHT and C Created by potrace 1.16, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2019 C torsional motion as well as intersystem crossing. We perform an in silico transient X-ray absorption spectroscopy (TRXAS) experiment at the oxygen K-edge to investigate its potential to monitor the proposed ultrafast decay pathways in malonaldehyde upon photoexcitation to its bright S2(ππ*) state. We employ both restricted active space perturbation theory and algebraic-diagrammatic construction for the polarization propagator along interpolated reaction coordinates as well as representative trajectories from ab initio multiple spawning simulations to compute the TRXAS signals from the lowest valence states. Our study suggests that oxygen K-edge TRXAS can distinctly fingerprint the passage through the H-transfer intersection and the concomitant population transfer to the S1(nπ*) state. Potential intersystem crossing to T1(ππ*) is detectable from reappearance of the double pre-edge signature and reversed intensities. Moreover, the torsional deactivation pathway induces transient charge redistribution from the enol side towards the central C-atom and manifests itself as substantial shifts of the pre-edge features. Given the continuous advances in X-ray light sources, our study proposes an experimental route to disentangle ultrafast excited-state decay channels in this prototypical ESIHT system and provides a pathway-specific mapping of the TRXAS signal to facilitate the interpretation of future experiments., Resolving competing hydrogen-transfer mediated internal conversion and relaxation processes in a prototype ESIHT-system with transient X-ray absorption.

Herein, we report on the synthesis and investigation of two triazino-isoquinoline tetrafluoroborate electrolytes as hole-blocking layers in methylammonium triiodide perovskite photovoltaic devices with fullerene electron extraction layer. We find that increasing the thickness of the dipolar hole-blocking layer results in a gradual increase in the open-circuit voltage suggesting that aggregation of the molecules can enhance the dipole induced by the layer. This finding is confirmed by theoretical calculations demonstrating that while both molecules exhibit a similar dipole moment in their isolated state, this dipole is significantly enhanced when they aggregate. Ultra-violet photoemission spectroscopy measurements show that both derivatives exhibit a high ionization potential of 7 eV, in agreement with their effective hole-blocking nature demonstrated by the devices. However, each of the molecules shows a different electron affinity due to the increased conjugation of one of the derivatives. While the change in electron transport level between the two derivatives is as high as 0.3 eV, the difference in the open-circuit voltage of both types of devices is negligible, suggesting that the electron transport level plays only a minor role in determining the open-circuit voltage of the device. Numerical device simulations confirm that the increase in built-in potential, arising from the high dipole of the electrolyte layer, compensates for the non-ideal energetic alignment of the charge transport levels, resulting in high open-circuit voltages for a range of electron transport levels. Our study demonstrates that the application of small molecule electrolytes as hole-blocking layer in inverted architecture perovskite solar cells is a powerful tool to enhance the open-circuit voltage and provides useful guidelines for designing future generations of such compounds.