0-0 Energies Using Hybrid Schemes: Benchmarks of TD-DFT, CIS(D), ADC(2), CC2, and BSE/GW formalisms for 80 Real-Life Compounds

Physicochemical and Electronic Properties of Cationic [6]Helicenes: from Chemical and Electrochemical Stabilities to Far-Red (Polarized) Luminescence

The physicochemical properties of cationic dioxa (1), azaoxa (2), and diaza (3) [6]helicenes demonstrate a much higher chemical stability of the diaza adduct 3 (pKR+ =20.4, Ered1/2 =-0.72 V) compared to its azaoxa 2 (pKR+ =15.2, Ered1/2 =-0.45 V) and dioxa 1 (pKR+ =8.8, Ered1/2 =-0.12 V) analogues. The fluorescence of these cationic chromophores is established, and ranges from the orange to the far-red regions. From 1 to 3, a bathochromic shift of the lowest energy transitions (up to 614 nm in acetonitrile) and an enhancement of the fluorescence quantum yields and lifetimes (up to 31 % and 9.8 ns, respectively, at 658 nm) are observed. The triplet quantum yields and circularly polarized luminescence are also reported. Finally, fine tuning of the optical properties of the diaza [6]helicene core is achieved through selective and orthogonal post-functionalization reactions (12 examples, compounds 4-15). The electronic absorption is modulated from the orange to the far-red spectral range (560-731 nm), and fluorescence is observed from 591 to 755 nm with enhanced quantum efficiency up to 70 % (619 nm). The influence of the peripheral auxochrome substituents is rationalized by first-principles calculations.

Nonempirical Double-Hybrid Functionals: An Effective Tool for Chemists

Density functional theory (DFT) emerged in the last two decades as the most reliable tool for the description and prediction of properties of molecular systems and extended materials, coupling in an unprecedented way high accuracy and reasonable computational cost. This success rests also on the development of more and more performing density functional approximations (DFAs). Indeed, the Achilles' heel of DFT is represented by the exchange-correlation contribution to the total energy, which, being unknown, must be approximated. Since the beginning of the 1990s, global hybrids (GH) functionals, where an explicit dependence of the exchange-correlation energy on occupied Kohn-Sham orbitals is introduced thanks to a fraction of Hartree-Fock-like exchange, imposed themselves as the most reliable DFAs for chemical applications. However, if these functionals normally provide results of sufficient accuracy for most of the cases analyzed, some properties, such as thermochemistry or dispersive interactions, can still be significantly improved. A possible way out is represented by the inclusion, into the exchange-correlation functional, of an explicit dependence on virtual Kohn-Sham orbitals via perturbation theory. This leads to a new class of functionals, called double-hybrids (DHs). In this Account, we describe our nonempirical approach to DHs, which, following the line traced by the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof approach, allows for the definition of a GH (PBE0) and a DH (QIDH) model. In such a way, a whole family of nonempirical functionals, spanning on the highest rungs of the Perdew's quality scale, is now available and competitive with other-more empirical-DFAs. Discussion of selected cases, ranging from thermochemistry and reactions to weak interactions and excitation energies, not only show the large range of applicability of nonempirical DFAs, but also underline how increasing the number of theoretical constraints parallels with an improvement of the DFA's numerical performances. This fact further consolidates the strong theoretical framework of nonempirical DFAs. Finally, even if nonempirical DH approaches are still computationally expensive, relying on the fact that they can benefit of all technical enhancements developed for speeding up post-Hartree-Fock methods, there is substantial hope for their near future routine application to the description and prediction of complex chemical systems and reactions.

Excited-State Dipole and Quadrupole Moments: TD-DFT versus CC2

The accuracies of the excited-state dipole and quadrupole moments obtained by TD-DFT are assessed by considering 16 different exchange-correlation functionals and more than 30 medium and large molecules. Except for excited-state presenting a significant charge-transfer character, a relatively limited dependency on the nature of the functional is found. It also turns out that while DFT ground-state dipole moments tend to be too large, the reverse trend is obtained for their excited-state counterparts, at least when hybrid functionals are used. Consequently, the TD-DFT excess dipole moments are often too small, an error that can be fortuitously corrected for charge-transfer transition by selecting a pure or a hybrid functional containing a small share of exact exchange. This error-cancelation phenomena explains the contradictory conclusions obtained in previous investigations. Overall, the largest correlation between CC2 and TD-DFT excess dipoles is obtained with M06-2X, but at the price of a nearly systematic underestimation of this property by ca. 1 D. For the excess quadrupole moments, the average errors are of the order of 0.2–0.6 D·Å for the set of small aromatic systems treated.

Multi-state extrapolation of UV/Vis absorption spectra with QM/QM hybrid methods

In this work, we present a simple approach to simulate absorption spectra from hybrid QM/QM calculations. The goal is to obtain reliable spectra for compounds that are too large to be treated efficiently at a high level of theory. The present approach is based on the extrapolation of the entire absorption spectrum obtained by individual subcalculations. Our program locates the main spectral features in each subcalculation, e.g., band peaks and shoulders, and fits them to Gaussian functions. Each Gaussian is then extrapolated with a formula similar to that of ONIOM (Our own N-layered Integrated molecular Orbital molecular Mechanics). However, information about individual excitations is not necessary so that difficult state-matching across subcalculations is avoided. This multi-state extrapolation thus requires relatively low implementation effort while affording maximum flexibility in the choice of methods to be combined in the hybrid approach. The test calculations show the efficacy and robustness of this methodology in reproducing the spectrum computed for the entire molecule at a high level of theory.

Low-Lying ππ* States of Heteroaromatic Molecules: A Challenge for Excited State Methods

The description of low-lying ππ* states of linear acenes by standard electronic structure methods is known to be challenging. Here, we broaden the framework of this problem by considering a set of fused heteroaromatic rings and demonstrate that standard electronic structure methods do not provide a balanced description of the two (typically) lowest singlet state (L_a and L_b) excitations. While the L_b state is highly sensitive to correlation effects, L_a suffers from the same drawbacks as charge transfer excitations. We show that the comparison between CIS/CIS(D) can serve as a diagnostic for detecting the two problematic excited states. Standard TD-DFT and even its spin-flip variant lead to inaccurate excitation energies and interstate gaps, with only a double hybrid functional performing somewhat better. The complication inherent to a balanced description of these states is so important that even CC2 and ADC(2) do not necessarily match the ADC(3) reference.

Rapid intersystem crossings in anti bimanes

We have carried out first principles electronic structure calculations on the ground and excited valence states of syn and anti bimanes. While syn bimanes fluoresce strongly after photoexcitation to the first excited singlet state (S1) and are commonly used as fluorophores in biological labeling studies, anti bimanes largely phosphoresce at low temperatures. We show that this is due to subtle differences in the energetic ordering of excited singlet and triplet states within the isomers. In particular, T2 in anti bimanes is characterized by a π→π* transition and large exchange interactions with the singlet counterpart cause it to lie below and energetically close to S1 at the Franck-Condon region. This opens up a pathway for very fast intersystem crossing (ca. 10(11) s(-1)) from the optically bright S1 state to the triplet manifold, which effectively quenches fluorescence. On the other hand, T2 is energetically inaccessible to S1 in syn bimanes and intersystem crossing via S1→ T1 cannot compete effectively with fluorescence to S0. We have also located minimum energy conical intersections between S0 and S1 in bimanes. However, these structures are significantly distorted from their equilibrium geometries as well as energetically much higher than S1 at the Franck-Condon region. They are therefore not expected to play a part in the photophysics of bimanes after excitation to S1.

Modelling fluorescence lifetimes with TD-DFT: a case study with syn-bimanes

Syn-bimanes are a class of fluorophores that are widely used for labelling thiol containing biological systems. We used TD-DFT to study their absorption, emission, solvatochromism, and fluorescence lifetimes.

The optical signature of 2,6-bis((E)-2-(benzoxazol-2-yl)vinyl)naphthalene (BBVN) laser dye: a TDDFT study

The NTO hole-particle representation of excitation demonstrates that terminal benzoxazole nuclei in BBVN promote charge displacement in absorption/emission.

Highly fluorescent extended 2-(2′-hydroxyphenyl)benzazole dyes: synthesis, optical properties and first-principle calculations

Restoration of ESIPT upon protonation was demonstrated in an extended-hydroxybenzothiazole derivative in which it was fully inhibited in the neutral state.

Excited-state deactivation in 8-oxo-deoxyguanosine: comparison between anionic and neutral forms

Ab initio explorations of excited-state potential-energy surfaces show that a radiationless deactivation mechanism via intramolecular excited-state proton transfer is available in neutral 8-oxo-deoxyguanosine, whereas it is not available in the anionic form.

Assessment of Approximate Coupled-Cluster and Algebraic-Diagrammatic-Construction Methods for Ground- and Excited-State Reaction Paths and the Conical-Intersection Seam of a Retinal-Chromophore Model

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.