CO2 reduction using aluminum hydride: Generation of in-situ frustrated Lewis pairs and small molecule activation therein

CO2 reduction is appealing for the long-term production of high-value fuels and chemicals. Herein, using density functional theory (DFT) based calculations, we study the CO2 reduction pathway to formic acid using aluminum hydride and phosphine derivatives. Our primary focus is on aluminum hydride derivatives, aimed at improving the efficiency of the CO2 reduction process. Substituents with σ-donating properties at the aluminum center are discovered to lower the activation barriers. We demonstrate how di-tert-butylphosphine oxide (LB-O)/di-tert-butylphosphine sulfide (LB-S)/di-tert-butylphosphanimine (LB-N) work together with aluminum hydride to facilitate CO2 reduction process and generate in-situ frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs), such as FLP-O, FLP-S, and FLP-N. The activation strain model (ASM) analysis reveals the significance of strain energy in determining activation barriers. EDA-NOCV and PIO analyses elucidate the orbital interactions at the corresponding transition states. Furthermore, the study delves into the activation of various small molecules, such as dihydrogen, acetylene, ethylene, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and acetonitrile, using those in-situ generated FLPs. The study highlights the low activation barriers and emphasizes the potential for small molecule activation in this context.

On the Periodicity of the Information Theory and Conceptual DFT-Based Reactivity Descriptors

The periodic trends in conceptual density functional and information theory-based reactivity descriptors are reported for the atoms H to Ba (Z = 1 to 56). Ionization potential, electron affinity, electronegativity, and hardness show periodic behavior following the Aufbau principle and popular electronic structure principles. They are in agreement with those reported in standard chemistry textbooks. The trend in the electrophilicity index, however, shows an interesting behavior, where it contradicts earlier reports. Our calculation reveals that the noble gas elements correspond to minimum ω values in each period which obey the minimum electrophilicity principle as well as reflect their low reactivity. Periodic trends in electroaccepting and electrodonating powers, along with that of net electrophilicity, are as expected. The behavior of information theory-based Shannon and GBP entropies, along with the Shannon entropy of shape function are also explored across the periodic table.

A systematic computational study of acridine derivatives through conceptual density functional theory

A detailed computational analysis of acridine derivatives viz. acridone, 9-amino acridine hydrochloride hydrate, proflavin, acridine orange and acridine yellow is done in terms of conceptual density functional theory (CDFT). CDFT-based global descriptors-ionization potential, electron affinity, HOMO-LUMO gap, hardness, softness, electronegativity and electrophilicity index of acridine derivatives for ground state as well as excited state are estimated with the help of different hybrid functionals B3LYP/6-31G (d, p), B3LYP/6-311G (d, p), B3LYP/DGDZVP and B3LYP/LANL2DZ. Acridine derivatives show higher values of ionization potential and electron affinity in excited state as compared to ground state, indicating that these compounds are willing to accept electrons in excited state rather than donating electron. Acridone shows the maximum HOMO-LUMO energy gap in ground and excited state which implies that one-way electron transfer is most feasible with this compound. Our computed results emphasize the pronounced electron acceptor behaviour of the acridine derivatives in the excited state which has already been experimentally verified. It is observed that the trend in the computed values of the descriptors is not much improved on refinement of the basis set.