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Kollotzek S, Izadi F, Meyer M, Bergmeister S, Zappa F, Denifl S, Echt O, Scheier P, Gruber E. Stabilization of phenanthrene anions in helium nanodroplets. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2022; 24:11662-11667. [PMID: 35507430 PMCID: PMC9116476 DOI: 10.1039/d2cp00991a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
It has been debated for years if the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon phenanthrene exists in its anionic form, or, in other words, if its electron affinity (EA) is positive or negative. In this contribution we confirm that the bare phenanthrene anion Ph− created in a binary collision with an electron at room temperature has a lifetime shorter than microseconds. However, the embedding of neutral phenanthrene molecules in negatively charged helium nanodroplets enables the formation of phenanthrene anions by charge transfer processes and the stabilization of the latter in the ultracold environment. Gentle shrinking of the helium matrix of phenanthrene-doped HNDs by collisions with helium gas makes the bare Ph− visible by high-resolution mass spectrometry. From these and previous measurements we conclude, that the EA of phenanthrene is positive and smaller than 24.55 meV. Phenanthrene anions are stabilized in the ultracold environment of helium nanodroplets. Gentle shrinking of the helium matrix by collisions with helium gas makes the bare phenanthrene anion visible by high-resolution mass spectrometry.![]()
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Affiliation(s)
- Siegfried Kollotzek
- Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik, Universität Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
| | - Farhad Izadi
- Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik, Universität Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
| | - Miriam Meyer
- Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik, Universität Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
| | - Stefan Bergmeister
- Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik, Universität Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
| | - Fabio Zappa
- Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik, Universität Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
| | - Stephan Denifl
- Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik, Universität Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
| | - Olof Echt
- Department of Physics, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA
| | - Paul Scheier
- Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik, Universität Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
| | - Elisabeth Gruber
- Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik, Universität Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
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Gruber E, Kollotzek S, Bergmeister S, Zappa F, Ončák M, Scheier P, Echt O. Phenanthrene: establishing lower and upper bounds to the binding energy of a very weakly bound anion. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2022; 24:5138-5143. [PMID: 35156966 PMCID: PMC8865840 DOI: 10.1039/d1cp04755h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2021] [Accepted: 12/21/2021] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Quite a few molecules do not form stable anions that survive the time needed for their detection; their electron affinities (EA) are either very small or negative. How does one measure the EA if the anion cannot be observed? Or, at least, can one establish lower and upper bounds to their EA? We propose two approaches that provide lower and upper bounds. We choose the phenanthrene (Ph) molecule whose EA is controversial. Through competition between helium evaporation and electron detachment in HenPh- clusters, formed in helium nanodroplets, we estimate the lower bound of the vertical detachment energy (VDE) of Ph- as about -3 meV. In the second step, Ph is complexed with calcium whose electron affinity is just 24.55 meV. When CaPh- ions are collided with a thermal gas of argon, one observes Ca- product ions but no Ph-, suggesting that the EA of Ph is below that of Ca.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisabeth Gruber
- Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik Universität Innsbruck Technikerstraße 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
| | - Siegfried Kollotzek
- Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik Universität Innsbruck Technikerstraße 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
| | - Stefan Bergmeister
- Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik Universität Innsbruck Technikerstraße 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
| | - Fabio Zappa
- Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik Universität Innsbruck Technikerstraße 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
| | - Milan Ončák
- Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik Universität Innsbruck Technikerstraße 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
| | - Paul Scheier
- Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik Universität Innsbruck Technikerstraße 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
| | - Olof Echt
- Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik Universität Innsbruck Technikerstraße 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
- Department of Physics University of New Hampshire Durham, NH 03824, USA.
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Loos PF, Jacquemin D. A Mountaineering Strategy to Excited States: Highly Accurate Energies and Benchmarks for Bicyclic Systems. J Phys Chem A 2021; 125:10174-10188. [PMID: 34792354 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.1c08524] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Pursuing our efforts to define highly accurate estimates of the relative energies of excited states in organic molecules, we investigate, with coupled-cluster methods including iterative triples (CC3 and CCSDT), the vertical excitation energies of 10 bicyclic molecules (azulene, benzoxadiazole, benzothiadiazole, diketopyrrolopyrrole, furofuran, phthalazine, pyrrolopyrrole, quinoxaline, tetrathiafulvalene, and thienothiophene). In total, we provide aug-cc-pVTZ reference vertical excitation energies for 91 excited states of these relatively large systems. We use these reference values to benchmark various wave function methods, i.e., CIS(D), EOM-MP2, CC2, CCSD, STEOM-CCSD, CCSD(T)(a)*, CCSDR(3), CCSDT-3, ADC(2), ADC(2.5), and ADC(3), as well as some spin-scaled variants of both CC2 and ADC(2). These results are compared to those obtained previously on smaller molecules. It turns out that while the accuracy of some methods is almost unaffected by system size, e.g., CIS(D) and CC3, the performance of others can significantly deteriorate as the systems grow, e.g., EOM-MP2 and CCSD, whereas others, e.g., ADC(2) and CC2, become more accurate for larger derivatives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pierre-François Loos
- Laboratoire de Chimie et Physique Quantiques, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, F-31062, Toulouse, France
| | - Denis Jacquemin
- Université de Nantes, CNRS, CEISAM UMR 6230, F-44000 Nantes, France
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Salvador MA, Antonio FCT, da Silva GD, Bartoloni FH, Orestes E, Coutinho-Neto MD, Homem-de-Mello P. On the radicalar properties of graphene fragments: double-hybrid DFT and perturbation theory approaches. Theor Chem Acc 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s00214-020-02632-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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Rano M, Ghosh SK, Ghosh D. In the quest for a stable triplet state in small polyaromatic hydrocarbons: an in silico tool for rational design and prediction. Chem Sci 2019; 10:9270-9276. [PMID: 32055312 PMCID: PMC7003975 DOI: 10.1039/c9sc02414j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2019] [Accepted: 08/15/2019] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Combining the roles of spin frustration and geometry of odd and even numbered rings in polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), we design small molecules that show exceedingly small singlet-triplet gaps and stable triplet ground states. Furthermore, a computationally efficient protocol with a model spin Hamiltonian is shown to be capable of qualitative agreement with respect to high level multireference calculations and therefore, can be used for fast molecular discovery and screening.
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Affiliation(s)
- Madhumita Rano
- School of Chemical Sciences , Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science , Jadavpur , Kolkata 700 032 , India . ; Tel: +91 033 2473 4971 ext. 1103
| | - Sumanta K Ghosh
- School of Chemical Sciences , Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science , Jadavpur , Kolkata 700 032 , India . ; Tel: +91 033 2473 4971 ext. 1103
| | - Debashree Ghosh
- School of Chemical Sciences , Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science , Jadavpur , Kolkata 700 032 , India . ; Tel: +91 033 2473 4971 ext. 1103
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Teunissen JL, De Proft F, De Vleeschouwer F. Tuning the HOMO-LUMO Energy Gap of Small Diamondoids Using Inverse Molecular Design. J Chem Theory Comput 2017; 13:1351-1365. [PMID: 28218844 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.6b01074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Functionalized diamondoids show great potential as building blocks for various new optoelectronic applications. However, until now, only simple mono and double substitutions were investigated. In this work, we considered up to 10 and 6 sites for functionalization of the two smallest diamondoids, adamantane and diamantane, respectively, in search for diamondoid derivatives with a minimal and maximal HOMO-LUMO energy gap. To this end, the energy gap was optimized systematically using an inverse molecular design methodology based on the best-first search algorithm combined with a Monte Carlo component to escape local optima. Adamantane derivatives were found with HOMO-LUMO gaps ranging from 2.42 to 10.63 eV, with 9.45 eV being the energy gap of pure adamantane. For diamantane, similar values were obtained. The structures with the lowest HOMO-LUMO gaps showed apparent push-pull character. The push character is mainly formed by sulfur or nitrogen dopants and thiol groups, whereas the pull character is predominantly determined by the presence of electron-withdrawing nitro or carbonyl groups assisted by amino and hydroxyl groups via the formation of intramolecular hydrogen bonds. In contrast, maximal HOMO-LUMO gaps were obtained by introducing numerous electronegative groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jos L Teunissen
- Research Group of General Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) , Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Frank De Proft
- Research Group of General Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) , Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Freija De Vleeschouwer
- Research Group of General Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) , Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
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Richard RM, Marshall MS, Dolgounitcheva O, Ortiz JV, Brédas JL, Marom N, Sherrill CD. Accurate Ionization Potentials and Electron Affinities of Acceptor Molecules I. Reference Data at the CCSD(T) Complete Basis Set Limit. J Chem Theory Comput 2016; 12:595-604. [PMID: 26731487 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.5b00875] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
In designing organic materials for electronics applications, particularly for organic photovoltaics (OPV), the ionization potential (IP) of the donor and the electron affinity (EA) of the acceptor play key roles. This makes OPV design an appealing application for computational chemistry since IPs and EAs are readily calculable from most electronic structure methods. Unfortunately reliable, high-accuracy wave function methods, such as coupled cluster theory with single, double, and perturbative triples [CCSD(T)] in the complete basis set (CBS) limit are too expensive for routine applications to this problem for any but the smallest of systems. One solution is to calibrate approximate, less computationally expensive methods against a database of high-accuracy IP/EA values; however, to our knowledge, no such database exists for systems related to OPV design. The present work is the first of a multipart study whose overarching goal is to determine which computational methods can be used to reliably compute IPs and EAs of electron acceptors. This part introduces a database of 24 known organic electron acceptors and provides high-accuracy vertical IP and EA values expected to be within ±0.03 eV of the true non-relativistic, vertical CCSD(T)/CBS limit. Convergence of IP and EA values toward the CBS limit is studied systematically for the Hartree-Fock, MP2 correlation, and beyond-MP2 coupled cluster contributions to the focal point estimates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan M Richard
- Center for Computational Molecular Science and Technology, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and School of Computational Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology , Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0400, United States
| | - Michael S Marshall
- Center for Computational Molecular Science and Technology, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and School of Computational Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology , Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0400, United States
| | - O Dolgounitcheva
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Auburn University , Auburn, Alabama 36849-5312, United States
| | - J V Ortiz
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Auburn University , Auburn, Alabama 36849-5312, United States
| | - Jean-Luc Brédas
- Solar & Photovoltaics Engineering Research Center, Physical Science and Engineering Division King Abdullah University of Science and Technology , Thuwal 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | - Noa Marom
- Department of Physics, Tulane University , New Orleans, Louisiana 70118-5645, United States
| | - C David Sherrill
- Center for Computational Molecular Science and Technology, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and School of Computational Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology , Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0400, United States
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Mihailovs I, Kampars V, Turovska B, Rutkis M. Rational computing of energy levels for organic electronics: the case of 2-benzylidene-1,3-indandiones. RSC Adv 2016. [DOI: 10.1039/c6ra16456k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
To compute ionization potential and electron affinity (HOMO & LUMO levels by tradition), diffuse functions are redundant, while range-separated hybrid DFT is not always better than B3LYP. Solvent modelling is essential and can be cheap with CPCM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Igors Mihailovs
- Institute of Solid State Physics
- University of Latvia
- Riga
- Latvia
- Institute of Applied Chemistry
| | - Valdis Kampars
- Institute of Applied Chemistry
- Riga Technical University
- Riga
- Latvia
| | | | - Martins Rutkis
- Institute of Solid State Physics
- University of Latvia
- Riga
- Latvia
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Vosskötter S, Konieczny P, Marian CM, Weinkauf R. Towards an understanding of the singlet–triplet splittings in conjugated hydrocarbons: azulene investigated by anion photoelectron spectroscopy and theoretical calculations. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2015; 17:23573-81. [DOI: 10.1039/c5cp01826a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Electron density overlaps are correlated with singlet triplet splittings: azulene as a test case.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefan Vosskötter
- Institute of Physical Chemistry
- Heinrich-Heine-Universität
- Universitätsstrasse 1
- 40225 Düsseldorf
- Germany
| | - Paul Konieczny
- Institute of Physical Chemistry
- Heinrich-Heine-Universität
- Universitätsstrasse 1
- 40225 Düsseldorf
- Germany
| | - Christel M. Marian
- Institute of Theoretical Chemistry
- Heinrich-Heine-Universität
- Universitätsstrasse 1
- 40225 Düsseldorf
- Germany
| | - Rainer Weinkauf
- Institute of Physical Chemistry
- Heinrich-Heine-Universität
- Universitätsstrasse 1
- 40225 Düsseldorf
- Germany
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10
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Pinter B, Skara G, Hajgató B, Geerlings P, De Proft F. Revealing the Origins of Electrophilic Reactivity and Regioselectivity of Linear Acenes Using Interaction Energy Decomposition Potentials. European J Org Chem 2013. [DOI: 10.1002/ejoc.201201755] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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