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Curchod BFE, Orr-Ewing AJ. Perspective on Theoretical and Experimental Advances in Atmospheric Photochemistry. J Phys Chem A 2024; 128:6613-6635. [PMID: 39021090 PMCID: PMC11331530 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.4c03481] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2024] [Revised: 07/02/2024] [Accepted: 07/03/2024] [Indexed: 07/20/2024]
Abstract
Research that explores the chemistry of Earth's atmosphere is central to the current understanding of global challenges such as climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, and poor air quality in urban areas. This research is a synergistic combination of three established domains: earth observation, for example, using satellites, and in situ field measurements; computer modeling of the atmosphere and its chemistry; and laboratory measurements of the properties and reactivity of gas-phase molecules and aerosol particles. The complexity of the interconnected chemical and photochemical reactions which determine the composition of the atmosphere challenges the capacity of laboratory studies to provide the spectroscopic, photochemical, and kinetic data required for computer models. Here, we consider whether predictions from computational chemistry using modern electronic structure theory and nonadiabatic dynamics simulations are becoming sufficiently accurate to supplement quantitative laboratory data for wavelength-dependent absorption cross-sections, photochemical quantum yields, and reaction rate coefficients. Drawing on presentations and discussions from the CECAM workshop on Theoretical and Experimental Advances in Atmospheric Photochemistry held in March 2024, we describe key concepts in the theory of photochemistry, survey the state-of-the-art in computational photochemistry methods, and compare their capabilities with modern experimental laboratory techniques. From such considerations, we offer a perspective on the scope of computational (photo)chemistry methods based on rigorous electronic structure theory to become a fourth core domain of research in atmospheric chemistry.
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2
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Gelfand N, Komarova K, Remacle F, Levine RD. Nonadiabatic quantum dynamics explores non-monotonic photodissociation branching of N 2 into the N( 4S) + N( 2D) and N( 4S) + N( 2P) product channels. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2024; 26:3274-3284. [PMID: 38197167 DOI: 10.1039/d3cp04854c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/11/2024]
Abstract
Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photodissociation of N2 molecules is a source of reactive N atoms in the interstellar medium. In the energy range of VUV optical excitation of N2, the N-N triple bond cleavage leads to three types of atoms: ground-state N(4S) and excited-state N(2P) and N(2D). The latter is the highest reactive and it is believed to be the primary participant in reactions with hydrocarbons in Titan's atmosphere. Experimental studies have observed a non-monotonic energy dependence and non-statistical character of the photodissociation of N2. This implies different dissociation pathways and final atomic products for different wavelength regions in the sunlight spectrum. We here apply ab initio quantum chemical and nonadiabatic quantum dynamical techniques to follow the path of an electronic state from the excitation of a particular singlet 1Σ+u and 1Πu vibronic level of N2 to its dissociation into different atomic products. We simulate dynamics for two isotopomers of the nitrogen molecule, 14N2 and 14N15N for which experimental data on the branching are available. Our computations capture the non-monotonic energy dependence of the photodissociation branching ratios in the energy range 108 000-116 000 cm-1. Tracing the quantum dynamics in a bunch of electronic states enables us to identify the key components that determine the efficacy of singlet to triplet population transfer and therefore predissociation lifetimes and branching ratios for different energy regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalia Gelfand
- The Fritz Haber Center for Molecular Dynamics, Institute of Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
| | - Ksenia Komarova
- The Fritz Haber Center for Molecular Dynamics, Institute of Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
| | - Francoise Remacle
- The Fritz Haber Center for Molecular Dynamics, Institute of Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
- Theoretical Physical Chemistry, UR MolSys B6c, University of Liège, B4000 Liège, Belgium
| | - R D Levine
- The Fritz Haber Center for Molecular Dynamics, Institute of Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
- Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
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Rapacioli M, Buey MY, Spiegelman F. Addressing electronic and dynamical evolution of molecules and molecular clusters: DFTB simulations of energy relaxation in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2024; 26:1499-1515. [PMID: 37933901 PMCID: PMC10793726 DOI: 10.1039/d3cp02852f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2023] [Accepted: 10/17/2023] [Indexed: 11/08/2023]
Abstract
We present a review of the capabilities of the density functional based Tight Binding (DFTB) scheme to address the electronic relaxation and dynamical evolution of molecules and molecular clusters following energy deposition via either collision or photoabsorption. The basics and extensions of DFTB for addressing these systems and in particular their electronic states and their dynamical evolution are reviewed. Applications to PAH molecules and clusters, carbonaceous systems of major interest in astrochemical/astrophysical context, are reported. A variety of processes are examined and discussed such as collisional hydrogenation, fast collisional processes and induced electronic and charge dynamics, collision-induced fragmentation, photo-induced fragmentation, relaxation in high electronic states, electronic-to-vibrational energy conversion and statistical versus non-statistical fragmentation. This review illustrates how simulations may help to unravel different relaxation mechanisms depending on various factors such as the system size, specific electronic structure or excitation conditions, in close connection with experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathias Rapacioli
- Laboratoire de Chimie et Physique Quantique (LCPQ/FERMI), UMR5626, Université de Toulouse (UPS) and CNRS, 118 Route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse, France.
| | - Maysa Yusef Buey
- Laboratoire de Chimie et Physique Quantique (LCPQ/FERMI), UMR5626, Université de Toulouse (UPS) and CNRS, 118 Route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse, France.
| | - Fernand Spiegelman
- Laboratoire de Chimie et Physique Quantique (LCPQ/FERMI), UMR5626, Université de Toulouse (UPS) and CNRS, 118 Route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse, France.
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Janoš J, Slavíček P. What Controls the Quality of Photodynamical Simulations? Electronic Structure Versus Nonadiabatic Algorithm. J Chem Theory Comput 2023; 19:8273-8284. [PMID: 37939301 PMCID: PMC10688183 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.3c00908] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2023] [Revised: 10/18/2023] [Accepted: 10/19/2023] [Indexed: 11/10/2023]
Abstract
The field of nonadiabatic dynamics has matured over the last decade with a range of algorithms and electronic structure methods available at the moment. While the community currently focuses more on developing and benchmarking new nonadiabatic dynamics algorithms, the underlying electronic structure controls the outcome of nonadiabatic simulations. Yet, the electronic-structure sensitivity analysis is typically neglected. In this work, we present a sensitivity analysis of the nonadiabatic dynamics of cyclopropanone to electronic structure methods and nonadiabatic dynamics algorithms. In particular, we compare wave function-based CASSCF, FOMO-CASCI, MS- and XMS-CASPT2, density-functional REKS, and semiempirical MRCI-OM3 electronic structure methods with the Landau-Zener surface hopping, fewest switches surface hopping, and ab initio multiple spawning with informed stochastic selection algorithms. The results clearly demonstrate that the electronic structure choice significantly influences the accuracy of nonadiabatic dynamics for cyclopropanone even when the potential energy surfaces exhibit qualitative and quantitative similarities. Thus, selecting the electronic structure solely on the basis of the mapping of potential energy surfaces can be misleading. Conversely, we observe no discernible differences in the performance of the nonadiabatic dynamics algorithms across the various methods. Based on the above results, we discuss the present-day practice in computational photodynamics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiří Janoš
- Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Chemistry and Technology, Technická 5, 16628 Prague 6, Czech Republic
| | - Petr Slavíček
- Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Chemistry and Technology, Technická 5, 16628 Prague 6, Czech Republic
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5
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do Monte S, Spada RFK, Alves RLR, Belcher L, Shepard R, Lischka H, Plasser F. Quantification of the Ionic Character of Multiconfigurational Wave Functions: The Qat Diagnostic. J Phys Chem A 2023; 127:9842-9852. [PMID: 37851528 PMCID: PMC10683019 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.3c05559] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2023] [Revised: 09/28/2023] [Indexed: 10/20/2023]
Abstract
The complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) method is a cornerstone in modern excited-state quantum chemistry providing the starting point for most common multireference computations. However, CASSCF, when used with a minimal active space, can produce significant errors (>2 eV) even for the excitation energies of simple hydrocarbons if the states of interest possess ionic character. After illustrating this problem in some detail, we present a diagnostic for ionic character, denoted as Q at, that is readily computed from the transition density. A set of 11 molecules is considered to study errors in vertical excitation energies. State-averaged CASSCF obtains a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.87 eV for the 34 singlet states considered. We highlight a strong correlation between the obtained errors and the Q at diagnostic, illustrating its power to predict problematic cases. Conversely, using multireference configuration interaction with single and double excitations and Pople's size extensivity correction (MR-CISD+P), excellent results are obtained with an MAE of 0.11 eV. Furthermore, correlations with the Q at diagnostic disappear. In summary, we hope that the presented diagnostic will facilitate reliable and user-friendly multireference computations on conjugated organic molecules.
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Affiliation(s)
- Silmar
A. do Monte
- Departamento
de Química, CCEN, Universidade Federal
da Paraíba, 58051-900 João Pessoa, Brazil
| | - Rene F. K. Spada
- Departamento
de Física, Instituto Tecnológico
de Aeronáutica, 12.228-900 São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Rodolpho L. R. Alves
- Departamento
de Química, CCEN, Universidade Federal
da Paraíba, 58051-900 João Pessoa, Brazil
| | - Lachlan Belcher
- Departamento
de Física, Instituto Tecnológico
de Aeronáutica, 12.228-900 São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Ron Shepard
- Chemical
Sciences and Engineering Division, Argonne
National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States
| | - Hans Lischka
- Department
of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Texas Tech
University, Lubbock, Texas 79409-1061, United States
| | - Felix Plasser
- Department
of Chemistry, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, U.K.
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Wang Z, Jing R, Li Y, Song D, Wan Y, Fukui N, Shinokubo H, Kuang Z, Xia A. Intrinsic Photostability in Dithiolonaphthalimide Achieved by Disulfide Bond-Induced Excited-State Quenching. J Phys Chem Lett 2023; 14:8485-8492. [PMID: 37721763 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c02260] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/19/2023]
Abstract
Disulfide bridges common in proteins show excellent photostability achieved by ultrafast internal conversion and maintain the stability of the tertiary structure. When disulfide bonds exist in aromatic compounds, the rigid chemical structure may affect the cleavage and reforming dynamics of disulfide bonds. In this work, a model compound with a disulfide five-membered-ring structure, 4,5-dithiolo-N-(2,6-dimethylphenyl)-1,8-naphthalimide (DTDPNI), is selected to elaborate the effect of disulfide modification on the excited-state deactivation mechanism. Quantum chemical calculations show that the S-S stretching leads to a dramatic decrease in the energy gap between the S1 and S0 states, similar to the situation in 1,2-dithiane. Due to the efficient nonradiative process, the excited-state lifetime of DTDPNI resolved by ultrafast spectroscopy is determined to be ∼20 ps. It is found that the excellent photostability is achieved by ultrafast excited-state quenching induced by the S-S stretching, rather than the cleavage of the disulfide bond; even the disulfide bridge is in a very rigid aromatic molecular system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zeming Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Information Photonic and Optical Communications, and School of Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), Beijing 100876, P. R. China
| | - Rui Jing
- State Key Laboratory of Information Photonic and Optical Communications, and School of Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), Beijing 100876, P. R. China
| | - Yang Li
- State Key Laboratory of Information Photonic and Optical Communications, and School of Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), Beijing 100876, P. R. China
| | - Di Song
- State Key Laboratory of Information Photonic and Optical Communications, and School of Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), Beijing 100876, P. R. China
| | - Yan Wan
- College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, P. R. China
| | - Norihito Fukui
- Department of Molecular and Macromolecular Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-chi, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan
| | - Hiroshi Shinokubo
- Department of Molecular and Macromolecular Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-chi, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan
| | - Zhuoran Kuang
- State Key Laboratory of Information Photonic and Optical Communications, and School of Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), Beijing 100876, P. R. China
| | - Andong Xia
- State Key Laboratory of Information Photonic and Optical Communications, and School of Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), Beijing 100876, P. R. China
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7
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Lassmann Y, Curchod BFE. Probing the sensitivity of ab initio multiple spawning to its parameters. Theor Chem Acc 2023; 142:66. [PMID: 37520272 PMCID: PMC10382418 DOI: 10.1007/s00214-023-03004-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2023] [Accepted: 07/13/2023] [Indexed: 08/01/2023]
Abstract
Full multiple spawning (FMS) offers a strategy to simulate the nonadiabatic dynamics of molecular systems by describing their nuclear wavefunctions by a linear combination of coupled trajectory basis functions (TBFs). Applying a series of controlled approximations to the full multiple spawning (FMS) equations leads to the ab initio multiple spawning (AIMS), which is compatible with an on-the-fly propagation of the TBFs and an accurate description of nonadiabatic processes. The AIMS strategy and its numerical implementations, however, rely on a series of user-defined parameters. Herein, we investigate the influence of these parameters on the electronic-state population of two molecular systems- trans-azomethane and a two-dimensional model of the butatriene cation. This work highlights the stability of AIMS with respect to most of its parameters, underlines the specific parameters that require particular attention from the user of the method, and offers prescriptions for an informed selection of their value. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00214-023-03004-w.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yorick Lassmann
- Centre for Computational Chemistry, School of Chemistry, Cantock’s Close, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TS UK
| | - Basile F. E. Curchod
- Centre for Computational Chemistry, School of Chemistry, Cantock’s Close, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TS UK
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