DFT Calculations of Proton Hyperfine Coupling Constants for [VO(H2O)5]2+: Comparison with Proton ENDOR Data

Benchmark study of the performance of density functional theory for reduction potentials of vanadium compounds

A systematic benchmark study was performed for the first time to investigate the performance of density functional theory for calculation of reduction potentials of vanadium compounds. Six density functionals of different types were selected for testing: local OLYP and M06L, global hybrid O3LYP and B3LYP, as well as, meta-hybrid functionals TPSSh and M06. Local and hybrid functionals with a relatively high contribution of Hartree-Fock exchange showed unsatisfactory results. In particular, the widely used hybrid functional B3LYP for the transformation VIII→VII occurring in the vanadium redox flow battery yields a negative value of the standard potential instead of a positive one. Among the tested functionals the smallest deviation from the experimental data provides the meta-hybrid functional TPSSh with a 10% contribution of the Hartree-Fock exchange. The computational protocol to calculate redox potentials of vanadium compounds is suggested.

Aqueous citrato-oxovanadate(IV) precursor solutions for VO2: synthesis, spectroscopic investigation and thermal analysis

An aqueous precursor solution, containing citrato-VO(2+) complexes, is synthesized for the formation of monoclinic VO2. With regard to the decomposition of the VO(2+) complexes towards vanadium oxide formation, it is important to gain insights into the chemical structure and transformations of the precursor during synthesis and thermal treatment. Hence, the conversion of the cyclic [V4O12](4-) ion to the VO(2+) ion in aqueous solution, using oxalic acid as an acidifier and a reducing agent, is studied by (51)Vanadium nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The citrate complexation of this VO(2+) ion and the differentiation between a solution containing citrato-oxalato-VO(2+) and citrato-VO(2+) complexes are studied by electron paramagnetic resonance and Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy. In both solutions, the VO(2+) containing complex is mononuclear and has a distorted octahedral geometry with a fourfold R-CO2(-) ligation at the equatorial positions and likely a fifth R-CO2(-) ligation at the axial position. Small differences in the thermal decomposition pathway between the gel containing citrato-oxalato-VO(2+) complexes and the oxalate-free gel containing citrato-VO(2+) complexes are observed between 150 and 200 °C in air and are assigned to the presence of (NH4)2C2O4 in the citrato-oxalato-VO(2+) solution. Both precursor solutions are successfully used for the formation of crystalline vanadium oxide nanostructures on SiO2, after thermal annealing at 500 °C in a 0.1% O2 atmosphere. However, the citrato-oxalato-VO(2+) and the oxalate-free citrato-VO(2+) solution result in the formation of monoclinic V6O13 and monoclinic VO2, respectively.

Chemical composition of an aqueous oxalato-/citrato-VO(2+) solution as determinant for vanadium oxide phase formation

Aqueous solutions of oxalato- and citrato-VO(2+) complexes are prepared, and their ligand exchange reaction is investigated as a function of the amount of citrate present in the aqueous solution via continuous-wave electron paramagnetic resonance (CW EPR) and hyperfine sublevel correlation (HYSCORE) spectroscopy. With a low amount of citrate, monomeric cis-oxalato-VO(2+) complexes occur with a distorted square-pyramidal geometry. As the amount of citrate increases, oxalate is gradually exchanged for citrate. This leads to (i) an intermediate situation of monomeric VO(2+) complexes with a mix of oxalate/citrate ligands and (ii) a final situation of both monomeric and dimeric complexes with exclusively citrato ligands. The monomeric citrato-VO(2+) complexes dominate (abundance > 80%) and are characterized by a 6-fold chelation of the vanadium(IV) ion by 4 RCO2(-) ligands at the equatorial positions and a H2O/R-OH ligand at the axial position. The different redox stabilities of these complexes, relative to that of dissolved O2 in the aqueous solution, is analyzed via (51)V NMR. It is shown that the oxidation rate is the highest for the oxalato-VO(2+) complexes. In addition, the stability of the VO(2+) complexes can be drastically improved by evacuation of the dissolved O2 from the solution and subsequent storage in a N2 ambient atmosphere. The vanadium oxide phase formation process, starting with the chemical solution deposition of the aqueous solutions and continuing with subsequent processing in an ambient 0.1% O2 atmosphere, differs for the two complexes. The oxalato-VO(2+) complexes turn into the oxygen-deficient crystalline VO2 B at 400 °C, which then turns into crystalline V6O13 at 500 °C. In contrast, the citrato-VO(2+) complexes form an amorphous film at 400 °C that crystallizes into VO2 M1 and V6O13 at 500 °C.

Detection and structural characterization of oxo-chromium(V)-sugar complexes by electron paramagnetic resonance

This article describes the detection and characterization of oxo-Cr(V)-saccharide coordination compounds, produced during chromic oxidation of carbohydrates by Cr(VI) and Cr(V), using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. After an introduction into the main importance of chromium (bio)chemistry, and more specifically the oxo-chromium(V)-sugar complexes, a general overview is given of the current state-of-the-art EPR techniques. The next step reviews which types of EPR spectroscopy are currently applied to oxo-Cr(V) complexes, and what information about these systems can be gained from such experiments. The advantages and pitfalls of the different approaches are discussed, and it is shown that the potential of high-field and pulsed EPR techniques is as yet still largely unexploited in the field of oxo-Cr(V) complexes. Subsequently, the discussion focuses on the analysis of oxo-Cr(V) complexes of different types of sugars and the implications of the results in terms of understanding chromium (bio)chemistry.

Structure and bonding of [V(IV)O(acac)(2)] on the surface of AlF(3) as studied by pulsed electron nuclear double resonance and hyperfine sublevel correlation spectroscopy

Well defined isolated [V(IV)O(acac)(2)] surface complexes have been prepared on aluminium trifluoride, alpha-AlF(3), as solid support by equilibrium adsorption from liquid solution. The paramagnetic vanadium(iv) surface complexes were studied by pulsed electron spin resonance spectroscopy in combination with quantum chemical calculations using density functional theory. (19)F and (27)Al ligand hyperfine interactions with the nuclei of the AlF(3) support observed by pulsed electron nuclear double resonance and hyperfine sublevel correlation spectroscopy experiments verify the direct chemical bonding between the vanadium and a surface fluorine atom. Detailed analysis of the ligand hyperfine couplings supported by quantum chemical calculations indicates that the axial position of [V(IV)O(acac)(2)]trans to the oxo ligand is bound directly to a terminal fluorine atom of the support. Analysis of the (1)H ligand hyperfine interaction revealed that an acidic H(+) of the AlF(3) surface protonated a donor oxygen of the acetylacetone ligand in the surface complex.

Aspects of structure and bonding in copper-amino acid complexes revealed by single-crystal EPR/ENDOR spectroscopy and density functional calculations

This work deduces from a series of well-defined copper-doped amino acid crystals, relationships between structural features of the copper complexes, and ligand-bound proton hyperfine parameters. These were established by combining results from electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR)/electron-nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) studies, crystallography, and were further assessed by quantum mechanical (QM) calculations. A detailed evaluation of previous studies on Cu(2+) doped into alpha-glycine, triglycine sulfate, alpha-glycylglycine, and L-alanine crystals reveal correlations between geometric features of the copper sites and proton hyperfine couplings from amino-bound and carbon-bound hydrogens. Experimental variations in proton isotropic hyperfine coupling values (a(iso)) could be fit to cosine-square dependences on dihedral angles, namely, for C(alpha)-bound hydrogens, a(iso) = -1.09 + 8.21 cos(2) theta MHz, and for amino hydrogens, a(iso) = -6.16 + 4.15 cos(2) phi MHz. For the C(alpha) hydrogens, this dependency suggests a hyperconjugative-like mechanism for transfer of spin density into the hydrogen 1s orbital. In the course of this work, it was also necessary to reanalyze the ENDOR measurements from Cu(2+)-doped alpha-glycine because the initial study determined the (14)N coupling parameters without holding its nuclear quadrupole tensor traceless. This new treatment of the data was needed to correctly align the (14)N hyperfine tensor principal directions in the molecular complex. To provide a theoretical basis for the coupling variations, QM calculations performed at the DFT level were used to compute the proton hyperfine tensors in the four crystal complexes as well as in a geometry-optimized Cu(2+)(glycine)(2) model. These theoretical calculations confirmed systematic changes in couplings with dihedral angles but greatly overestimated the experimental geometric sensitivity to the amino hydrogen isotropic coupling.

Vanadium Silicalite-1 Nanoparticles Deposition onto the Mesoporous Walls of SBA-15. Mechanistic Insights from a Combined EPR and Raman Study

Continuous Wave (CW) and pulsed Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy in conjunction with Raman spectroscopy are used to investigate the properties of Vanadium Silicalite-1 (VS-1) nanoparticles dispersed onto the mesoporous walls of SBA-15 silica. The properties of the deposited zeolite nanoparticles are found to be remarkably different from those of the full grown VS-1 zeolite. Monitoring of the local VO(2+) environment in the noncalcined nanoparticles in SBA-15 reveals that, in contrast to the full grown zeolite case, these sites are highly hydrophilic. Also, the stability of the TPAOH template is found to be affected by acidification of the nanoparticles. These results promise to be of great importance in elucidating the formation mechanism of TPAOH-templated zeolitic nanoparticles and their incorporation in mesoporous silica materials.

The 17O Hyperfine Interaction in V17O(H217O)52+ and Mn(H217O)62+ Determined by High Field ENDOR Aided by DFT Calculations

The 17O hyperfine interaction of the water ligands and the V=O oxygen in the vanadyl aquo complex and of the water ligands in the Mn2+ aquo complex in a frozen solution were determined by W-band (95 GHz) electron-nuclear double resonance (ENDOR). Orientation selective ENDOR spectra of the vanadyl complex exhibited two distinct signals assigned to the vanadyl oxygen and the water ligands. The assignment of the signals was done based on the orientation of the principal axis system of the hyperfine interaction and through comparison with the hyperfine interaction predicted by DFT calculations. The latter showed good agreement with the experimental values thus providing clear evidence that the vanadyl oxygen is exchangeable. The interaction of the vanadyl oxygen, especially its anisotropic part, was significantly larger than that of the water oxygens due to a relatively large negative spin density on the oxygen p orbitals. The 17O hyperfine interaction of the water ligand in the Mn2+ complex was found to be similar to that of the water ligand in the vanadyl complex and was in good agreement with earlier single-crystal data. Here, due to the large thermal polarization, it was also possible to determine the absolute sign of the hyperfine coupling by selecting different EPR transitions.

Nonoxovanadium(IV) and Oxovanadium(V) Complexes with Mixed O, X, O-Donor Ligands (X = S, Se, P, or PO)

Ligating properties of four potentially tridentate bisphenol ligands containing [O, X, O] donor atoms (X = S 1, Se 2, P 3, or P=O 4) toward the vanadium ions in +IV or +V oxidation states have been studied. Each ligand with different heterodonor atoms yields as expected nonoxovanadium(IV) complexes, V(IV)L(2), whose structures have been determined by X-ray diffraction methods as having six-coordinate V(IV), VO(4)X(2), core. Compounds 1-4 have also been studied with electrochemical methods, variable-temperature (2-295 K) magnetic susceptibility measurements, X-band electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) (2-60 K) spectroscopy, and magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) (5 K) measurements. Electrochemical results suggest metal-centered oxidations to V(V) (i.e., no formation of phenoxyl radicals from the coordinated phenolates). A combination of density functional theory calculations and experimental EPR investigations indicates a dramatic effect of the heteroatoms on the electronic structure of 1-4 with consequent reordering of the energy levels; 1 and 3 possess a trigonal ground state (d(z)()(2))(1), but 4 with the phosphoryl oxygen as the heterodonor atom in contrast exhibits a tetragonal ground state, (d(xy)())(1). On the basis of the intense electronic transitions in absorption spectra, all electronic transitions observed for 4 have been assigned to ligand-to-metal charge-transfer transitions, which have been confirmed by preliminary resonance Raman measurements and C/D ratios obtained from low-temperature MCD spectroscopy. Moreover, diamagnetic complexes 5 and 6 containing mononuclear and dinuclear oxovanadium(V) units have also been synthesized and structurally and spectroscopically ((51)V NMR) characterized.

Carboxylate Binding in Copper Histidine Complexes in Solution and in Zeolite Y: X- and W-band Pulsed EPR/ENDOR Combined with DFT Calculations

The complexes of copper with histidine exhibit a wide variety of coordination modes in aqueous solution. This stems from the three potential coordination sites of the histidine molecule and the existence of mono- and bis-complexes. The present work concentrates on the determination of the carboxylate binding mode, via the (13)C hyperfine coupling of the carboxyl, in a number of copper complexes in frozen solutions. These are then used as references for the determination of the coordination mode of two zeolite encapsulated complexes. The (13)C hyperfine coupling (sign and magnitude) was determined by a variety of advanced pulsed EPR and electron-nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) techniques carried out at conventional and high magnetic fields. These showed that while the carboxyl (13)C isotropic hyperfine coupling of an equatorially coordinated carboxylate is negative with a magnitude of 3-4 MHz, that of a free carboxylate is small ( approximately 1 MHz) and positive. To rationalize the experimentally determined ligand hyperfine couplings ((1)H and (13)C) and further understand their dependence on the coordination mode and degree of protonation, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were carried out on a number of model complexes, representing the different Cu-histidine complexes studied experimentally. The exchange-correlation functional used for the calculation of the EPR parameters was B3LYP with triple-zeta plus polarization (TZP) quality basis sets. While the polarization agreement between the magnitudes of the calculated and experimental values varied among the various nuclei, sometimes exhibiting deviations of up to 40%, an excellent agreement was found for the sign prediction. This shows the unique advantage of combining high field ENDOR, by which the sign of the hyperfine can often be determined, with DFT predictions for structure determination.

Paramagnetic species on catalytic surfaces--DFT investigations into structure sensitivity of the hyperfine coupling constants

Structure sensitivity of the hyperfine coupling constants was investigated by means of DFT calculations for selected surface paramagnetic species. A *CH2OH radical trapped on silica and intrazeolite copper nitrosyl adducts encaged in ZSM-5 were taken as the examples. The surface of amorphous silica was modeled with a [Si5O8H10] cluster, whereas the zeolite hosting sites were epitomized by [Si4AlO5(OH)10]- cluster. Three different coordination modes of the *CH2OH radical were considered and the isotropic 13C and 1H hyperfine constants of the resultant van der Waals complexes, calculated with B3LYP/6-311G(d), were discussed in terms of the angular deformations caused by hydrogen bonds with the cluster. The magnetic parameters of the eta1-N[CuNO]11 and eta1-O[CuNO]11 linkage isomers were calculated at the BPW91/LanL2DZ and 6-311G(df) level. For the most stable eta1-N adduct a clear dependence of the spin density distribution within the Cu-NO moiety on changes in the Cu-N-O angle and the Cu-N bond distance was observed and accounted for by varying spin polarization and delocalization contributions.

Quantum chemical calculations of spectroscopic properties of metalloproteins and model compounds: EPR and Mössbauer properties

Recently developed theoretical methods to predict EPR and Mössbauer parameters open the way for close interactions between theorists and experimentalists to elucidate the geometric and electronic structures of metalloenzymes and model complexes and to obtain insight into their reactive properties. Spectral calculations (g-values, hyperfine couplings, zero-field splittings, isomer shifts and quadrupole splittings) are also a means to validate theoretical approaches and therefore complement the prediction of geometries, reaction energies and transition states.

The spin distribution in low-spin iron porphyrins

In many low-spin (S = 1/2) iron porphyrin derivatives, electron spin resonance (ESR) spectra indicate that one of the d(pi) orbitals of iron, either a d(xz) or d(yz), depending on the axial ligands of the porphyrin complex as well as their orientation, is essentially singly occupied; the unpaired electron is almost completely located at the metal. In contrast, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) spectroscopy convincingly show that a significant share of the unpaired electron is delocalized. This apparent contradiction is explained by the present density-functional-theory (DFT) calculations performed on a heme a model as well as on bis-imidazole-ligated iron porphyrin without substituents. The calculations show that the integrated spin density at the iron atom is nearly one, in agreement with the ESR measurements. However, significant areas with opposite (beta) spin are found along the Fe-N bond axes, thus evoking a need for additional alpha-spin density to be present in the porphyrin ring, ring substituents, and the axial ligands to keep the net amount of unpaired spin exactly one. The gross spin density, that is, the sum of unpaired alpha and beta spins, amounts to about 1.3 electrons. It seems that the degree to which alpha and beta spin dominate in different regions of the heme structure, as evidenced in these calculations, has not been previously observed.