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Pal R, Chattaraj PK. Can the Fluxionality in Borospherene Influence the Confinement-Induced Bonding between Two Noble Gas Atoms? MOLECULES (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2022; 27:molecules27248683. [PMID: 36557816 PMCID: PMC9787885 DOI: 10.3390/molecules27248683] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2022] [Revised: 11/22/2022] [Accepted: 12/04/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
A density functional theory study is performed to determine the stability and bonding in the neon dimer inside the B30N30 fullerene cage, the fluxional B40 cage, and within non-fluxional cages such as B12N12 and C60. The nature of bonding in the Ne2 encapsulated B40 is compared with the that in other cages in an attempt to determine whether any possible alterations are brought about by the dynamical nature of the host cage apart from the associated confinement effects. The bonding analysis includes the natural bond order (NBO), Bader's Atoms-in-Molecules electron density analysis (AIM), and energy decomposition analysis (EDA), revealing the non-covalent nature of the interactions between the Ne atoms and that between the Ne and the cage atoms. The formation of all the Ne2@cage systems is thermochemically unfavourable, the least being that for the B30N30 cage, which can easily be made favourable at lower temperatures. The Ne-Ne distance is lowest in the smallest cage and increases as the cage size increase due to steric relaxation experienced by the dimer. The dynamical picture of the systems is investigated by performing ab initio molecular dynamics simulations using the atom-centred density matrix propagation (ADMP) technique, which shows the nature of the movement of the dimer inside the cages, and by the fact that since it moves as a single entity, a weak bonding force holds them together, apart from their proven kinetic stability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ranita Pal
- Advanced Technology Development Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India
| | - Pratim Kumar Chattaraj
- Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India
- Correspondence:
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Pal R, Chattaraj PK. Possible effects of fluxionality of a cavitand on its catalytic activity through confinement. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2021; 23:15817-15834. [PMID: 34169304 DOI: 10.1039/d1cp01826d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
The discovery of fullerenes was a huge milestone in the scientific community, and with it came the urge to discover and analyze various small and large atomic and molecular clusters having a cavity. These cavitands of varied shapes and sizes have wide applications in the encapsulation of rare gas atoms to induce bond formation between them, storage of hydrogen and hydrocarbons to be used as alternative sources of fuel, catalyzation of otherwise slow reactions without using a catalyst, activation of small gas molecules, etc. Various cavitands like fullerenes, [ExBox]4+, cucurbit[n]urils, borospherenes, octa acid, etc. have been used for this purpose. Some clusters including cavitands exhibit fluxional behaviour. Systems in a confined environment often manifest interesting variations in their properties and behaviour, compared to their unconfined counterparts, facilitating the aforementioned applications. In this perspective article, we explore the possibility of making use of this extra degree of freedom, viz., the fluxionality, in changing the catalytic activity of the cavitand.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ranita Pal
- Advanced Technology Development Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, 721302, India
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Unprecedented saturation limit achieved by inorganic polycationic cluster (Sb 7Te 8) 5+ for light noble gases (He & Ne). J Mol Graph Model 2021; 106:107910. [PMID: 33848947 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmgm.2021.107910] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2020] [Revised: 03/20/2021] [Accepted: 03/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Among noble gases, Helium and Neon have smaller size, high ionization potential and low polarizability due to which these two gases exhibit weak binding affinities toward any surface. Bartlet's discovery and subsequent similar successful discoveries of stable complexes of noble gases opened new avenues for the storage of noble gases particularly on the new surfaces and their interactions for the storage of these gases. Here, we report the adsorption of light noble gases on polycationic clusters. Our current work not only investigates the interaction behavior of He and Ne with (Sb7Te8)5+ cluster but also explores the saturation limit of the cluster for He and Ne. Stability of various complexes of He and Ne with cationic surfaces is determined by the calculation of their interaction energies which reveal that the adsorption of single and multiple atoms of noble gases at faces of double cubic cluster is comparatively more favorable than at the bond lengths. Electronic properties such as HOMO-LUMO gaps show that complexes of He and Ne are more stable electronically than that of pure cluster, because HOMO-LUMO gap of complexes are higher than the bare polycationic cluster. NCI analysis of iso-surfaces and RDG maps confirms the presence of van der Waals forces between light noble gases and polycationic clusters. Saturation studies reveal that cluster can adsorb eleven He and/or ten Ne atoms with no or minimum distortion in the geometry of cluster. The results showed that Ne has greater tendency to interact with polycationic clusters due to the large electronic cloud and polarizability value than He.
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Jana G, Chattaraj PK. Effect of substitution on the bonding in He dimer confined within dodecahedrane: A computational study. J Comput Chem 2020; 41:2398-2405. [PMID: 32827169 DOI: 10.1002/jcc.26403] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2020] [Revised: 08/01/2020] [Accepted: 08/04/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
The effect of substitution in the dodecahedrane (C20 H20 ) cage on bonding in the confined He dimer is analyzed. The HeHe distances inside the halogenated dodecahedrane C20 X20 (X = FBr) cages are found to be less than half of that in the free He dimer. Comparing the equilibrium structure of He2 @C20 H20 with He2 @C20 X20 at ωB97XD/def2-TZVPP level, it is found that the He-He distances are relatively larger in the latter cases indicating the influence of halogen groups on the interaction between the cage and the trapped He pair. The viability of the He2 @C20 X20 complexes is reflected in the presence of a very high activation energy barrier against the thermochemically feasible dissociation process producing free He2 and C20 X20 . Quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) approach reveals a partial covalent interaction between He pair.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gourhari Jana
- Department of Chemistry and Centre for Theoretical Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India
| | - Pratim K Chattaraj
- Department of Chemistry and Centre for Theoretical Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India
- Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India
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Paul D, Dua H, Sarkar U. Confinement Effects of a Noble Gas Dimer Inside a Fullerene Cage: Can It Be Used as an Acceptor in a DSSC? Front Chem 2020; 8:621. [PMID: 32850644 PMCID: PMC7424018 DOI: 10.3389/fchem.2020.00621] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2020] [Accepted: 06/15/2020] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
A detailed density functional theory investigation of He2-encapsulated fullerene C36 and C40 has been presented here. When confinement takes place, He-He bond length shortens and a non-covalent type of interaction exists between two He atoms. Energy decomposition analysis shows that though an attractive interaction exists in free He2, when it is confined inside the fullerenes, repulsive interaction is observed due to the presence of dominant repulsive energy term. Fullerene C40, with greater size, makes the incorporation of He2 much easier than C36 as confirmed from the study of boundary crossing barrier. In addition, we have studied the possibility of using He2-incorporated fullerene as acceptor material in dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). Based on the highest energy gap, He2@C40 and bare C40 fullerenes are chosen for this purpose. Dye constructed with He2@C40 as an acceptor has the highest light-harvesting efficiency and correspondingly will possess the maximum short circuit current as compared to pure C40 acceptor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Debolina Paul
- Department of Physics, Assam University, Silchar, India
| | - Harkishan Dua
- Department of Physics, Assam University, Silchar, India
| | - Utpal Sarkar
- Department of Physics, Assam University, Silchar, India
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Yu Nikolaienko T, Kryachko ES, Dolgonos GA. On the Existence of HeHe Bond in the Endohedral Fullerene Hе 2 @C 60. J Comput Chem 2018; 39:1090-1102. [PMID: 28877370 DOI: 10.1002/jcc.25061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2017] [Revised: 07/28/2017] [Accepted: 08/05/2017] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
Twenty years have already been passed since the endohedral fullerene's void ceaselessly attracts attention of both, experimentalists and theoreticians, computational chemists and physicists in particular, who direct their efforts on computer simulations of encapsulating atoms and molecules into fullerene void and on unraveling the arising bonding patterns. We review recent developments on the endohedral He2 @C60 fullerene, on its experimental observation and on related computational works. The two latter are the main concerns in the present work: on the one hand, there experimentally exists the He dimer embedded into C60 void. On the other, computational side, each He atom exhibits a negligible charge transfer to C60 resulting in that altogether, the He dimer exists as a fractionally charged (He+δ )2 . Whether there exists a bond between these two helium atoms is the key question of the present work. Since a bond is a two-body creature, we assert that it suffices to define the bond on the basis of Löwdin's postulate of a molecule which we invoke to investigate such formation of the He dimer in a given C60 void in terms of the HeHe potential energy well. It is analytically demonstrated that this well enables to maintain at least one bound (ground) state, and therefore, according to Löwdin's postulate which is naturally anticipated within quantum theory, we infer that (He+δ )2 is a molecule, a diatomic, where two heliums are bonded to each other. Using these arguments, we also propose to extend the concept of stability of endohedral fullerenes. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Eugene S Kryachko
- Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics, Natl. Academy of Sci, Kiev, 03143, Ukraine
| | - Grygoriy A Dolgonos
- Institute of Chemistry, University of Graz, Heinrichstraße 28/IV, Graz, 8010, Austria
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Pan S, Ghara M, Kar S, Zarate X, Merino G, Chattaraj PK. Noble gas encapsulated B 40 cage. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2018; 20:1953-1963. [PMID: 29299567 DOI: 10.1039/c7cp07890k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
The efficacy of B40 borospherene to act as a host for noble gas atoms is explored via density functional theory based computations. Although the Ng@B40 complexes are thermochemically unstable with respect to dissociation into free Ng and B40, it does not rule out their viability as all the systems possess a high activation free energy barrier (84.7-206.3 kcal mol-1). Therefore, once they are formed, it is hard to take out the Ng atom. Two Ng atoms can also be incorporated within B40 for the lighter Ng atoms (He and Ne). In fact, the destabilization offered by the encapsulation of one and two He atoms and one Ne atom inside B40 is significantly less than that in experimentally synthesized He@C20H20, highlighting their greater possibility for synthesis. Although Ar2 and Kr2 encapsulated B40 systems are very much destabilized by the repulsive interaction between Ng2 and B40, an inspection of the bonding situation reveals that the confinement can even induce some degree of covalent interaction between two otherwise non-bonded Ng atoms. Ng atoms transfer electrons towards B40 which is smaller for lighter Ng atoms and gradually increases along He to Rn. Even if the electrostatic interaction between Ng and B40 is the most predominant term in these systems, the extent of the orbital interaction is also considerable. However, the very large Pauli repulsion counterbalances the attractive interaction, eventually turning the interaction repulsive in nature. Ng@B40 also shows dynamical behaviour involving continuous exchange between hexagonal and heptagonal holes, similar to the host cage, as understood from the very little variation in the activation barrier because of the Ng encapsulation. Furthermore, sandwich complexes like [(η5-C5Me5)Fe(η6-B40)]+ and [(η5-C5Me5)Fe(η7-B40)]+ are noted to be viable with the latter being slightly more stable than the former. The encapsulation of Xe slightly improves the dissociation energy associated with the decomposition into Xe@B40 and [Fe(η5-C5Me5)]+ compared to that in the bare one.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sudip Pan
- Institute of Advanced Synthesis, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, China.
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Pan S, Mandal S, Chattaraj PK. Cucurbit[6]uril: A Possible Host for Noble Gas Atoms. J Phys Chem B 2015; 119:10962-74. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.5b01396] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Sudip Pan
- Department of Chemistry and
Centre for Theoretical Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, 721302, India
| | - Subhajit Mandal
- Department of Chemistry and
Centre for Theoretical Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, 721302, India
| | - Pratim K. Chattaraj
- Department of Chemistry and
Centre for Theoretical Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, 721302, India
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Khatua M, Pan S, Chattaraj PK. Movement of Ng 2 molecules confined in a C 60 cage: An ab initio molecular dynamics study. Chem Phys Lett 2014. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cplett.2014.06.052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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Kobayashi T, Kohno Y, Takayanagi T, Seki K, Ueda K. Rare gas bond property of Rg–Be2O2 and Rg–Be2O2–Rg (Rg=He, Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe) as a comparison with Rg–BeO. COMPUT THEOR CHEM 2012. [DOI: 10.1016/j.comptc.2012.03.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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Lai TY, Yang CY, Lin HJ, Yang CY, Hu WP. Benchmark of density functional theory methods on the prediction of bond energies and bond distances of noble-gas containing molecules. J Chem Phys 2011; 134:244110. [PMID: 21721615 DOI: 10.1063/1.3603455] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
We have tested three pure density functional theory (DFT) functionals, BLYP, MPWPW91, MPWB95, and ten hybrid DFT functionals, B3LYP, B3P86, B98, MPW1B95, MPW1PW91, BMK, M05-2X, M06-2X, B2GP-PLYP, and DSD-BLYP with a series of commonly used basis sets on the performance of predicting the bond energies and bond distances of 31 small neutral noble-gas containing molecules. The reference structures were obtained using the CCSD(T)∕aug-cc-pVTZ theory and the reference energies were based on the calculation at the CCSD(T)∕CBS level. While in general the hybrid functionals performed significantly better than the pure functionals, our tests showed a range of performance by these hybrid functionals. For the bond energies, the MPW1B95∕6-311+G(2df,2pd), BMK∕aug-cc-pVTZ, B2GP-PLYP∕aug-cc-pVTZ, and DSD-BLYP∕aug-cc-pVTZ methods stood out with mean unsigned errors of 2.0-2.3 kcal∕mol per molecule. For the bond distances, the MPW1B95∕6-311+G(2df,2pd), MPW1PW91∕6-311+G(2df,2pd), and B3P86∕6-311+G(2df,2pd), DSD-BLYP∕6-311+G(2df,2pd), and DSD-BLYP∕aug-cc-pVTZ methods stood out with mean unsigned errors of 0.008-0.013 Å per bond. The current study showed that a careful selection of DFT functionals is very important in the study of noble-gas chemistry, and the most recommended methods are MPW1B95∕6-311+G(2df,2pd) and DSD-BLYP∕aug-cc-pVTZ.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tai-Yuan Lai
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, National Chung Cheng University, Chia-Yi, Taiwan
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Rzepa HS. The rational design of helium bonds. Nat Chem 2010; 2:390-3. [DOI: 10.1038/nchem.596] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2009] [Accepted: 02/23/2010] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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