1
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Schröder LA, Anderson HL, Rončević I. Evaluating the interactions between vibrational modes and electronic transitions using frontier orbital energy derivatives. Chem Commun (Camb) 2024; 60:7606-7609. [PMID: 38952338 PMCID: PMC11257084 DOI: 10.1039/d4cc02066a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2024] [Accepted: 06/24/2024] [Indexed: 07/03/2024]
Abstract
Vibrations affect molecular optoelectronic properties, even at zero kelvin. Accounting for these effects using computational modelling is costly, as it requires many calculations at geometries distorted from equilibrium. Here, we propose a low-cost method for identifying vibrations most strongly coupled to the electronic structure, based on using orbital energy derivatives as a diagnostic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa A Schröder
- Department of Chemistry, Oxford University, Chemistry Research Laboratory, Oxford OX1 3TA, UK.
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, KIT Campus South, Fritz-Haber-Weg 2, D-76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Harry L Anderson
- Department of Chemistry, Oxford University, Chemistry Research Laboratory, Oxford OX1 3TA, UK.
| | - Igor Rončević
- Department of Chemistry, Oxford University, Chemistry Research Laboratory, Oxford OX1 3TA, UK.
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2
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Bhat V, Ganapathysubramanian B, Risko C. Rapid Estimation of the Intermolecular Electronic Couplings and Charge-Carrier Mobilities of Crystalline Molecular Organic Semiconductors through a Machine Learning Pipeline. J Phys Chem Lett 2024; 15:7206-7213. [PMID: 38973725 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.4c01309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/09/2024]
Abstract
Organic semiconductors (OSC) offer tremendous potential across a wide range of (opto)electronic applications. OSC development, however, is often limited by trial-and-error design, with computational modeling approaches deployed to evaluate and screen candidates through a suite of molecular and materials descriptors that generally require hours to days of computational time to accumulate. Such bottlenecks slow the pace and limit the exploration of the vast chemical space comprising OSC. When considering charge-carrier transport in OSC, a key parameter of interest is the intermolecular electronic coupling. Here, we introduce a machine learning (ML) model to predict intermolecular electronic couplings in organic crystalline materials from their three-dimensional (3D) molecular geometries. The ML predictions take only a few seconds of computing time compared to hours by density functional theory (DFT) methods. To demonstrate the utility of the ML predictions, we deploy the ML model in conjunction with mathematical formulations to rapidly screen the charge-carrier mobility anisotropy for more than 60,000 molecular crystal structures and compare the ML predictions to DFT benchmarks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vinayak Bhat
- Department of Chemistry & Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506, United States
| | - Baskar Ganapathysubramanian
- Department of Mechanical Engineering & Translational AI Center, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50010, United States
| | - Chad Risko
- Department of Chemistry & Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506, United States
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3
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Skinner KC, Kammeraad JA, Wymore T, Narayan ARH, Zimmerman PM. Simulating Electron Transfer Reactions in Solution: Radical-Polar Crossover. J Phys Chem B 2023; 127:10097-10107. [PMID: 37976536 PMCID: PMC11135460 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c06120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2023]
Abstract
Single-electron transfer (SET) promotes a wide variety of interesting chemical transformations, but modeling of SET requires a careful treatment of electronic and solvent effects to give meaningful insight. Therefore, a combined constrained density functional theory and molecular mechanics (CDFT/MM) tool is introduced specifically for SET-initiated reactions. Mechanisms for two radical-polar crossover reactions involving the organic electron donors tetrakis(dimethylamino)ethylene (TDAE) and tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) were studied with the new tool. An unexpected tertiary radical intermediate within the TDAE system was identified, relationships between kinetics and substitution in the TTF system were explained, and the impact of the solvent environments on the TDAE and TTF reactions were examined. The results highlight the need for including solvent dynamics when quantifying SET kinetics and thermodynamics, as a free energy difference of >20 kcal/mol was observed. Overall, the new method informs mechanistic analysis of SET-initiated reactions and therefore is envisioned to be useful for studying reactions in the condensed phase.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin C Skinner
- Life Sciences Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States
- Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States
| | - Josh A Kammeraad
- Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States
| | - Troy Wymore
- Laufer Center, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, United States
| | - Alison R H Narayan
- Life Sciences Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States
- Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States
| | - Paul M Zimmerman
- Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States
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4
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Sousa C, Sánchez-Mansilla A, Broer R, Straatsma TP, de Graaf C. A Nonorthogonal Configuration Interaction Approach to Singlet Fission in Perylenediimide Compounds. J Phys Chem A 2023; 127:9944-9958. [PMID: 37964533 PMCID: PMC10694806 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.3c04975] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2023] [Revised: 10/07/2023] [Accepted: 10/31/2023] [Indexed: 11/16/2023]
Abstract
Perylenediimide molecules constitute a family of chromophores that undergo singlet fission, a process in which an excited singlet state converts into lower energy triplets on two neighboring molecules, potentially increasing the efficiency of organic solar cells. Here, the nonorthogonal configuration interaction method is applied to study the effect of the different crystal packing of various perylenediimide derivatives on the relative energies of the singlet and triplet states, the intermolecular electronic couplings, and the relative rates for singlet fission. The analysis of the wave functions and electronic couplings reveals that charge transfer states play an important role in the singlet fission mechanism. Dimer conformations where the PDI molecules are at large displacements along the long axis and short on the short axis are posed as the most favorable for singlet fission. The role of the substituent at the imide group has been inspected concluding that, although it has no effect in the energies, for some conformations it significantly influences the electronic couplings, and therefore, replacing this substituent with hydrogen may introduce artifacts in the computational modeling of the PDI molecules.
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Affiliation(s)
- C. Sousa
- Departament
de Ciència de Materials i Química Física and
Institut de Química Teòrica i Computacional, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | - A. Sánchez-Mansilla
- Departament
de Química Física i Inorgànica, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43007 Tarragona, Spain
| | - R. Broer
- Zernike
Institute of Advanced Materials, University
of Groningen, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - T. P. Straatsma
- National
Center for Computational Sciences, Oak Ridge
National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-6373, United States
- Department
of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University
of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0336, United States
| | - C. de Graaf
- Departament
de Química Física i Inorgànica, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43007 Tarragona, Spain
- ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
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5
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Kohn JT, Gildemeister N, Grimme S, Fazzi D, Hansen A. Efficient calculation of electronic coupling integrals with the dimer projection method via a density matrix tight-binding potential. J Chem Phys 2023; 159:144106. [PMID: 37818996 DOI: 10.1063/5.0167484] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2023] [Accepted: 09/04/2023] [Indexed: 10/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Designing organic semiconductors for practical applications in organic solar cells, organic field-effect transistors, and organic light-emitting diodes requires understanding charge transfer mechanisms across different length and time scales. The underlying electron transfer mechanisms can be efficiently explored using semiempirical quantum mechanical (SQM) methods. The dimer projection (DIPRO) method combined with the recently introduced non-self-consistent density matrix tight-binding potential (PTB) [Grimme et al., J. Chem. Phys. 158, 124111 (2023)] is used in this study to evaluate charge transfer integrals important for understanding charge transport mechanisms. PTB, parameterized for the entire Periodic Table up to Z = 86, incorporates approximate non-local exchange, allowing for efficient and accurate calculations for large hetero-organic compounds. Benchmarking against established databases, such as Blumberger's HAB sets, or our newly introduced JAB69 set and comparing with high-level reference data from ωB97X-D4 calculations confirm that DIPRO@PTB consistently performs well among the tested SQM approaches for calculating coupling integrals. DIPRO@PTB yields reasonably accurate results at low computational cost, making it suitable for screening purposes and applications to large systems, such as metal-organic frameworks and cyanine-based molecular aggregates further discussed in this work.
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Affiliation(s)
- J T Kohn
- Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bonn, Beringstrasse 4, 53115 Bonn, Germany
| | - N Gildemeister
- Department of Chemistry, Greinstrasse 4-6, 50939 Köln, Germany
| | - S Grimme
- Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bonn, Beringstrasse 4, 53115 Bonn, Germany
| | - D Fazzi
- Dipartimento di Chimica "Giacomo Ciamician," Via Selmi 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy
| | - A Hansen
- Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry, University of Bonn, Beringstrasse 4, 53115 Bonn, Germany
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6
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Fang W, Heller ER, Richardson JO. Competing quantum effects in heavy-atom tunnelling through conical intersections. Chem Sci 2023; 14:10777-10785. [PMID: 37829019 PMCID: PMC10566476 DOI: 10.1039/d3sc03706a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2023] [Accepted: 09/07/2023] [Indexed: 10/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Thermally activated chemical reactions are typically understood in terms of overcoming potential-energy barriers. However, standard rate theories break down in the presence of a conical intersection (CI) because these processes are inherently nonadiabatic, invalidating the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. Moreover, CIs give rise to intricate nuclear quantum effects such as tunnelling and the geometric phase, which are neglected by standard trajectory-based simulations and remain largely unexplored in complex molecular systems. We present new semiclassical transition-state theories based on an extension of golden-rule instanton theory to describe nonadiabatic tunnelling through CIs and thus provide an intuitive picture for the reaction mechanism. We apply the method in conjunction with first-principles electronic-structure calculations to the electron transfer in the bis(methylene)-adamantyl cation. Our study reveals a strong competition between heavy-atom tunnelling and geometric-phase effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei Fang
- Department of Chemistry, Fudan University Shanghai 200438 P. R. China
- Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zürich 8093 Zürich Switzerland
| | - Eric R Heller
- Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zürich 8093 Zürich Switzerland
| | - Jeremy O Richardson
- Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zürich 8093 Zürich Switzerland
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7
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Nazmutdinov RR, Shermokhamedov SA, Zinkicheva TT, Ulstrup J, Xiao X. Understanding molecular and electrochemical charge transfer: theory and computations. Chem Soc Rev 2023; 52:6230-6253. [PMID: 37551138 DOI: 10.1039/d2cs00006g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/09/2023]
Abstract
Electron, proton, and proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) are crucial elementary processes in chemistry, electrochemistry, and biology. We provide here a gentle overview of retrospective and currently developing theoretical formalisms of chemical, electrochemical and biological molecular charge transfer processes, with examples of how to bridge electron, proton, and PCET theory with experimental data. We offer first a theoretical minimum of molecular electron, proton, and PCET processes in homogeneous solution and at electrochemical interfaces. We illustrate next the use of the theory both for simple electron transfer processes, and for processes that involve molecular reorganization beyond the simplest harmonic approximation, with dissociative electron transfer and inclusion of all charge transfer parameters. A core example is the electrochemical reduction of the S2O82- anion. This is followed by discussion of core elements of proton and PCET processes and the electrochemical dihydrogen evolution reaction on different metal, semiconductor, and semimetal (say graphene) electrode surfaces. Other further focus is on stochastic chemical rate theory, and how this concept can rationalize highly non-traditional behaviour of charge transfer processes in mixed solvents. As a second major area we address ("long-range") chemical and electrochemical electron transfer through molecular frameworks using notions of superexchange and hopping. Single-molecule and single-entity electrochemistry are based on electrochemical scanning probe microscopies. (In operando) scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) are particularly emphasized, with theoretical notions and new molecular electrochemical phenomena in the confined tunnelling gap. Single-molecule surface structure and electron transfer dynamics are illustrated by self-assembled thiol molecular monolayers and by more complex redox target molecules. This discussion also extends single-molecule electrochemistry to bioelectrochemistry of complex redox metalloproteins and metalloenzymes. Our third major area involves computational overviews of molecular and electronic structure of the electrochemical interface, with new computational challenges. These relate to solvent dynamics in bulk and confined space (say carbon nanostructures), electrocatalysis, metallic and semiconductor nanoparticles, d-band metals, carbon nanostructures, spin catalysis and "spintronics", and "hot" electrons. Further perspectives relate to metal-organic frameworks, chiral surfaces, and spintronics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renat R Nazmutdinov
- Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Kazan National Research Technological University, K. Marx Str., 68, 420015 Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation.
| | - Shokirbek A Shermokhamedov
- Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Kazan National Research Technological University, K. Marx Str., 68, 420015 Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation.
| | - Tamara T Zinkicheva
- Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Kazan National Research Technological University, K. Marx Str., 68, 420015 Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation.
| | - Jens Ulstrup
- Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Kazan National Research Technological University, K. Marx Str., 68, 420015 Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation.
- Department of Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark, Building 207, Kemitorvet, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
| | - Xinxin Xiao
- Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark
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8
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Bhat V, Callaway CP, Risko C. Computational Approaches for Organic Semiconductors: From Chemical and Physical Understanding to Predicting New Materials. Chem Rev 2023. [PMID: 37141497 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.2c00704] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
While a complete understanding of organic semiconductor (OSC) design principles remains elusive, computational methods─ranging from techniques based in classical and quantum mechanics to more recent data-enabled models─can complement experimental observations and provide deep physicochemical insights into OSC structure-processing-property relationships, offering new capabilities for in silico OSC discovery and design. In this Review, we trace the evolution of these computational methods and their application to OSCs, beginning with early quantum-chemical methods to investigate resonance in benzene and building to recent machine-learning (ML) techniques and their application to ever more sophisticated OSC scientific and engineering challenges. Along the way, we highlight the limitations of the methods and how sophisticated physical and mathematical frameworks have been created to overcome those limitations. We illustrate applications of these methods to a range of specific challenges in OSCs derived from π-conjugated polymers and molecules, including predicting charge-carrier transport, modeling chain conformations and bulk morphology, estimating thermomechanical properties, and describing phonons and thermal transport, to name a few. Through these examples, we demonstrate how advances in computational methods accelerate the deployment of OSCsin wide-ranging technologies, such as organic photovoltaics (OPVs), organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic thermoelectrics, organic batteries, and organic (bio)sensors. We conclude by providing an outlook for the future development of computational techniques to discover and assess the properties of high-performing OSCs with greater accuracy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vinayak Bhat
- Department of Chemistry & Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0055, United States
| | - Connor P Callaway
- Department of Chemistry & Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0055, United States
| | - Chad Risko
- Department of Chemistry & Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0055, United States
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9
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Nakata H, Kitoh-Nishioka H, Sakai W, Choi CH. Toward Accurate Prediction of Ion Mobility in Organic Semiconductors by Atomistic Simulation. J Chem Theory Comput 2023; 19:1517-1528. [PMID: 36757219 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.2c01221] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/10/2023]
Abstract
A multiscale scheme (MLMS: Multi-Level Multi-Scale) to predict the ion mobility (μ) of amorphous organic semiconductors is proposed, which was successfully applied to the hole mobility predictions of 14 organic systems. An inverse relationship between μ and reorganization energy is observed due to local polaronic distortions. Another moderate inverse correlation between μ and distribution of site energy change exists, representing the effects of geometric flexibility. The former and the latter represent the intramolecular and intermolecular geometric effects, respectively. In addition, a linear correlation between transfer coupling and μ is observed, showing the importance of orbital overlaps between monomers. Especially, the highest hole mobility of C6-2TTN is due to its large transfer coupling. On the other hand, another high hole mobility of CBP turned out to come from the high first neighbor density (ρFND) of its first self-solvation, emphasizing the proper description of amorphous structural configurations with a sufficiently large number of monomers. In general, systems with either unusually high transfer coupling or high first neighbor density can potentially have high μ regardless of geometric effects. Especially, the newly suggested design parameter, ρFND, is pointing to a new direction as opposed to the traditional π-conjugation strategy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hiroya Nakata
- Research Institute for Advanced Materials and Devices, Kyocera Corporation, 3-5-3 Hikaridai Seika-cho, Soraku-gun, Kyoto 619-0237, Japan
| | - Hirotaka Kitoh-Nishioka
- Department of Energy and Materials, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Kindai University, 3 Chome-4-1 Kowakae, Higashiosaka, Osaka 577-8502, Japan
| | - Wakana Sakai
- Research Institute for Advanced Materials and Devices, Kyocera Corporation, 3-5-3 Hikaridai Seika-cho, Soraku-gun, Kyoto 619-0237, Japan
| | - Cheol Ho Choi
- Department of Chemistry, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, South Korea
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10
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Khelladi I, Springborg M, Rahmouni A, Chadli R, Sekkal-Rahal M. Theoretical Study on Non-Linear Optics Properties of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and the Effect of Their Intercalation with Carbon Nanotubes. MOLECULES (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2022; 28:molecules28010110. [PMID: 36615304 PMCID: PMC9822052 DOI: 10.3390/molecules28010110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2022] [Revised: 12/17/2022] [Accepted: 12/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Results of a theoretical study devoted to comparing NLO (non-linear optics) responses of derivatives of tetracene, isochrysene, and pyrene are reported. The static hyperpolarizability β, the dipole moment μ, the HOMO and LUMO orbitals, and their energy gap were calculated using the CAM-B3LYP density functional combined with the cc-pVDZ basis set. The para-disubstituted NO2-tetracene-N(CH3)2 has the highest NLO response, which is related to a large intramolecular charge transfer. Adding vinyl groups to the para-disubstituted NO2-tetracene-N(CH3)2 results in an increase in the NLO responses. We further investigated the effect of the intercalation of various push-pull molecules inside an armchair single-walled carbon nanotube. The intercalation leads to increased NLO responses, something that depends critically on the position of the guest molecule and/or on functionalization of the nanotube by donor and attractor groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Imane Khelladi
- Laboratoire de Chimie Théorique de Bio- et Nanosystemes, Faculty of Exact Sciences, University Djillali Liabes of Sidi Bel-Abbes, B.P. 89, Sidi Bel Abbes 22000, Algeria
- Modeling and Computational Methods Laboratory, University of Saida, B.P. 148, Cité En-Nasr, Route de Mascara, 2002, Saida 20000, Algeria
| | - Michael Springborg
- Laboratory of Theoretical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Namur Institute of Structured Matter (NISM), University of Namur, Rue de Bruxelles 61, 5000 Namur, Belgium
- Correspondence:
| | - Ali Rahmouni
- Modeling and Computational Methods Laboratory, University of Saida, B.P. 148, Cité En-Nasr, Route de Mascara, 2002, Saida 20000, Algeria
| | - Redouane Chadli
- Laboratoire de Chimie Théorique de Bio- et Nanosystemes, Faculty of Exact Sciences, University Djillali Liabes of Sidi Bel-Abbes, B.P. 89, Sidi Bel Abbes 22000, Algeria
| | - Majda Sekkal-Rahal
- Laboratoire de Chimie Théorique de Bio- et Nanosystemes, Faculty of Exact Sciences, University Djillali Liabes of Sidi Bel-Abbes, B.P. 89, Sidi Bel Abbes 22000, Algeria
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11
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Ahart CS, Rosso KM, Blumberger J. Implementation and Validation of Constrained Density Functional Theory Forces in the CP2K Package. J Chem Theory Comput 2022; 18:4438-4446. [PMID: 35700315 PMCID: PMC9281399 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.2c00284] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
![]()
Constrained density
functional theory (CDFT) is a powerful tool
for the prediction of electron transfer parameters in condensed phase
simulations at a reasonable computational cost. In this work we present
an extension to CDFT in the popular mixed Gaussian/plane wave electronic
structure package CP2K, implementing the additional force terms arising
from a constraint based on Hirshfeld charge partitioning. This improves
upon the existing Becke partitioning scheme, which is prone to give
unphysical atomic charges. We verify this implementation for a variety
of systems: electron transfer in (H2O)2+ in a vacuum, electron tunnelling
between oxygen vacancy centers in solid MgO, and electron self-exchange
in aqueous Ru2+–Ru3+. We find good agreement
with previous plane-wave CDFT results for the same systems, but at
a significantly lower computational cost, and we discuss the general
reliability of condensed phase CDFT calculations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian S Ahart
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and Thomas Young Centre, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
| | - Kevin M Rosso
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99354, United States
| | - Jochen Blumberger
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and Thomas Young Centre, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
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12
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Pann J, Viertl W, Roithmeyer H, Pehn R, Hofer TS, Brüggeller P. Insights into Proton Coupled Electron Transfer in the Field of Artificial Photosynthesis. Isr J Chem 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/ijch.202100035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Johann Pann
- Institute of General Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry Centrum for Chemistry and Biomedicine University of Innsbruck Innrain 80-82 A-6020 Innsbruck Austria
| | - Wolfgang Viertl
- Institute of General Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry Centrum for Chemistry and Biomedicine University of Innsbruck Innrain 80-82 A-6020 Innsbruck Austria
| | - Helena Roithmeyer
- Institute of General Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry Centrum for Chemistry and Biomedicine University of Innsbruck Innrain 80-82 A-6020 Innsbruck Austria
| | - Richard Pehn
- Institute of General Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry Centrum for Chemistry and Biomedicine University of Innsbruck Innrain 80-82 A-6020 Innsbruck Austria
| | - Thomas S. Hofer
- Institute of General Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry Centrum for Chemistry and Biomedicine University of Innsbruck Innrain 80-82 A-6020 Innsbruck Austria
| | - Peter Brüggeller
- Institute of General Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry Centrum for Chemistry and Biomedicine University of Innsbruck Innrain 80-82 A-6020 Innsbruck Austria
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13
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Guo Y, Huang Y, Zeng B, Han B, Akri M, Shi M, Zhao Y, Li Q, Su Y, Li L, Jiang Q, Cui YT, Li L, Li R, Qiao B, Zhang T. Photo-thermo semi-hydrogenation of acetylene on Pd 1/TiO 2 single-atom catalyst. Nat Commun 2022; 13:2648. [PMID: 35551203 PMCID: PMC9098498 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30291-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2021] [Accepted: 04/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Semi-hydrogenation of acetylene in excess ethylene is a key industrial process for ethylene purification. Supported Pd catalysts have attracted most attention due to their superior intrinsic activity but often suffer from low selectivity. Pd single-atom catalysts (SACs) are promising to significantly improve the selectivity, but the activity needs to be improved and the feasible preparation of Pd SACs remains a grand challenge. Here, we report a simple strategy to construct Pd1/TiO2 SACs by selectively encapsulating the co-existed small amount of Pd nanoclusters/nanoparticles based on their different strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) occurrence conditions. In addition, photo-thermo catalysis has been applied to this process where a much-improved catalytic activity was obtained. Detailed characterization combined with DFT calculation suggests that photo-induced electrons transferred from TiO2 to the adjacent Pd atoms facilitate the activation of acetylene. This work offers an opportunity to develop highly stable Pd SACs for efficient catalytic semi-hydrogenation process. Semi-hydrogenation of acetylene in excess ethylene is a key industrial process for ethylene purification. Here the authors develop highly stable Pd1/TiO2 single-atom catalyst for photo-thermo semi-hydrogenation of acetylene.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yalin Guo
- CAS Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Applied Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yike Huang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Applied Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Bin Zeng
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China
| | - Bing Han
- CAS Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Applied Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Mohcin Akri
- CAS Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Applied Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China
| | - Ming Shi
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China
| | - Yue Zhao
- State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China
| | - Qinghe Li
- CAS Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Applied Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China
| | - Yang Su
- CAS Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Applied Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China
| | - Lin Li
- CAS Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Applied Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China
| | - Qike Jiang
- Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China
| | - Yi-Tao Cui
- SANKA High Technology Co. Ltd. 90-1, Tatsuno, Hyogo, Japan
| | - Lei Li
- Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Hyogo Science and Technology Association, Hyogo, Japan
| | - Rengui Li
- State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China.
| | - Botao Qiao
- CAS Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Applied Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China.
| | - Tao Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Applied Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China
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14
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Jiang X, Futera Z, Ali ME, Gajdos F, von Rudorff GF, Carof A, Breuer M, Blumberger J. Correction to "Cysteine Linkages Accelerate Electron Flow through Tetra-Heme Protein STC". J Am Chem Soc 2022; 144:7010-7012. [PMID: 35389222 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c02709] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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15
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Giannini S, Blumberger J. Charge Transport in Organic Semiconductors: The Perspective from Nonadiabatic Molecular Dynamics. Acc Chem Res 2022; 55:819-830. [PMID: 35196456 PMCID: PMC8928466 DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.1c00675] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
![]()
Organic semiconductors (OSs) are an exciting
class of materials
that have enabled disruptive technologies in this century including
large-area electronics, flexible displays, and inexpensive solar cells.
All of these technologies rely on the motion of electrical charges
within the material and the diffusivity of these charges critically
determines their performance. In this respect, it is remarkable that
the nature of the charge transport in these materials has puzzled
the community for so many years, even for apparently simple systems
such as molecular single crystals: some experiments would better fit
an interpretation in terms of a localized particle picture, akin to
molecular or biological electron transfer, while others are in better
agreement with a wave-like interpretation, more akin to band transport
in metals. Exciting recent progress in the theory and simulation
of charge
carrier transport in OSs has now led to a unified understanding of
these disparate findings, and this Account will review one of these
tools developed in our laboratory in some detail: direct charge carrier
propagation by quantum-classical nonadiabatic molecular dynamics.
One finds that even in defect-free crystals the charge carrier can
either localize on a single molecule or substantially delocalize over
a large number of molecules depending on the relative strength of
electronic couplings between the molecules, reorganization, or charge
trapping energy of the molecule and thermal fluctuations of electronic
couplings and site energies, also known as electron–phonon
couplings. Our simulations predict that in molecular OSs exhibiting
some of
the highest measured charge mobilities to date, the charge carrier
forms “flickering” polarons, objects that are delocalized
over 10–20 molecules on average and that constantly change
their shape and extension under the influence of thermal disorder.
The flickering polarons propagate through the OS by short (≈10
fs long) bursts of the wave function that lead to an expansion of
the polaron to about twice its size, resulting in spatial displacement,
carrier diffusion, charge mobility, and electrical conductivity. Arguably
best termed “transient delocalization”, this mechanistic
scenario is very similar to the one assumed in transient localization
theory and supports its assertions. We also review recent applications
of our methodology to charge transport in disordered and nanocrystalline
samples, which allows us to understand the influence of defects and
grain boundaries on the charge propagation. Unfortunately, the
energetically favorable packing structures of
typical OSs, whether molecular or polymeric, places fundamental constraints
on charge mobilities/electronic conductivity compared to inorganic
semiconductors, which limits their range of applications. In this
Account, we review the design rules that could pave the way for new
very high-mobility OS materials and we argue that 2D covalent organic
frameworks are one of the most promising candidates to satisfy them. We conclude that our nonadiabatic dynamics method is a powerful
approach for predicting charge carrier transport in crystalline and
disordered materials. We close with a brief outlook on extensions
of the method to exciton transport, dissociation, and recombination.
This will bring us a step closer to an understanding of the birth,
survival, and annihiliation of charges at interfaces of optoelectronic
devices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samuele Giannini
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and Thomas Young Centre, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
| | - Jochen Blumberger
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and Thomas Young Centre, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
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16
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Ahart CS, Rosso KM, Blumberger J. Electron and Hole Mobilities in Bulk Hematite from Spin-Constrained Density Functional Theory. J Am Chem Soc 2022; 144:4623-4632. [PMID: 35239359 PMCID: PMC9097473 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c13507] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Transition metal oxide materials have attracted much attention for photoelectrochemical water splitting, but problems remain, e.g. the sluggish transport of excess charge carriers in these materials, which is not well understood. Here we use periodic, spin-constrained and gap-optimized hybrid density functional theory to uncover the nature and transport mechanism of holes and excess electrons in a widely used water splitting material, bulk-hematite (α-Fe2O3). We find that upon ionization the hole relaxes from a delocalized band state to a polaron localized on a single iron atom with localization induced by tetragonal distortion of the six surrounding iron-oxygen bonds. This distortion is responsible for sluggish hopping transport in the Fe-bilayer, characterized by an activation energy of 70 meV and a hole mobility of 0.031 cm2/(V s). By contrast, the excess electron induces a smaller distortion of the iron-oxygen bonds resulting in delocalization over two neighboring Fe units. We find that 2-site delocalization is advantageous for charge transport due to the larger spatial displacements per transfer step. As a result, the electron mobility is predicted to be a factor of 3 higher than the hole mobility, 0.098 cm2/(V s), in qualitative agreement with experimental observations. This work provides new fundamental insight into charge carrier transport in hematite with implications for its photocatalytic activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian S Ahart
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, U.K
| | - Kevin M Rosso
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99354, United States
| | - Jochen Blumberger
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, U.K
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17
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Roosta S, Galami F, Elstner M, Xie W. Efficient Surface Hopping Approach for Modeling Charge Transport in Organic Semiconductors. J Chem Theory Comput 2022; 18:1264-1274. [PMID: 35179894 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.1c00944] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
The trajectory surface hopping (TSH) method is nowadays widely applied to study the charge/exciton transport process in organic semiconductors (OSCs). In the present study, we systematically examine the performance of two approximations in the fewest switched surface hopping (FSSH) simulations for charge transport (CT) in several representative OSCs. These approximations include (i) the substitution of the nuclear velocity scaling along the nonadiabatic coupling vector (NCV) by rescaling the hopping probability with the Boltzmann factor (Boltzmann correction (BC)) and (ii) a phenomenological approach to treat the quantum feedback from the electronic system to the nuclear system (implicit charge relaxation (IR)) in the OSCs. We find that charge mobilities computed by FSSH-BC-IR are in very good agreement with the mobilities obtained by standard FSSH simulations with explicit charge relaxation (FSSH-ER), however, at reduced computational cost. A key parameter determining the charge carrier mobility is the reorganization energy, which is sensitively dependent on DFT functionals applied. By employing the IR approximation, the FSSH method allows systematic investigation of the effect of the reorganization energies obtained by different DFT functionals like B3LYP or ωB97XD on CT in OSCs. In comparison to the experiments, FSSH-BC-IR using ωB97XD reorganization energy underestimates mobilities in the low-coupling regime, which may indicate the lack of nuclear quantum effects (e.g., zero point energy (ZPE)) in the simulations. The mobilities obtained by FSSH-BC-IR using the B3LYP reorganization energy agree well with experimental values in 3 orders of magnitude. The accidental agreement may be the consequence of the underestimation of the reorganization energy by the B3LYP functional, which compensates for the neglect of nuclear ZPE in the simulations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Roosta
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kaiserstrasse 12, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Farhad Galami
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kaiserstrasse 12, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Marcus Elstner
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kaiserstrasse 12, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.,Institute of Biological Interfaces (IBG-2), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Weiwei Xie
- Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Renewable Energy Conversion and Storage Center, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
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18
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Ziogos OG, Blumberger J. Ultrafast estimation of electronic couplings for electron transfer between pi-conjugated organic molecules. II. J Chem Phys 2021; 155:244110. [PMID: 34972358 DOI: 10.1063/5.0076555] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The development of highly efficient methods for the calculation of electronic coupling matrix elements between the electron donor and acceptor is an important goal in theoretical organic semiconductor research. In Paper I [F. Gajdos, S. Valner, F. Hoffmann, J. Spencer, M. Breuer, A. Kubas, M. Dupuis, and J. Blumberger, J. Chem. Theory Comput. 10, 4653 (2014)], we introduced the analytic overlap method (AOM) for this purpose, which is an ultrafast electronic coupling estimator parameterized to and orders of magnitude faster than density functional theory (DFT) calculations at a reasonably small loss in accuracy. In this work, we reparameterize and extend the AOM to molecules containing nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, and sulfur heteroatoms using 921 dimer configurations from the recently introduced HAB79 dataset. We find again a very good linear correlation between the frontier orbital overlap, calculated ultrafast in an optimized minimum Slater basis, and DFT reference electronic couplings. The new parameterization scheme is shown to be transferable to sulfur-containing polyaromatic hydrocarbons in experimentally resolved dimeric configurations. Our extension of the AOM enables high-throughput screening of very large databases of chemically diverse organic crystal structures and the application of computationally intense non-adiabatic molecular dynamics methods to charge transport in state-of-the-art organic semiconductors, e.g., non-fullerene acceptors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Orestis George Ziogos
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and Thomas Young Centre, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
| | - Jochen Blumberger
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and Thomas Young Centre, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
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19
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Ziogos OG, Kubas A, Futera Z, Xie W, Elstner M, Blumberger J. HAB79: A new molecular dataset for benchmarking DFT and DFTB electronic couplings against high-level ab initio calculations. J Chem Phys 2021; 155:234115. [PMID: 34937363 DOI: 10.1063/5.0076010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
A new molecular dataset called HAB79 is introduced to provide ab initio reference values for electronic couplings (transfer integrals) and to benchmark density functional theory (DFT) and density functional tight-binding (DFTB) calculations. The HAB79 dataset is composed of 79 planar heterocyclic polyaromatic hydrocarbon molecules frequently encountered in organic (opto)electronics, arranged to 921 structurally diverse dimer configurations. We show that CASSCF/NEVPT2 with a minimal active space provides a robust reference method that can be applied to the relatively large molecules of the dataset. Electronic couplings are largest for cofacial dimers, in particular, sulfur-containing polyaromatic hydrocarbons, with values in excess of 0.5 eV, followed by parallel displaced cofacial dimers. V-shaped dimer motifs, often encountered in the herringbone layers of organic crystals, exhibit medium-sized couplings, whereas T-shaped dimers have the lowest couplings. DFT values obtained from the projector operator-based diabatization (POD) method are initially benchmarked against the smaller databases HAB11 (HAB7-) and found to systematically improve when climbing Jacob's ladder, giving mean relative unsigned errors (MRUEs) of 27.7% (26.3%) for the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) functional BLYP, 20.7% (15.8%) for hybrid functional B3LYP, and 5.2% (7.5%) for the long-range corrected hybrid functional omega-B97X. Cost-effective POD in combination with a GGA functional and very efficient DFTB calculations on the dimers of the HAB79 database give a good linear correlation with the CASSCF/NEVPT2 reference data, which, after scaling with a multiplicative constant, gives reasonably small MRUEs of 17.9% and 40.1%, respectively, bearing in mind that couplings in HAB79 vary over 4 orders of magnitude. The ab initio reference data reported here are expected to be useful for benchmarking other DFT or semi-empirical approaches for electronic coupling calculations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Orestis George Ziogos
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and Thomas Young Centre, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
| | - Adam Kubas
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kasprzaka 44/52, 01-224 Warsaw, Poland
| | - Zdenek Futera
- Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Weiwei Xie
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Marcus Elstner
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Jochen Blumberger
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and Thomas Young Centre, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
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20
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Santos E, Schmickler W. Hydrogen adsorption on doped graphene investigated by a DFT-based tight-binding method. JOURNAL OF PHYSICS. CONDENSED MATTER : AN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS JOURNAL 2021; 33:504001. [PMID: 34547738 DOI: 10.1088/1361-648x/ac28c0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2021] [Accepted: 09/21/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
DFTB is a tight binding model based on density functional theory (DFT); it is less exact than the latter, but much faster, and allows calculations for much larger ensembles and timescales. Here we explore its possibilities for electrochemistry, taking hydrogen adsorption on pristine and doped graphene as an example. The speed and the flexibility of DFTB enabled us to provide a broad panorama incorporating not only the effects of various dopants, but also of ionic adsorption and double-layer charging. With the exception of graphene doped with boron, our results agree well with literature data based on DFT where they exist, and with a few control DFT calculations performed by us. DFTB is well suited to perform molecular dynamics for the electrochemical interface. As an example, we have investigated the effect of water on hydrogen adsorption on pristine graphene.
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21
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The role of charge recombination to triplet excitons in organic solar cells. Nature 2021; 597:666-671. [PMID: 34588666 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03840-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 114] [Impact Index Per Article: 38.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2020] [Accepted: 07/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The use of non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) in organic solar cells has led to power conversion efficiencies as high as 18%1. However, organic solar cells are still less efficient than inorganic solar cells, which typically have power conversion efficiencies of more than 20%2. A key reason for this difference is that organic solar cells have low open-circuit voltages relative to their optical bandgaps3, owing to non-radiative recombination4. For organic solar cells to compete with inorganic solar cells in terms of efficiency, non-radiative loss pathways must be identified and suppressed. Here we show that in most organic solar cells that use NFAs, the majority of charge recombination under open-circuit conditions proceeds via the formation of non-emissive NFA triplet excitons; in the benchmark PM6:Y6 blend5, this fraction reaches 90%, reducing the open-circuit voltage by 60 mV. We prevent recombination via this non-radiative channel by engineering substantial hybridization between the NFA triplet excitons and the spin-triplet charge-transfer excitons. Modelling suggests that the rate of back charge transfer from spin-triplet charge-transfer excitons to molecular triplet excitons may be reduced by an order of magnitude, enabling re-dissociation of the spin-triplet charge-transfer exciton. We demonstrate NFA systems in which the formation of triplet excitons is suppressed. This work thus provides a design pathway for organic solar cells with power conversion efficiencies of 20% or more.
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22
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23
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Abstract
Hole hopping through tryptophan/tyrosine chains enables rapid unidirectional charge transport over long distances. We have elucidated structural and dynamical factors controlling hopping speed and efficiency in two modified azurin constructs that include a rhenium(I) sensitizer, Re(His)(CO)3(dmp)+, and one or two tryptophans (W1, W2). Experimental kinetics investigations showed that the two closely spaced (3 to 4 Å) intervening tryptophans dramatically accelerated long-range electron transfer (ET) from CuI to the photoexcited sensitizer. In our theoretical work, we found that time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics/molecular dynamics (QM/MM/MD) trajectories of low-lying triplet excited states of ReI(His)(CO)3(dmp)+-W1(-W2) exhibited crossings between sensitizer-localized (*Re) and charge-separated [ReI(His)(CO)3(dmp•-)/(W1 •+ or W2 •+)] (CS1 or CS2) states. Our analysis revealed that the distances, angles, and mutual orientations of ET-active cofactors fluctuate in a relatively narrow range in which the cofactors are strongly coupled, enabling adiabatic ET. Water-dominated electrostatic field fluctuations bring *Re and CS1 states to a crossing where *Re(CO)3(dmp)+←W1 ET occurs, and CS1 becomes the lowest triplet state. ET is promoted by solvation dynamics around *Re(CO)3(dmp)+(W1); and CS1 is stabilized by Re(dmp•-)/W1 •+ electron/hole interaction and enhanced W1 •+ solvation. The second hop, W1 •+←W2, is facilitated by water fluctuations near the W1/W2 unit, taking place when the electrostatic potential at W2 drops well below that at W1 •+ Insufficient solvation and reorganization around W2 make W1 •+←W2 ET endergonic, shifting the equilibrium toward W1 •+ and decreasing the charge-separation yield. We suggest that multiscale TDDFT/MM/MD is a suitable technique to model the simultaneous evolution of photogenerated excited-state manifolds.
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24
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Ricci G, Canola S, Dai Y, Fazzi D, Negri F. Impact of Fluoroalkylation on the n-Type Charge Transport of Two Naphthodithiophene Diimide Derivatives. Molecules 2021; 26:4119. [PMID: 34299394 PMCID: PMC8307299 DOI: 10.3390/molecules26144119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2021] [Revised: 07/03/2021] [Accepted: 07/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
In this work, we investigate two recently synthesized naphthodithiophene diimide (NDTI) derivatives featuring promising n-type charge transport properties. We analyze the charge transport pathways and model charge mobility with the non-adiabatic hopping mechanism using the Marcus-Levich-Jortner rate constant formulation, highlighting the role of fluoroalkylated substitution in α (α-NDTI) and at the imide nitrogen (N-NDTI) position. In contrast with the experimental results, similar charge mobilities are computed for the two derivatives. However, while α-NDTI displays remarkably anisotropic mobilities with an almost one-dimensional directionality, N-NDTI sustains a more isotropic charge percolation pattern. We propose that the strong anisotropic charge transport character of α-NDTI is responsible for the modest measured charge mobility. In addition, when the role of thermally induced transfer integral fluctuations is investigated, the computed electron-phonon couplings for intermolecular sliding modes indicate that dynamic disorder effects are also more detrimental for the charge transport of α-NDTI than N-NDTI. The lower observed mobility of α-NDTI is therefore rationalized in terms of a prominent anisotropic character of the charge percolation pathways, with the additional contribution of dynamic disorder effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gaetano Ricci
- Dipartimento di Chimica “Giacomo Ciamician”, Università di Bologna, Via F. Selmi, 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy; (G.R.); (S.C.); (Y.D.)
| | - Sofia Canola
- Dipartimento di Chimica “Giacomo Ciamician”, Università di Bologna, Via F. Selmi, 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy; (G.R.); (S.C.); (Y.D.)
| | - Yasi Dai
- Dipartimento di Chimica “Giacomo Ciamician”, Università di Bologna, Via F. Selmi, 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy; (G.R.); (S.C.); (Y.D.)
| | - Daniele Fazzi
- Institut für Physikalische Chemie, Department für Chemie, Universität zu Köln, Greinstr. 4-6, D-50939 Köln, Germany
| | - Fabrizia Negri
- Dipartimento di Chimica “Giacomo Ciamician”, Università di Bologna, Via F. Selmi, 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy; (G.R.); (S.C.); (Y.D.)
- INSTM, UdR Bologna, Via F. Selmi, 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy
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25
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Schieschke N, Bold BM, Dohmen PM, Wehl D, Hoffmann M, Dreuw A, Elstner M, Höfener S. Geometry dependence of excitonic couplings and the consequences for configuration-space sampling. J Comput Chem 2021; 42:1402-1418. [PMID: 33993548 DOI: 10.1002/jcc.26552] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2020] [Revised: 03/02/2021] [Accepted: 04/06/2021] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Excitonic coupling plays a key role for the understanding of excitonic energy transport (EET) in, for example, organic photovoltaics. However, the calculation of realistic systems is often beyond the applicability range of accurate wavefunction methods so that lower-scaling semi-empirical methods are used to model EET events. In the present work, the distance and angle dependence of excitonic couplings of dimers of selected organic molecules are evaluated for the semi-empirical long-range corrected density functional based tight binding (LC-DFTB) method and spin opposite scaled second order approximate coupled cluster singles and doubles (SOS-CC2). While semi-empirically scaled methods can lead to slightly increased deviations for excitation energies, the excitonic couplings and their dependence on the dimer geometry are reproduced. LC-DFTB yields a similar accuracy range as density-functional theory (DFT) employing the ωB97X functional while the computation time is reduced by several orders of magnitude. The dependence of the exchange contributions to the excitonic couplings on the dimer geometry is analyzed assessing the calculation of Coulombic excitonic couplings from monomer local excited states only, which reduces the computational effort significantly. The present work is a necessary first step toward the simulation of excitonic energy transport using semi-empirical methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nils Schieschke
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Beatrix M Bold
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Philipp M Dohmen
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Daniel Wehl
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Marvin Hoffmann
- Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing, Ruprecht-Karls University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Andreas Dreuw
- Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing, Ruprecht-Karls University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Marcus Elstner
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany.,Institute of Biological Interfaces (IGB2), Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Sebastian Höfener
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany
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26
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Kubas A. How the Donor/Acceptor Spin States Affect the Electronic Couplings in Molecular Charge-Transfer Processes? J Chem Theory Comput 2021; 17:2917-2927. [PMID: 33830757 PMCID: PMC8154369 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.1c00126] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
![]()
The electronic coupling
matrix element HAB is an essential ingredient
of most electron-transfer theories. HAB depends on the overlap between donor and
acceptor wave functions and is affected by the involved states’
spin. We classify the spin-state effects into three categories: orbital
occupation, spin-dependent electron density, and density delocalization.
The orbital occupancy reflects the diverse chemical nature and reactivity
of the spin states of interest. The effect of spin-dependent density
is related to a more compact electron density cloud at lower spin
states due to decreased exchange interactions between electrons. Density
delocalization is strongly connected with the covalency concept that
increases the spatial extent of the diabatic state’s electron
density in specific directions. We illustrate these effects with high-level ab initio calculations on model direct donor–acceptor
systems relevant to metal oxide materials and biological electron
transfer. Obtained results can be used to benchmark existing methods
for HAB calculations in complicated cases
such as spin-crossover materials or antiferromagnetically coupled
systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Kubas
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kasprzaka 44/52, 01-224 Warsaw, Poland
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27
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Landi A, Peluso A, Troisi A. Quantitative Prediction of the Electro-Mechanical Response in Organic Crystals. ADVANCED MATERIALS (DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA.) 2021; 33:e2008049. [PMID: 33598958 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202008049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2020] [Revised: 01/06/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Organic semiconductors' inherent flexibility makes them appealing for advanced applications such as wearable electronics, e-skins, or pressure sensors, and can even be used to enhance their intrinsic electronic properties. Unfortunately, these applications for organic materials are currently hindered by the lack of a quantitative understanding of the interplay between their electrical and mechanical properties. In this work, this gap is filled by presenting an accurate methodology able to predict quantitatively the effects of external deformation on the charge transport properties of any organic semiconductors. Three prototypical materials are investigated, showing that the experimental variation of charge carrier mobility with strain is fully reproduced, even in a wide range of deformations applied along different crystal axes. The results indicate that the intrinsic electro-mechanical response of the materials varies by orders of magnitude within the class of organic semiconductors, a difference rationalized observing that the mobility trend is primarily influenced by the transfer integrals' variation, rather than by a modification of the crystal phonons. In light of its robustness, accuracy, and low computational cost, this protocol represents an ideal tool to quantify the electro-mechanical response in new organic compounds, thus establishing a reliable route for a full exploitation of strain engineering in advanced technologies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessandro Landi
- Dipartimento di Chimica e Biologia, Università di Salerno, Fisciano, Salerno, I-84084, Italy
| | - Andrea Peluso
- Dipartimento di Chimica e Biologia, Università di Salerno, Fisciano, Salerno, I-84084, Italy
| | - Alessandro Troisi
- Department of Chemistry, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3BX, UK
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28
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Özen B, Fadaei Tirani F, Schenk K, Lin KH, Scopelliti R, Corminboeuf C, Frauenrath H. Structure-Property Relationships in Bithiophenes with Hydrogen-Bonded Substituents. Chemistry 2021; 27:3348-3360. [PMID: 32894599 DOI: 10.1002/chem.202003113] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2020] [Revised: 08/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
The use of crystal engineering to control the supramolecular arrangement of π-conjugated molecules in the solid-state is of considerable interest for the development of novel organic electronic materials. In this study, we investigated the effect of combining of two types of supramolecular interaction with different geometric requirements, amide hydrogen bonding and π-interactions, on the π-overlap between calamitic π-conjugated cores. To this end, we prepared two series of bithiophene diesters and diamides with methylene, ethylene, or propylene spacers between the bithiophene core and the functional groups in their terminal substituents. The hydrogen-bonded bithiophene diamides showed significantly denser packing of the bithiophene cores than the diesters and other known α,ω-disubstituted bithiophenes. The bithiophene packing density reach a maximum in the bithiophene diamide with an ethylene spacer, which had the smallest longitudinal bithiophene displacement and infinite 1D arrays of electronically conjugated, parallel, and almost linear N-H⋅⋅⋅O=C hydrogen bonds. The synergistic hydrogen bonding and π-interactions were attributed to the favorable conformation mechanics of the ethylene spacer and resulted in H-type spectroscopic aggregates in solid-state absorption spectroscopy. These results demonstrate that the optoelectronic properties of π-conjugated materials in the solid-state may be tailored systematically by side-chain engineering, and hence that this approach has significant potential for the design of organic and polymer semiconductors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bilal Özen
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Materials, Laboratory of Macromolecular and Organic Materials, EPFL-STI-IMX-LMOM, MXG 037, Station 12, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Farzaneh Fadaei Tirani
- BCH 2111, Batochime UNIL, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Avenue Forel 2, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Kurt Schenk
- Institute of Physics, PH L1 500, Station 3, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Kun-Han Lin
- BCH 5312, Batochime UNIL, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Avenue Forel 2, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Rosario Scopelliti
- BCH 2111, Batochime UNIL, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Avenue Forel 2, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Clémence Corminboeuf
- BCH 5312, Batochime UNIL, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Avenue Forel 2, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Holger Frauenrath
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Materials, Laboratory of Macromolecular and Organic Materials, EPFL-STI-IMX-LMOM, MXG 037, Station 12, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
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29
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Bao P, Hettich CP, Shi Q, Gao J. Block-Localized Excitation for Excimer Complex and Diabatic Coupling. J Chem Theory Comput 2020; 17:240-254. [PMID: 33370101 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.0c01015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
We describe a block-localized excitation (BLE) method to carry out constrained optimization of block-localized orbitals for constructing valence bond-like, diabatic excited configurations using multistate density functional theory (MSDFT). The method is an extension of the previous block-localized wave function method through a fragment-based ΔSCF approach to optimize excited determinants within a molecular complex. In BLE, both the number of electrons and the electronic spin of different fragments in a whole system can be constrained, whereas electrostatic, exchange, and polarization interactions among different blocks can be fully taken into account of. To avoid optimization collapse to unwanted states, a ΔSCF projection scheme and a maximum overlap of wave function approach have been presented. The method is illustrated by the excimer complex of two naphthalene molecules. With a minimum of eight spin-adapted configurational state functions, it was found that the inversion of La- and Lb- states near the optimal structure of the excimer complex is correctly produced, which is in quantitative agreement with DMRG-CASPT2 calculations and experiments. Trends in the computed transfer integrals associated with excited-state energy transfer both in the singlet and triplet states are discussed. The results suggest that MSDFT may be used as an efficient approach to treat intermolecular interactions in excited states with a minimal active space (MAS) for interpretation of the results and for dynamic simulations, although the selection of a small active space is often system dependent.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peng Bao
- Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
| | - Christian P Hettich
- Department of Chemistry and Supercomputing Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States
| | - Qiang Shi
- Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.,University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Jiali Gao
- Department of Chemistry and Supercomputing Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States.,Institute of Systems and Physical Biology, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518055, China.,Beijing University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China
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30
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Lin KH, Corminboeuf C. FB-ECDA: Fragment-based Electronic Coupling Decomposition Analysis for Organic Amorphous Semiconductors. J Phys Chem A 2020; 124:10624-10634. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.0c09743] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Kun-Han Lin
- Laboratory for Computational Molecular Design, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering and National Centre for Computational Design and Discovery of Novel Materials (MARVEL), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Clémence Corminboeuf
- Laboratory for Computational Molecular Design, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering and National Centre for Computational Design and Discovery of Novel Materials (MARVEL), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
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31
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Wang CI, Joanito I, Lan CF, Hsu CP. Artificial neural networks for predicting charge transfer coupling. J Chem Phys 2020; 153:214113. [PMID: 33291923 DOI: 10.1063/5.0023697] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Quantum chemistry calculations have been very useful in providing many key detailed properties and enhancing our understanding of molecular systems. However, such calculation, especially with ab initio models, can be time-consuming. For example, in the prediction of charge-transfer properties, it is often necessary to work with an ensemble of different thermally populated structures. A possible alternative to such calculations is to use a machine-learning based approach. In this work, we show that the general prediction of electronic coupling, a property that is very sensitive to intermolecular degrees of freedom, can be obtained with artificial neural networks, with improved performance as compared to the popular kernel ridge regression method. We propose strategies for optimizing the learning rate and batch size, improving model performance, and further evaluating models to ensure that the physical signatures of charge-transfer coupling are well reproduced. We also address the effect of feature representation as well as statistical insights obtained from the loss function and the data structure. Our results pave the way for designing a general strategy for training such neural-network models for accurate prediction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chun-I Wang
- Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan
| | | | - Chang-Feng Lan
- Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan
| | - Chao-Ping Hsu
- Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan
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32
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Yu Q, Hammes-Schiffer S. Nuclear-Electronic Orbital Multistate Density Functional Theory. J Phys Chem Lett 2020; 11:10106-10113. [PMID: 33191754 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c02923] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Hydrogen tunneling is essential for a wide range of chemical and biological processes. The description of hydrogen tunneling with multicomponent quantum chemistry approaches, where the transferring hydrogen nucleus is treated on the same level as the electrons, is challenging due to the importance of both static and dynamical electron-proton correlation. Herein the nuclear-electronic orbital multistate density functional theory (NEO-MSDFT) method is presented as a strategy to include both types of correlation. In this approach, two localized nuclear-electronic wave functions obtained with the NEO-DFT method are combined with a nonorthogonal configurational interaction approach to produce bilobal, delocalized ground and excited vibronic states. By including a correction function, the NEO-MSDFT approach can produce quantitatively accurate hydrogen tunneling splittings for fixed geometries of systems such as malonaldehyde and acetoacetaldehyde. This approach is computationally efficient and can be combined with methods such as vibronic coupling theory to describe tunneling dynamics and to compute vibronic couplings in many types of systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qi Yu
- Department of Chemistry, Yale University, 225 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, United States
| | - Sharon Hammes-Schiffer
- Department of Chemistry, Yale University, 225 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, United States
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33
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Ghan S, Kunkel C, Reuter K, Oberhofer H. Improved Projection-Operator Diabatization Schemes for the Calculation of Electronic Coupling Values. J Chem Theory Comput 2020; 16:7431-7443. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.0c00887] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Simiam Ghan
- Chair for Theoretical Chemistry and Catalysis Research Center, Technical University of Munich, Lichtenbergstraße 4, D-85747 Garching, Germany
| | - Christian Kunkel
- Chair for Theoretical Chemistry and Catalysis Research Center, Technical University of Munich, Lichtenbergstraße 4, D-85747 Garching, Germany
| | - Karsten Reuter
- Chair for Theoretical Chemistry and Catalysis Research Center, Technical University of Munich, Lichtenbergstraße 4, D-85747 Garching, Germany
- Fritz-Haber Institute of the Max-Planck Society, Faradayweg 4-6, D-14195 Berlin, Germany
| | - Harald Oberhofer
- Chair for Theoretical Chemistry and Catalysis Research Center, Technical University of Munich, Lichtenbergstraße 4, D-85747 Garching, Germany
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Ueberricke L, Schwarz J, Ghalami F, Matthiesen M, Rominger F, Elbert SM, Zaumseil J, Elstner M, Mastalerz M. Triptycene End-Capped Benzothienobenzothiophene and Naphthothienobenzothiophene. Chemistry 2020; 26:12596-12605. [PMID: 32368815 PMCID: PMC7589444 DOI: 10.1002/chem.202001125] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2020] [Revised: 04/28/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Previously it was demonstrated that triptycene end-capping can be used as a crystal engineering strategy to direct the packing of quinoxalinophenanthrophenazines (QPPs) towards cofacially stacked π dimers with large molecular overlap resulting in high charge transfer integrals. Remarkably, this packing motif was formed under different crystallization conditions and with a variety of derivatives bearing additional functional groups or aromatic substituents. Benzothienobenzothiophene (BTBT) and its derivatives are known as some of the best performing compounds for organic field-effect transistors. Here, the triptycene end-capping concept is introduced to this class of compounds and polymorphic crystal structures are investigated to evaluate the potential of triptycene end-caps as synthons for crystal engineering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucas Ueberricke
- Organisch-Chemisches InstitutRuprecht-Karls-Universität HeidelbergIm Neuenheimer Feld 27069120HeidelbergGermany
| | - Julia Schwarz
- Organisch-Chemisches InstitutRuprecht-Karls-Universität HeidelbergIm Neuenheimer Feld 27069120HeidelbergGermany
| | - Farhad Ghalami
- Institut für Physikalische ChemieKarlsruher Institute of Technology (KIT)Kaiserstr. 1276131KarlsruheGermany
| | - Maik Matthiesen
- Institut für Physikalische ChemieUniversität HeidelbergIm Neuenheimer Feld 25369120HeidelbergGermany
| | - Frank Rominger
- Organisch-Chemisches InstitutRuprecht-Karls-Universität HeidelbergIm Neuenheimer Feld 27069120HeidelbergGermany
| | - Sven M. Elbert
- Organisch-Chemisches InstitutRuprecht-Karls-Universität HeidelbergIm Neuenheimer Feld 27069120HeidelbergGermany
| | - Jana Zaumseil
- Institut für Physikalische ChemieUniversität HeidelbergIm Neuenheimer Feld 25369120HeidelbergGermany
| | - Marcus Elstner
- Institut für Physikalische ChemieKarlsruher Institute of Technology (KIT)Kaiserstr. 1276131KarlsruheGermany
| | - Michael Mastalerz
- Organisch-Chemisches InstitutRuprecht-Karls-Universität HeidelbergIm Neuenheimer Feld 27069120HeidelbergGermany
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35
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Kitoh-Nishioka H, Shigeta Y, Ando K. Tunneling matrix element and tunneling pathways of protein electron transfer calculated with a fragment molecular orbital method. J Chem Phys 2020; 153:104104. [PMID: 32933280 DOI: 10.1063/5.0018423] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Practical ways to calculate the tunneling matrix elements and analyze the tunneling pathways for protein electron-transfer (ET) reactions with a fragment molecular orbital (FMO) method are presented. The straightforward use of minimal basis sets only for the atoms involved in the covalent bond detachment in FMO can properly describe the ETs through the protein main-chains with the cost-effective two-body corrections (FMO2) without losing the quality of double-zeta basis sets. The current FMO codes have been interfaced with density functional theory, polarizable continuum model, and model core potentials, with which the FMO-based protein ET calculations can consider the effects of electron correlation, solvation, and transition-metal redox centers. The reasonable performance of the FMO-based ET calculations is demonstrated for three different sets of protein-ET model molecules: (1) hole transfer between two tryptophans covalently bridged by a polyalanine linker in the ideal α-helix and β-strand conformations, (2) ET between two plastoquinones covalently bridged by a polyalanine linker in the ideal α-helix and β-strand conformations, and (3) hole transfer between ruthenium (Ru) and copper (Cu) complexes covalently bridged by a stretch of a polyglycine linker as a model for Ru-modified derivatives of azurin.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hirotaka Kitoh-Nishioka
- Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), PRESTO, 4-1-8 Honcho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
| | - Yasuteru Shigeta
- Center for Computational Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan
| | - Koji Ando
- Department of Information and Sciences, Tokyo Woman's Christian University, 2-6-1 Zenpukuji, Suginami-ku, Tokyo 167-8585, Japan
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36
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Ueberricke L, Ciubotaru I, Ghalami F, Mildner F, Rominger F, Elstner M, Mastalerz M. Di- and Tetracyano-Substituted Pyrene-Fused Pyrazaacenes: Aggregation in the Solid State. Chemistry 2020; 26:11634-11642. [PMID: 32459010 PMCID: PMC7540477 DOI: 10.1002/chem.202002382] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2020] [Revised: 05/26/2020] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
Five di- and tetracyano-substituted pyrene-fused pyrazaacenes were synthesized and studied as potential electron acceptors in the solid state. Single crystals of all compounds were grown and the crystal packing studied by DFT calculations (transfer integrals and reorganization energies) to get insight into possible use for semiconducting charge transport.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucas Ueberricke
- Organisch-Chemisches InstitutRuprecht-Karls-Universität HeidelbergIm Neuenheimer Feld 27069120HeidelbergGermany
| | - Ioana Ciubotaru
- Organisch-Chemisches InstitutRuprecht-Karls-Universität HeidelbergIm Neuenheimer Feld 27069120HeidelbergGermany
| | - Farhad Ghalami
- Institut für Physikalische ChemieKarlsruher Institute of Technology (KIT)Kaiserstrasse 1276131KarlsruheGermany
| | - Felix Mildner
- Organisch-Chemisches InstitutRuprecht-Karls-Universität HeidelbergIm Neuenheimer Feld 27069120HeidelbergGermany
| | - Frank Rominger
- Organisch-Chemisches InstitutRuprecht-Karls-Universität HeidelbergIm Neuenheimer Feld 27069120HeidelbergGermany
| | - Marcus Elstner
- Institut für Physikalische ChemieKarlsruher Institute of Technology (KIT)Kaiserstrasse 1276131KarlsruheGermany
| | - Michael Mastalerz
- Organisch-Chemisches InstitutRuprecht-Karls-Universität HeidelbergIm Neuenheimer Feld 27069120HeidelbergGermany
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37
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Jiang H, Zimmerman PM. Charge transfer via spin flip configuration interaction: Benchmarks and application to singlet fission. J Chem Phys 2020; 153:064109. [DOI: 10.1063/5.0018267] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Hanjie Jiang
- Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
| | - Paul M. Zimmerman
- Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
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38
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Ma H, Wang W, Kim S, Cheng MH, Govoni M, Galli G. PyCDFT: A Python package for constrained density functional theory. J Comput Chem 2020; 41:1859-1867. [PMID: 32497321 DOI: 10.1002/jcc.26354] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2020] [Revised: 05/14/2020] [Accepted: 05/15/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
We present PyCDFT, a Python package to compute diabatic states using constrained density functional theory (CDFT). PyCDFT provides an object-oriented, customizable implementation of CDFT, and allows for both single-point self-consistent-field calculations and geometry optimizations. PyCDFT is designed to interface with existing density functional theory (DFT) codes to perform CDFT calculations where constraint potentials are added to the Kohn-Sham Hamiltonian. Here, we demonstrate the use of PyCDFT by performing calculations with a massively parallel first-principles molecular dynamics code, Qbox, and we benchmark its accuracy by computing the electronic coupling between diabatic states for a set of organic molecules. We show that PyCDFT yields results in agreement with existing implementations and is a robust and flexible package for performing CDFT calculations. The program is available at https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3821097.
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Affiliation(s)
- He Ma
- Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.,Materials Science Division and Center for Molecular Engineering, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois, USA
| | - Wennie Wang
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - Siyoung Kim
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - Man-Hin Cheng
- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - Marco Govoni
- Materials Science Division and Center for Molecular Engineering, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois, USA.,Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - Giulia Galli
- Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.,Materials Science Division and Center for Molecular Engineering, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois, USA.,Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
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39
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Krämer M, Dohmen PM, Xie W, Holub D, Christensen AS, Elstner M. Charge and Exciton Transfer Simulations Using Machine-Learned Hamiltonians. J Chem Theory Comput 2020; 16:4061-4070. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.0c00246] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Mila Krämer
- Institute of Physical Chemistry (IPC), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
- Institute of Biological Interfaces (IBG2), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Philipp M. Dohmen
- Institute of Physical Chemistry (IPC), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
- Institute of Biological Interfaces (IBG2), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Weiwei Xie
- Institute of Physical Chemistry (IPC), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Daniel Holub
- Institute of Physical Chemistry (IPC), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Anders S. Christensen
- Department of Chemistry, National Center for Computational Design and Discovery of Novel Materials (MARVEL), Institute of Physical Chemistry, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 80, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Marcus Elstner
- Institute of Physical Chemistry (IPC), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
- Institute of Biological Interfaces (IBG2), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
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40
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Cheng CY, Campbell JE, Day GM. Evolutionary chemical space exploration for functional materials: computational organic semiconductor discovery. Chem Sci 2020; 11:4922-4933. [PMID: 34122948 PMCID: PMC8159259 DOI: 10.1039/d0sc00554a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2020] [Accepted: 04/21/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Computational methods, including crystal structure and property prediction, have the potential to accelerate the materials discovery process by enabling structure prediction and screening of possible molecular building blocks prior to their synthesis. However, the discovery of new functional molecular materials is still limited by the need to identify promising molecules from a vast chemical space. We describe an evolutionary method which explores a user specified region of chemical space to identify promising molecules, which are subsequently evaluated using crystal structure prediction. We demonstrate the methods for the exploration of aza-substituted pentacenes with the aim of finding small molecule organic semiconductors with high charge carrier mobilities, where the space of possible substitution patterns is too large to exhaustively search using a high throughput approach. The method efficiently explores this large space, typically requiring calculations on only ∼1% of molecules during a search. The results reveal two promising structural motifs: aza-substituted naphtho[1,2-a]anthracenes with reorganisation energies as low as pentacene and a series of pyridazine-based molecules having both low reorganisation energies and high electron affinities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chi Y Cheng
- Computational Systems Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of Southampton Highfield Southampton SO17 1NX UK
| | - Josh E Campbell
- Computational Systems Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of Southampton Highfield Southampton SO17 1NX UK
| | - Graeme M Day
- Computational Systems Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of Southampton Highfield Southampton SO17 1NX UK
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41
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Xie W, Holub D, Kubař T, Elstner M. Performance of Mixed Quantum-Classical Approaches on Modeling the Crossover from Hopping to Bandlike Charge Transport in Organic Semiconductors. J Chem Theory Comput 2020; 16:2071-2084. [PMID: 32176844 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.9b01271] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
In the present study, several mixed quantum-classical (MQC) methods are applied to on-the-fly nonadiabatic molecular dynamics simulations of hole transport in molecular organic semiconductors (OSCs). The tested MQC methods contain the mean-field Ehrenfest (MFE), trajectory surface hopping (TSH) approaches based on Tully's fewest switches surface hopping (FSSH) and the global flux surface hopping (GFSH), the latter in the diabatic/adiabatic representation, and a Landau-Zener type trajectory surface hopping (LZSH). We also tested several correction schemes which were proposed to identify trivial crossings and to remove unphysical long-range charge transfers due to decoherence corrections. In addition, several cost-effective approaches for the nuclear velocity adjustment after an energy-allowed/energy-forbidden hop are investigated with respect to detailed balance and internal consistency conditions. To model a broad spectrum of OSCs with different charge transport characteristics, we derived from the anthracene structural model the construction of two additional models by uniformly scaling down the electronic couplings by the factors of 0.1 and 0.5. Anthracene shows a bandlike charge transport mechanism, characterized by slightly delocalized charge carriers 'diffusing' through the crystal. For smaller couplings, the mechanism changes to a hopping type, characteristically differing in the charge delocalization and temperature dependence. The MFE and corrected adiabatic TSH approaches are able to quantitatively reproduce the expected behavior, while the diabatic LZSH method fails for large couplings, as do approaches which are based on the hopping of localized charge between neighboring sites. Moreover, we find that while the hole mobility of the anthracene crystal simulated using the celebrated Marcus theory is in good agreement with the experimental value, its agreement has to be regarded as an accident due to the overestimation of the prefactor in the Marcus rate equation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Weiwei Xie
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kaiserstrasse 12, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Daniel Holub
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kaiserstrasse 12, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Tomáš Kubař
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kaiserstrasse 12, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Marcus Elstner
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kaiserstrasse 12, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.,Institute of Biological Interfaces (IBG-2), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
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42
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Behara PK, Dupuis M. Electron transfer in extended systems: characterization by periodic density functional theory including the electronic coupling. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2019; 22:10609-10623. [PMID: 31670326 DOI: 10.1039/c9cp05133c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
We describe a new computer implementation of electron transfer (ET) theory in extended systems treated by periodic density functional theory (DFT), including the calculation of the electronic coupling transition element VAB. In particular, the development opens up the full characterization of electron transfer in the solid state. The approach is valid for any single-determinant wavefunction with localized character representing the electronic structure of the system, from Hartree-Fock (HF) theory, to density functional theory (DFT), hybrid DFT theory, DFT+U theory, and constrained DFT (cDFT) theory. The implementation in CP2K reuses the high-performance functions of the code. The computational cost is equivalent to only one iteration of an HF calculation. We present test calculations for electron transfer in a number of systems, including a 1D-model of ferric oxide, hematite Fe2O3, rutile TiO2, and finally bismuth vanadate BiVO4.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pavan Kumar Behara
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Computational and Data-Enabled Science and Engineering Program, University at Buffalo, State of New York University, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA.
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Mao Y, Montoya-Castillo A, Markland TE. Accurate and efficient DFT-based diabatization for hole and electron transfer using absolutely localized molecular orbitals. J Chem Phys 2019; 151:164114. [DOI: 10.1063/1.5125275] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Yuezhi Mao
- Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
| | | | - Thomas E. Markland
- Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
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Schulz A, Jacob CR. Description of intermolecular charge transfer with subsystem density-functional theory. J Chem Phys 2019; 151:131103. [PMID: 31594348 DOI: 10.1063/1.5125218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Efficient quantum-chemical methods that are able to describe intermolecular charge transfer are crucial for modeling organic semiconductors. However, the correct description of intermolecular charge transfer with density-functional theory (DFT) is hampered by the fractional charge error of approximate exchange-correlation (xc) functionals. Here, we investigate the charge transfer induced by an external electric field in a tetrathiafulvalene-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TTF-TCNQ) complex as a test case. For this seemingly simple model system, a supermolecular DFT treatment fails with most conventional xc functionals. Here, we present an extension of subsystem DFT to subsystems with a fractional number of electrons. We show that within such a framework, it becomes possible to overcome the fractional charge error by enforcing the correct dependence of each subsystem's total energy on the subsystem's fractional charge. Such a subsystem DFT approach allows for a correct description of the intermolecular charge transfer in the TTF-TCNQ model complex. The approach presented here can be generalized to larger molecular aggregates and will thus allow for modeling organic semiconductor materials accurately and efficiently.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anika Schulz
- Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Gaußstr. 17, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Christoph R Jacob
- Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Gaußstr. 17, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany
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Giannini S, Carof A, Ellis M, Yang H, Ziogos OG, Ghosh S, Blumberger J. Quantum localization and delocalization of charge carriers in organic semiconducting crystals. Nat Commun 2019; 10:3843. [PMID: 31451687 PMCID: PMC6710274 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11775-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 81] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2019] [Accepted: 08/02/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Charge carrier transport in organic semiconductors is at the heart of many revolutionary technologies ranging from organic transistors, light-emitting diodes, flexible displays and photovoltaic cells. Yet, the nature of charge carriers and their transport mechanism in these materials is still unclear. Here we show that by solving the time-dependent electronic Schrödinger equation coupled to nuclear motion for eight organic molecular crystals, the excess charge carrier forms a polaron delocalized over up to 10-20 molecules in the most conductive crystals. The polaron propagates through the crystal by diffusive jumps over several lattice spacings at a time during which it expands more than twice its size. Computed values for polaron size and charge mobility are in excellent agreement with experimental estimates and correlate very well with the recently proposed transient localization theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samuele Giannini
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and Thomas Young Centre, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Antoine Carof
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and Thomas Young Centre, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Matthew Ellis
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and Thomas Young Centre, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Hui Yang
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and Thomas Young Centre, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Orestis George Ziogos
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and Thomas Young Centre, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Soumya Ghosh
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and Thomas Young Centre, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Jochen Blumberger
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and Thomas Young Centre, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK.
- Institute for Advanced Study, Technische Universität München, Lichtenbergstrasse 2 a, D-85748, Garching, Germany.
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Migliore A. How To Extract Quantitative Information on Electronic Transitions from the Density Functional Theory "Black Box". J Chem Theory Comput 2019; 15:4915-4923. [PMID: 31314526 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.9b00518] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Electronic couplings and vertical excitation energies are crucial determinants of charge and excitation energy transfer rates in a broad variety of processes ranging from biological charge transfer to charge transport through inorganic materials, from molecular sensing to intracellular signaling. Density Functional Theory (DFT) is generally used to calculate these critical parameters, but the quality of the results is unpredictable because of the semiempirical nature of the available DFT approaches. This study identifies a small set of fundamental rules that enables accurate DFT computation of electronic couplings and vertical excitation energies in molecular complexes and materials. These rules are applied to predict efficient DFT approaches to coupling calculations. The result is an easy-to-use guide for reliable DFT descriptions of electronic transitions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Agostino Migliore
- Department of Chemistry , Duke University , Durham , North Carolina 27708 , United States
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47
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Holub D, Lamparter T, Elstner M, Gillet N. Biological relevance of charge transfer branching pathways in photolyases. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2019; 21:17072-17081. [PMID: 31313765 DOI: 10.1039/c9cp01609k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
The repair of sun-induced DNA lesions by photolyases is driven by a photoinduced electron transfer from a fully reduced FAD to the damaged DNA. A chain of several aromatic residues connecting FAD to solvent ensures the prior photoreduction of the FAD cofactor. In PhrA, a class III CPD photolyase, two branching tryptophan charge transfer pathways have been characterized. According to previous experiments, both pathways play a role in the FAD photoreduction. To provide a molecular insight to the charge transfer abilities of both pathways, we perform multiscales simulations where the protein motion and the positive charge are simultaneously propagated. Our computational approach reveals that one pathway drives a very fast charge transfer whereas the other pathway provides a very good thermodynamic stabilization of the positive charge. During the simulations, the positive charge firstly moves on the fast triad, while a reorganization of the close FAD˙- environment occurs. Then, backward transfers can lead to the propagation of the positive charge on the second pathway. After one nanosecond, we observe a nearly equal probability to find the charge at ending tryptophan of either pathway; eventually the charge distribution will likely evolve towards a charge stabilization on the last tryptophan of the slowest pathway. Our results highlight the role the protein environment, which manages the association of a kinetic and a thermodynamic pathways to trigger a fast and efficient FAD photoreduction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Holub
- Department for Theoretical Chemical Biology, Institute for Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute for Technology, Kaiserstr. 12, 76131, Karlsruhe, Germany.
| | - Tilman Lamparter
- Botanical Institute, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Fritz Haber Weg 4, 76131, Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Marcus Elstner
- Department for Theoretical Chemical Biology, Institute for Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute for Technology, Kaiserstr. 12, 76131, Karlsruhe, Germany. and Institute of Biological Interfaces (IBG2), Karlsruhe Institute for Technology, Kaiserstr. 12, 76131, Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Natacha Gillet
- Department for Theoretical Chemical Biology, Institute for Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute for Technology, Kaiserstr. 12, 76131, Karlsruhe, Germany.
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48
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Ni W, Gurzadyan GG, Zhao J, Che Y, Li X, Sun L. Singlet Fission from Upper Excited Electronic States of Cofacial Perylene Dimer. J Phys Chem Lett 2019; 10:2428-2433. [PMID: 31025867 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b00717] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Singlet fission directly from the upper excited vibrational and electronic states of cofacial perylene dimers, bypassing the relaxed state S1, was detected within 50 fs. This process competes well with vibrational cooling in S1 (4.7-7.0 ps) and S2 → S1 internal conversion (380 fs). The singlet fission has the energy threshold E = 3.06 eV. Other competitive relaxation processes are excimer and dimer cation formation on an ultrafast time scale. Excitation to higher energy levels (4.96 eV) leads to a higher efficiency of singlet fission.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenjun Ni
- State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Institute of Artificial Photosynthesis , Dalian University of Technology , 116024 Dalian , China
| | - Gagik G Gurzadyan
- State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Institute of Artificial Photosynthesis , Dalian University of Technology , 116024 Dalian , China
| | - Jianzhang Zhao
- State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals , Dalian University of Technology , 116024 Dalian , China
| | - Yuanyuan Che
- State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals , Dalian University of Technology , 116024 Dalian , China
| | - Xiaoxin Li
- State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Institute of Artificial Photosynthesis , Dalian University of Technology , 116024 Dalian , China
| | - Licheng Sun
- State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Institute of Artificial Photosynthesis , Dalian University of Technology , 116024 Dalian , China
- Department of Chemistry, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health , KTH Royal Institute of Technology , 10044 Stockholm , Sweden
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Kinetics of trifurcated electron flow in the decaheme bacterial proteins MtrC and MtrF. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019; 116:3425-3430. [PMID: 30755526 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1818003116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The bacterium Shewanella oneidensis has evolved a sophisticated electron transfer (ET) machinery to export electrons from the cytosol to extracellular space during extracellular respiration. At the heart of this process are decaheme proteins of the Mtr pathway, MtrC and MtrF, located at the external face of the outer bacterial membrane. Crystal structures have revealed that these proteins bind 10 c-type hemes arranged in the peculiar shape of a staggered cross that trifurcates the electron flow, presumably to reduce extracellular substrates while directing electrons to neighboring multiheme cytochromes at either side along the membrane. Especially intriguing is the design of the heme junctions trifurcating the electron flow: they are made of coplanar and T-shaped heme pair motifs with relatively large and seemingly unfavorable tunneling distances. Here, we use electronic structure calculations and molecular simulations to show that the side chains of the heme rings, in particular the cysteine linkages inserting in the space between coplanar and T-shaped heme pairs, strongly enhance electronic coupling in these two motifs. This results in an [Formula: see text]-fold speedup of ET steps at heme junctions that would otherwise be rate limiting. The predicted maximum electron flux through the solvated proteins is remarkably similar for all possible flow directions, suggesting that MtrC and MtrF shuttle electrons with similar efficiency and reversibly in directions parallel and orthogonal to the outer membrane. No major differences in the ET properties of MtrC and MtrF are found, implying that the different expression levels of the two proteins during extracellular respiration are not related to redox function.
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Canola S, Graham C, Pérez-Jiménez ÁJ, Sancho-García JC, Negri F. Charge transport parameters for carbon based nanohoops and donor-acceptor derivatives. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2019; 21:2057-2068. [PMID: 30638227 DOI: 10.1039/c8cp06727a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
The effect of donor-acceptor (D-A) moieties on magnitudes such as reorganization energies and electronic couplings in cycloparaphenylene (CPP) carbon based nanohoops (i.e. conjugated organic molecules with cyclic topology) is highlighted via model computations and analysis of the available crystalline structure of N,N-dimethylaza[8]CPP. For the sake of comparison, intra-molecular and inter-molecular charge transport parameters are concomitantly modelled for the recently determined herringbone polymorph of [6]CPP, along with [8]CPP and [12]CPP. The peculiar contribution of low frequency vibrations to intramolecular reorganization energies is also disclosed by computing the Huang-Rhys factors for the investigated [n]CPPs and the N,N-dimethylaza derivative. In contrast with most planar organic semiconductors where the layer in which molecules are herringbone arranged identifies the high-mobility plane, nanohoops disclose inter-layer electronic couplings larger than the intra-layer counterparts. Charge transfer rate constants modelled with three different approaches (Marcus, Marcus-Levich-Jortner and spectral overlap) suggest that D-A nanohoops, owing to orbital localization, may be more efficient for charge transport than [n]CPPs for suitable solid phase arrangements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sofia Canola
- Dipartimento di Chimica 'G. Ciamician', Università di Bologna, Via F. Selmi 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy.
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