Determination of noncovalent interaction energies from electronic densities

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons as Anode Materials in Lithium-Ion Batteries: A DFT Study

The structure and energetics of the interactive behavior of Li⁺ and Li with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been studied at the wB97XD/6-311G(d,p) level of DFT. The electron distribution in the PAHs, analyzed using the topology of the molecular electrostatic potential (MESP), led to the categorization of their aromatic rings into five types, viz R_s, R_n, R_d, R_b, and R_e. Among the different rings, sextet-type R_s and naphthalene-type R_n rings showed the highest interaction with Li⁺. The change in MESP at the nucleus of Li⁺ (ΔV_Li⁺) due to the formation of the complex Li⁺...PAH is found to be proportional to the adsorption energy (E₁). In Li...PAH, the spin density on Li is close to zero, suggesting the formation of Li⁺...PAH^•- due to the electron transfer from Li to PAH. The adsorption energy (E₂) for Li...PAH does not correlate with the change in MESP at the nucleus of Li, whereas the dissociation energy (E₃) of Li⁺...PAH^•- to yield Li⁺ and PAH^•- correlates well with the MESP data, ΔV_Li. The study confirms that the change in MESP at the nucleus of Li⁺ due to complex formation gives a quantitative measure of the electronic effect of the cation-π binding. The cell potential (V_cell) is predicted for the lithium ion battery (LIB) using the Li⁺...PAH and Li...PAH adsorption energies. On the basis of the V_cell data, "carbon nanoflake"-type systems, viz coronene, circumbiphenyl, C₄₂H₁₆, and C₅₀H₁₈ are suggested as good anode materials for LIBs.

Assessing the Effects of Substitution and Substituent Position on the Reactivity of Salicylideneaniline Ligands to Coordinate Transition Metal(II) Ions: a DFT Study

The present scientific contribution aims to investigate computationally the effects of substitution and substituent position on the reactivity of a series of salicylideneaniline derivatives ligands containing 13 molecules. Global reactivity parameters such as the EHOMO, ELUMO, gap energy, electronegativity, chemical hardness, chemical softness, electrophilicity index, and molecular electrostatic potential analysis (MESP) have been calculated at DFT/B3LYP/TZP level of theory and then well discussed to give valuable explanations for the effects of substitution and substituent position on the reactivity of the studied ligands.

Reactivity descriptors in acid catalysis: acid strength, proton affinity and host–guest interactions

Acid strength and proton affinity, the independent properties of catalysts and molecules, are incomplete descriptors of because cations and conjugate anions reorganize their charges as they interact as bound intermediates and transition states.

Quantification and classification of substituent effects in organic chemistry: a theoretical molecular electrostatic potential study

Substituent effects in organic chemistry are generally described in terms of experimentally derived Hammett parameters whereas a convenient theoretical tool to study these effects in π-conjugated molecular systems is molecular electrostatic potential (MESP) analysis. The present study shows that the difference between MESP at the nucleus of the para carbon of substituted benzene and a carbon atom in benzene, designated as ΔVC, is very useful to quantify and classify substituent effects. On the basis of positive and negative ΔVC values, a broad classification of around 381 substituents into electron withdrawing and donating categories is made. Each category is again sorted based on the magnitude of ΔVC into subcategories such as very strong, strong, medium, and weak electron donating/withdrawing. Furthermore, the data are used to show the transferability and additivity of substituent effects in π-conjugated organic molecules such as condensed aromatic, olefinic, acetylenic, and heterocyclic systems. The transferability properties hold good for ΔVC in all these molecular systems. The additive properties of substituent effects are strongly reflected on ΔVC and the predictive power of the data to assign the total substituent effects of multi-substituted systems is verified. The ΔVC data and the present classification of substituents are very useful to design π-conjugated organic molecular systems with desired electron rich/poor character.