Calculation of the charge-carrier mobility of polyguanylic acid: The simultaneous effect of stretching and twisting

Orbital-Engineering-Based Screening of π-Conjugated d8 Transition-Metal Coordination Polymers for High-Performance n-Type Thermoelectric Applications

Extraordinary progress has been achieved in polymer-based thermoelectric materials in recent years. New emerging π-conjugated transition-metal coordination polymers are one of the best n-type polymer-based thermoelectric materials. However, the microscopic descriptions on geometric structures, orbital characteristics, and most importantly, thermoelectric properties remain elusive, which has seriously hampered the experimentalists to draw a straightforward design strategy for new n-type polymer-based thermoelectric materials. Herein, we assess the n-type thermoelectric properties of 20 π-conjugated d⁸ metal center coordination polymers and rationalize their thermoelectric properties in terms of molecular geometry, orbital nature, and electron-phonon coupling based on first-principles calculations. An explicit screening rule for high-performance n-type π-conjugated transition-metal coordination polymeric thermoelectric materials was found, i.e., smaller metal center d orbital component ratio in the conduction band minimum, weaker electron-phonon coupling, higher intrinsic mobility, and thereby higher thermoelectric power factor can be achieved. Guided by this rule, poly(Pd-C₂S₄) and poly(Ni-C₂Se₄) show very high power factors. We built a map of high-performance π-conjugated transition-metal coordination polymers for n-type thermoelectric applications, which will help to accelerate the screening and design of innovative n-type thermoelectric polymers.

Calculation of the hole mobilities of the three homopolynucleotides, poly(guanilic acid), poly(adenilic acid), and polythymidine in the presence of water and Na+ ions

Recent high resolution x-ray diffraction experiments have determined the structure of nucleosomes. In it 147 base pair long DNA B superhelix is wrapped around the eight nucleohistone proteins. They have found that there are many hydrogen-bonds (H-bonds) between the negative sites phosphate (PO4-) groups DNA, and first of all there is the positively charged lysine and arginine side chains of the histones. This means that there is a non-negligible charge transfer from DNA to the proteins causing a hole current in DNA and an electronic one in the proteins. If the relative positions of the two macromolecules change due to some external disturbances, the DNA moves away from the protein and can be read. If this happens simultaneously at several nucleosomes and at many places in chromatin (built up from the nucleosomes), undesired genetic information becomes readable. This final end can cause the occurrence of oncoproteins at an undesired time point which most probably disturbs the self-regulation of a differentiated cell. The connection of these chain of events with the initiation of cancer is obvious. To look into the details of these events we have used the detailed band structures of the four homopolynucleotides in the presence of water and natrium (Na+) ions calculated previously with the help of the ab initio Hartree-Fock crystal orbital method. We have found that in the case of three homopolynucleotides the width of their valence band is broad enough (approximately 10 times broader than the thermal energy at 300K) for the application of the simple deformation potential approximation for transport calculations. With the help of this we have determined the hole mobilities at 300K and 180K of poly(guanilic acid), poly(adenilic acid), and polythimidine (polycytidine has a too narrow valence band for the application of the deformation potential method). The obtained mobilities are large enough to allow Bloch-type conduction in these systems. At the end of the paper we discuss briefly the possible mechanism of charge transport in aperiodic DNA as a combination of Bloch-type conduction, hopping, and tunneling.

Calculation of the band structure of polyguanilic acid in the presence of water and Na+ ions

Using the Hartree-Fock crystal orbital method with a combined symmetry (helix) operation, the band structure of polyguanilic acid was calculated in the presence of water and Na(+) ions. The water structure was optimized with the help of molecular mechanics. The obtained band structure shows that both the valence and conduction bands are purely guanine type. The three impurity bands in the 10.66 eV large gap are close to the conduction band and therefore cannot play any role in the assumed hole conduction of the system. Namely, according to detailed x-ray diffraction investigations of the nucleosomes in chromatin, there are possibilities of charge transfer from the negative sites of DNA to the positive ones in histones. Therefore most probably there is a hole conduction in DNA and an electronic one in the histone proteins.

Conformational transformations induced by the charge-curvature interaction: Mean-field approach

A simple phenomenological model for describing the conformational dynamics of biological macromolecules via the nonlinearity-induced instabilities is proposed. It is shown that the interaction between charges and bending degrees of freedom of closed molecular aggregates may act as drivers giving impetus to conformational dynamics of biopolymers. It is demonstrated that initially circular aggregates may undergo transformation to polygonal shapes and possible application to aggregates of bacteriochlorophyl a molecules is considered.