Rapid anharmonic vibrational corrections derived from partial Hessian analysis

Static Electron Correlation in Anharmonic Molecular Vibrations: A Hybrid TAO-DFT Study

Hybrid thermally-assisted-occupation density functional theory is used to examine the effects of static electron correlation on the prediction of a benchmark set of experimentally observed molecular vibrational frequencies. The B3LYP and B97-1 thermally-assisted-occupation measure of static electron correlation is important for describing the vibrations of many of the molecules that make up several popular test sets of experimental data. Shifts are seen for known multireference systems and for many molecules containing atoms from the second row of the periodic table of elements. Several molecules only show significant shifts in select vibrational modes, and significant improvements are seen for the prediction of hydrogen stretching frequencies throughout the test set.

Anharmonic Vibrational Calculations Based on Group-Localized Coordinates: Applications to Internal Water Molecules in Bacteriorhodopsin

An efficient anharmonic vibrational method is developed exploiting the locality of molecular vibration. Vibrational coordinates localized to a group of atoms are employed to divide the potential energy surface (PES) of a system into intra- and inter-group contributions. Then, the vibrational Schrödinger equation is solved based on a PES, in which the inter-group coupling is truncated at the harmonic level while accounting for the intra-group anharmonicity. The method is applied to a pentagonal hydrogen bond network (HBN) composed of internal water molecules and charged residues in a membrane protein, bacteriorhodopsin. The PES is calculated by the quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) calculation at the level of B3LYP-D3/aug-cc-pVDZ. The infrared (IR) spectrum is computed using a set of coordinates localized to each water molecule and amino acid residue by second-order vibrational quasi-degenerate perturbation theory (VQDPT2). Benchmark calculations show that the proposed method yields the N-D/O-D stretching frequencies with an error of 7 cm-1 at the cost reduced by more than five times. In contrast, the harmonic approximation results in a severe error of 150 cm-1. Furthermore, the size of QM regions is carefully assessed to find that the QM regions should include not only the pentagonal HBN itself but also its HB partners. VQDPT2 calculations starting from transient structures obtained by molecular dynamics simulations have shown that the structural sampling has a significant impact on the calculated IR spectrum. The incorporation of anharmonicity, sufficiently large QM regions, and structural samplings are of essential importance to reproduce the experimental IR spectrum. The computational spectrum paves the way for decoding the IR signal of strong HBNs and helps elucidate their functional roles in biomolecules.

Reduced Two-Electron Interactions in Anharmonic Molecular Vibrational Calculations Involving Localized Normal Coordinates

Spatially localized vibrational normal mode coordinates are shown to reduce the importance of calculating the full set of two-electron terms in the molecular electronic Schrödinger equation. Electron correlation and dispersion interactions become less significant in (E,E)-1,3,5,7-octatetraene vibrational self-consistent field calculations when displacing remote atoms along multiple coordinates. Electron correlation interactions between spatially remote modes are also found to be less important compared to their corresponding uncorrelated interaction terms. Attenuation of the Coulomb operator indicates that the two-electron terms between remote electrons become less important for accurately describing the strongly contributing mode-coupling terms between sets of localized vibrational modes.

Anharmonic Vibrational Analysis of Biomolecules and Solvated Molecules Using Hybrid QM/MM Computations

Quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) calculations are applied for anharmonic vibrational analyses of biomolecules and solvated molecules. The QM/MM method is implemented into a molecular dynamics (MD) program, GENESIS, by interfacing with external electronic structure programs. Following the geometry optimization and the harmonic normal-mode analysis based on a partial Hessian, the anharmonic potential energy surface (PES) is generated from QM/MM energies and gradients calculated at grid points. The PES is used for vibrational self-consistent field (VSCF) and post-VSCF calculations to compute the vibrational spectrum. The method is first applied to a phosphate ion in solution. With both the ion and neighboring water molecules taken as a QM region, IR spectra of representative hydration structures are calculated by the second-order vibrational quasi-degenerate perturbation theory (VQDPT2) at the level of B3LYP/cc-pVTZ and TIP3P force field. A weight-average of IR spectra over the structures reproduces the experimental spectrum with a mean absolute deviation of 16 cm^–1. Then, the method is applied to an enzyme, P450 nitric oxide reductase (P450nor), with the NO molecule bound to a ferric (Fe^III) heme. Starting from snapshot structures obtained from MD simulations of P450nor in solution, QM/MM calculations have been carried out at the level of B3LYP-D3/def2-SVP(D). The spin state of Fe^III(NO) is likely a closed-shell singlet state based on a ratio of N–O and Fe–NO stretching frequencies (ν_N–O and ν_Fe–NO) calculated for closed- and open-shell singlet states. The calculated ν_N–O and ν_Fe–NO overestimate the experimental ones by 120 and 75 cm^–1, respectively. The electronic structure and solvation of Fe^III(NO) affect the structure around the heme of P450nor leading to an increase in ν_N–O and ν_Fe–NO.

Reduced Basis Set Dependence in Anharmonic Frequency Calculations Involving Localized Coordinates

Localized normal coordinates are known to be effective in speeding up anharmonic frequency calculations by reducing the complexity of the nuclear Hamiltonian and wave function. Displacing atoms in localized coordinates can also cause relatively small changes in the electronic structure, which can be exploited for further computational efficiency improvements during ab initio electronic structure calculations of the potential energy surface by reducing the electronic basis set dependence. Three different schemes for reducing the basis set dependence have been investigated in this work. These include combining localized coordinate schemes with general mixed basis sets, distance based force-field reductions, and using coordinate specific basis sets. The importance of accurately describing electronic interactions is found to diminish both for multicoordinate terms involving the displacement of remote atoms and when describing the interactions between more remote atoms within specific coordinates.

Intermediate vibrational coordinate localization with harmonic coupling constraints

Optimized normal coordinates can significantly improve the speed and accuracy of vibrational frequency calculations. However, over-localization can occur when using unconstrained spatial localization techniques. The unintuitive mixtures of stretching and bending coordinates that result can make interpreting spectra more difficult and also cause artificial increases in mode-coupling during anharmonic calculations. Combining spatial localization with a constraint on the coupling between modes can be used to generate coordinates with properties in-between the normal and fully localized schemes. These modes preserve the diagonal nature of the mass-weighted Hessian matrix to within a specified tolerance and are found to prevent contamination between the stretching and bending vibrations of the molecules studied without a priori classification of the different types of vibration present. Relaxing the constraint can also be used to identify which normal modes form specific groups of localized modes. The new coordinates are found to center on more spatially delocalized functional groups than their fully localized counterparts and can be used to tune the degree of vibrational correlation energy during anharmonic calculations.

Examining the impact of harmonic correlation on vibrational frequencies calculated in localized coordinates

Carefully choosing a set of optimized coordinates for performing vibrational frequency calculations can significantly reduce the anharmonic correlation energy from the self-consistent field treatment of molecular vibrations. However, moving away from normal coordinates also introduces an additional source of correlation energy arising from mode-coupling at the harmonic level. The impact of this new component of the vibrational energy is examined for a range of molecules, and a method is proposed for correcting the resulting self-consistent field frequencies by adding the full coupling energy from connected pairs of harmonic and pseudoharmonic modes, termed vibrational self-consistent field (harmonic correlation). This approach is found to lift the vibrational degeneracies arising from coordinate optimization and provides better agreement with experimental and benchmark frequencies than uncorrected vibrational self-consistent field theory without relying on traditional correlated methods.

Calculation of the vibrational frequencies of carbon clusters and fullerenes with empirical potentials

Empirical potentials are assessed and optimized for the calculation of the vibrational frequencies of fullerenes and nanotubes.

Calculating excited state properties using Kohn-Sham density functional theory

The accuracy of excited states calculated with Kohn-Sham density functional theory using the maximum overlap method has been assessed for the calculation of adiabatic excitation energies, excited state structures, and excited state harmonic and anharmonic vibrational frequencies for open-shell singlet excited states. The computed Kohn-Sham adiabatic excitation energies are improved significantly by post self-consistent field spin-purification, but remain too low compared with experiment with a larger error than time-dependent density functional theory. Excited state structures and vibrational frequencies are also improved by spin-purification. The structures show a comparable accuracy to time-dependent density functional theory, while the harmonic vibrational frequencies are found to be more accurate for the majority of vibrational modes. The computed harmonic vibrational frequencies are also further improved by perturbative anharmonic corrections, suggesting a good description of the potential energy surface. Overall, excited state Kohn-Sham density functional theory is shown to provide an efficient method for the calculation of excited state structures and vibrational frequencies in open-shell singlet systems and provides a promising technique that can be applied to study large systems.

CH Stretching Region: Computational Modeling of Vibrational Optical Activity

Most organic compounds provide vibrational spectra within the CH stretching region, yet the signal is difficult to interpret because of multiple difficulties in experiment and modeling. To better understand various factors involved, the ability of several harmonic and anharmonic computational approaches to describe these vibrations was explored for α-pinene, fenchone, and camphor as test compounds. Raman, Raman optical activity (ROA), infrared absorption (IR), and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra were measured and compared to quantum chemical computations. Surprisingly, the harmonic vibrational approach reasonably well reproduced the measured spectral patterns, including the vibrational optical activity (VOA). The CH stretching, however, appeared to be more sensitive to the basis set and solvent variations than lower-frequency vibrations. For a higher accuracy in frequencies and spectral shapes, anharmonic corrections were necessary. Accurate harmonic and anharmonic force fields were obtained with the mPW2PLYP double-hybrid functional. A limited vibrational configuration interaction (LVCI) where the CH stretching motion was decoupled from other vibrations provided the best simulated spectra. A balanced harmonic oscillator basis set had to be used, containing also states indirectly interacting with fundamental vibrations. A simpler second-order perturbational approach (PT2) appeared less useful. The modeling provided unprecedented agreement with experimental vibrational frequencies; spectral shapes were reproduced less faithfully. The possibility of ab initio interpretation of the CH spectral region for relatively large molecules further broadens the application span of vibrational spectroscopy.