Exploring systematic discrepancies in DFT calculations of chlorine nuclear quadrupole couplings

Previous studies have revealed significant discrepancies between density functional theory (DFT)-calculated and experimental nuclear quadrupolar coupling constants (CQ) for chlorine atoms, particularly in ionic solids. Various aspects of the computations are systematically investigated here, including the choice of the DFT functional, basis set convergence, and geometry optimization protocol. The effects of fast (fs) time-scale dynamics are probed using molecular dynamics (MD) and nuclear quantum effects (NQEs) are considered using path-integral MD calculations. It is shown that the functional choice is the most important factor related to improving the accuracy of the quadrupolar coupling calculations, and that functionals beyond the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) level, such as hybrid and meta-GGA functionals, are required for good correlations with experiment. The influence of molecular dynamics and NQEs is less important than the functional choice in the studied systems. A method which involves scaling the calculated quadrupolar coupling constant is proposed here; its application leads to good agreement with experimental data

The structure and binding mode of citrate in the stabilization of gold nanoparticles

Elucidating the binding mode of carboxylate-containing ligands to gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) is crucial to understand their stabilizing role. A detailed picture of the three-dimensional structure and coordination modes of citrate, acetate, succinate and glutarate to AuNPs is obtained by C-13 and Na-23 solid-state NMR in combination with computational modelling and electron microscopy. The binding between the carboxylates and the AuNP surface is found to occur in three different modes. These three modes are simultaneously present at low citrate to gold ratios, while a monocarboxylate monodentate (1 kappa O-1) mode is favoured at high citrate: gold ratios. The surface AuNP atoms are found to be predominantly in the zero oxidation state after citrate coordination, although trace amounts of Au delta+ are observed. Na-23 NMR experiments show that Na+ ions are present near the gold surface, indicating that carboxylate binding occurs as a 2e(-) L-type interaction for each oxygen atom involved. This approach has broad potential to probe the binding of a variety of ligands to metal nanoparticles