Tunneling through Weak Interactions: Comparison of Through-Space-, H-Bond-, and Through-Bond-Mediated Tunneling

Results from ab initio electronic structure theory calculations on model systems allow for the detailed comparison of tunneling through covalently bonded contacts, hydrogen bonds, and van der Waals contacts. Considerable geometrical sensitivity as well as an exponential distance dependence of the tunneling is observed for tunneling through various nonbonded contacts. However, the fundamental result from the present study is that at most a modest difference is observed between tunneling mediated by H-bonds and tunneling mediated by van der Waals contacts at typical distances for each type of interaction. These results are considered in relation to the pathways model of Beratan and Onuchic, and implications for understanding long-range tunneling in biological systems are discussed

Effects of ligands and spin-polarization on the preferred conformation of distannynes

Recent experimental and theoretical evidence has shown that distannynes, RSnSnR, can adopt either a singly bonded or a multiply bonded structure. Within calculations on small models, such as MeSnSnMe, apparently dramatic differences in conformational preference have been reported. We show that these differences arise due to the treatment of spin-polarization in density functional theory (DFT), and review stability analysis; a diagnostic for the need to include spin-polarization. The low-energy singly bonded structure can only be reached when spin-polarization is allowed. Additional DFT calculations on PhSnSnPh show that the singly bonded structure is the global minimum, leading to a flat torsional potential. The role of electronic effects is further probed by changing the donor–acceptor properties of R. Implications for the structural preference of experimentally synthesized species are discussed

Seeking for reliable double-hybrid density functionals without fitting parameters: The PBE0-2 functional

Without the use of any empirical fitting to experimental or high-level ab initio data, we present a double-hybrid density functional approximation for the exchange-correlation energy, combining the exact Hartree-Fock exchange and second-order Moller-Plesset (MP2) correlation with the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) functional. This functional, denoted as PBE0-2, is shown to be accurate for a wide range of applications, when compared with other functionals and the ab initio MP2 method. The qualitative failures of conventional density functional approximations, such as self-interaction error and noncovalent interaction error, are significantly reduced by PBE0-2.Comment: accepted for publication in Chem. Phys. Lett., 5 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, supplementary material not include

Electronic Structure Theory for Radicaloid Systems and Intermolecular Interactions

A radical molecule contains one or more electrons that are unpaired. A radicaloid may be defined as a molecule in which there are that are partially unpaired. As a result, the electronic structure of the radicaloid can be quite complicated for a variety of reasons. For a singlet biradicaloid, the singlet and triplet wavefunction can be quite close energetically which can lead to problems when trying to describe the system with a single determinant. The simplest solution to this problem is to allow the wavefunction to break spin-symmetry in order to get a lower energy. Unfortunately this action can lead to wavefunctions that are no longer eigenfunctions of the operator. In the second chapter we investigate a distannyne which has a biradicaloid resonance structure. By examining the orbital Hessian, it is discovered that the spin-symmetric solution is a saddle-point in wavefunction space and is structurally different than the spin-polarized solution. We then increase the complexity of the model system and see that the spin-symmetric solution is only a minimum for the exact experimental system and not for a simplified model system in which bulky organic substituents are replaced by simpler phenyl groups. Therefore, the breaking of spin-symmetry is absolutely critical in the small model systems and the full substituents play a non-trivial role. However, the breaking of the spin-symmetry can have consequences for physical quantities when correlated methods are used. At the point of spin polarization or unrestriction the orbital Hessian will have one eigenvalue which is zero. Since the relaxed density matrix in correlated methods like Second-Order M\o ller-Plesset theory (MP2) depend on the inverse of the Hessian, at the unrestriction point this quantity will be undefined. Some unphysical artifacts are identified as a direct consequence of this fact. First, discontinuities in first order molecular properties such as the dipole moment are seen at the geometries associated with unrestriction. Second, the relaxed density matrix itself fails to be N-representable, with natural orbital occupation numbers less than zero and greater than one. Therefore, it is desirable to use a method that is not dependent on the inverse of the Hessian like orbital optimized MP2 (O2).Another system which requires the use of orbital optimization is a neutral soliton on a polyacetylene chain. In this system, the Hartree-Fock reference suffers from severe spin-polarization making the wavefunction physically unreasonable unless a very sophisticated treatment of electron correlation is used to correct this problem. Originally, it was found that computationally expensive methods like CCSD(T) and CASSCF could adequately describe small model chain but not the full system. The O2 method is found to be an dramatic improvement over traditional MP2 which can be feasibly applied to polyenyl chains long enough to characterize the soliton. It is also discovered that density functionals are generally inadequate in describing the half-width of the soliton.Finally, the last chapter takes a slightly different perspective and focuses on the addition of correlation energy to a successful energy decomposition analysis based on absolutely localized molecular orbitals. It is discovered that the resulting new method can adequately describe systems with dispersive intermolecular interactions and large amounts of charge transfer. This scheme is then applied to the water dimer systems and it is found that all of the intermolecular interactions similar in size with the electrostatic interaction being the largest and the dispersive interaction being the smallest. This method is also contrasted with other EDA schemes

Ground electronic state of peptide cation radicals: a delocalized unpaired electron?

International audienceElectron capture and electron transfer dissociations are bioanalytical methods for fragmenting cations after reduction by an electron. Previous computational studies based on conventional DFT schemes have concluded that the first step of these processes, the attachment of the electron, leads to extensive delocalization of the spin density in the intermediate radical cation. Here, we show that most DFT methods produce unphysical results when studying single electron reduction of a dicationic peptide. This is not the case for post-HF methods and long-range corrected functionals which show satisfying electron affinities, intermolecular interaction energies and spin density trends. Our results suggest that the charged group with the highest electron affinity on the precursor cation is also the site of spin density in the electronic ground state after electron attachment. These findings have important implications for the interpretation of experimental data from electron-based processes in biomolecules and may guide the development of new functionals

Ground Electronic State of Peptide Cation Radicals: A Delocalized Unpaired Electron?

Electron capture and electron transfer dissociations are bioanalytical methods for fragmenting cations after reduction by an electron. Previous computational studies based on conventional DFT schemes have concluded that the first step of these processes, the attachment of the electron, leads to extensive delocalization of the spin density in the intermediate radical cation. Here we show that most DFT methods produce unphysical results when studying single electron reduction of a dicationic peptide. This is not the case for post-HF methods and long-range corrected functionals that show satisfying electron affinities, intermolecular interaction energies, and spin density trends. Our results suggest that the charged group with the highest electron affinity on the precursor cation is also the site of spin density in the electronic ground state after electron attachment. These findings have important implications for the interpretation of experimental data from electron-based processes in biomolecules and may guide the development of new functionals