0000000001300074
AUTHOR
Massimo Olivucci
showing 10 related works from this author
Structure, Spectroscopy, and Spectral Tuning of the Gas-Phase Retinal Chromophore: The β-Ionone "Handle" and Alkyl Group Effect
2005
The low-lying singlet states (i.e. S0, S1, and S2) of the chromophore of rhodopsin, the protonated Schiff base of 11-cis-retinal (PSB11), and of its all-trans photoproduct have been studied in isolated conditions by using ab initio multiconfigurational second-order perturbation theory. The computed spectroscopic features include the vertical excitation, the band origin, and the fluorescence maximum of both isomers. On the basis of the S0-->S1 vertical excitation, the gas-phase absorption maximum of PSB11 is predicted to be 545 nm (2.28 eV). Thus, the predicted absorption maximum appears to be closer to that of the rhodopsin pigment (2.48 eV) and considerably red-shifted with respect to that…
Effect of opsin on the shape of the potential energy surfaces at the conical intersection of the Rhodopsin chromophore
2008
Abstract In order to disentangle the role of the protein in the control of the photoisomerization of the chromophore of the visual pigment Rhodopsin, we compare the structure of the ground and excited potential energy surfaces of gas-phase and opsin-embedded 11- cis retinal chromophore at the corresponding (lowest energy) conical intersections. It is shown that, along the branching plane, the asymmetric opsin environment destabilizes one of the ground state relaxation channels emerging from the conical intersection. This suggests that opsin promotes the formation of the product (bathorhodopsin) via enhanced decay probability along the all- trans exit channel. In contrast, in the gas-phase n…
OpenMolcas: From Source Code to Insight
2019
In this article we describe the OpenMolcas environment and invite the computational chemistry community to collaborate. The open-source project already includes a large number of new developments realized during the transition from the commercial MOLCAS product to the open-source platform. The paper initially describes the technical details of the new software development platform. This is followed by brief presentations of many new methods, implementations, and features of the OpenMolcas program suite. These developments include novel wave function methods such as stochastic complete active space self-consistent field, density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) methods, and hybrid multico…
Design, Synthesis and Characterization of a Visible-Light-Sensitive Molecular Switch and Its PEGylation Towards a Self-Assembling Molecule.
2022
HBDI-like chromophores represent a novel set of biomimetic switches mimicking the fluorophore of the green fluorescent protein that are currently studied with the hope to expand the molecular switch/motor toolbox. However, until now members capable of absorbing visible light in their neutral (i. e. non-anionic) form have not been reported. In this contribution we report the preparation of an HBDI-like chromophore based on a 3-phenylbenzofulvene scaffold capable of absorbing blue light and photoisomerizing on the picosecond timescale. More specifically, we show that double-bond photoisomerization occurs in both the E-to-Z and Z-to-E directions and that these can be controlled by irradiating …
A Theoretical Study of the Low-Lying Excited States of trans- and cis-Urocanic Acid
1999
A multiconfigurational second-order perturbation theory (CASPT2) study of the lowest lying states in the gas-phase electronic spectra of trans- and cis-urocanic acid is presented. Geometries of both isomers have been optimized at the MP2/6-31G(d) and π-CASSCF/ANO-L(4s3p1d,2s) levels of theory. The geometries are found to differ considerably between the two levels. The vertical and 0−0 excitation spectra were calculated for each isomer. Both singlet and triplet states are described for each, including the lowest lying ππ* excitations and the nOπ* excitations. Remarkably, in the trans spectrum, it is found that the nOπ* state has a higher vertical excitation energy than the lowest ππ* (5.12 v…
Mechanism of excited state deactivation of indan-1-ylidene and fluoren-9-ylidene malononitriles.
2016
Herein, we report complementary computational and experimental evidence supporting the existence, for indan-1-ylidene malononitrile and fluoren-9-ylidene malononitrile, of a non-radiative decay channel involving double bond isomerisation motion. The results of UV-Vis transient absorption spectroscopy highlight that the decay takes place within hundreds of picoseconds. In order to understand the related molecular mechanism, photochemical reaction paths were computed by employing multiconfigurational quantum chemistry. The results indicate that the excited state deactivation occurs via concerted double bond twisting of the dicyanovinyl (DCV) unit coupled with a pyramidalisation of its substit…
Computational evidence in favor of a two-state, two-mode model of the retinal chromophore photoisomerization
2000
In this paper we use ab initio multiconfigurational second-order perturbation theory to establish the intrinsic photoisomerization path model of retinal chromophores. This is accomplished by computing the ground state ( S 0 ) and the first two singlet excited-state ( S 1 , S 2 ) energies along the rigorously determined photoisomerization coordinate of the rhodopsin chromophore model 4- cis -γ-methylnona-2,4,6,8-tetraeniminium cation and the bacteriorhodopsin chromophore model all- trans -hepta-2,4,6-trieniminium cation in isolated conditions. The computed S 2 and S 1 energy profiles do not show any avoided crossing feature along the S 1 reaction path and maintain an energy gap >20 kcal⋅…
A theoretical study of the low-lying states of the anionic and protonated ionic forms of urocanic acid
2000
A multistate second-order perturbation theory (MS−CASPT2) study of the lowest lying states in the electronic spectra of urocanic acid in vacuo is presented. The anionic trans and cis isomers, as well as the biologically important trans protonated ionic structure, are considered. The vertical and 0−0 excitation spectra were computed for each system at the MS−CASPT2/ANO-L level, describing the lowest lying ππ* and nπ* singlet and triplet states. In all three systems, a weakly absorbing ππ* singlet state was observed at ∼4.0 eV in the vertical excitation spectrum, suggesting both a novel assignment and an alternative explanation for the previously described wavelength dependent photochemistry …
A surface hopping algorithm for nonadiabatic minimum energy path calculations
2015
The article introduces a robust algorithm for the computation of minimum energy paths transiting along regions of near-to or degeneracy of adiabatic states. The method facilitates studies of excited state reactivity involving weakly avoided crossings and conical intersections. Based on the analysis of the change in the multiconfigurational wave function the algorithm takes the decision whether the optimization should continue following the same electronic state or switch to a different state. This algorithm helps to overcome convergence difficulties near degeneracies. The implementation in the MOLCAS quantum chemistry package is discussed. To demonstrate the utility of the proposed procedur…
CCDC 2071148: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination
2021
Related Article: Marco Paolino, Mario Saletti, Annalisa Reale, Mariano Licciardi, Paola Varvarà, Arnaud Marquette, Jérémie Léonard, Claudia Bonechi, Alessandro Donati, Gianluca Giorgi, Germano Giuliani, Benedetta Carlotti, Fausto Ortica, Loredana Latterini, Mariangela Gentile, Eugenio Paccagnini, Massimo Olivucci, Andrea Cappelli|2022|Chem.-Eur.J.|28|e202201477|doi:10.1002/chem.202201477