Search results for " Quantum chemistry"
showing 10 items of 549 documents
Molecular orbital studies on brominated diphenyl ethers. Part I—conformational properties
2005
Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are widely used as additive flame retardants and quantities in the environment are on the rise. Because they are structurally related to polychlorinated biphenyls and also to thyroid hormones, there is serious concern that PBDEs may pose a danger to human health. Knowledge of their conformational properties is key to assessing their environmental fate and risk. The conformational properties of PBDEs were investigated by quantum chemical methods including semiempirical self-consistent field molecular orbital (SCF-MO), ab initio SCF-MO and density functional theory (DFT). Conformational analyses of model congeners 2,2',4,6'-tetrabromodiphenyl ether and 2…
Matrix Isolation and Ab Initio Study of Trans−Trans and Trans−Cis Dimers of Formic Acid
2010
Six trans-trans and five trans-cis dimeric structures of formic acid (HCOOH) are revealed by ab initio calculations. Four trans-trans and two trans-cis dimers are identified in the IR absorption spectra in argon matrices. The trans-cis dimers are obtained by narrow-band IR excitation of the vibrational transitions of the trans-trans dimers. Two trans-trans (tt3 and tt6) and one trans-cis (tc4) dimer are characterized experimentally for the first time. The tunneling decay rates of two trans-cis dimers (tc1 and tc4) are evaluated at different temperatures. A greater lifetime of the trans-cis dimers at elevated temperatures compared to the cis-monomer suggests that the high-energy conformers c…
Electronic structure of the ground and excited states of beta-carboline.
2008
Coupled-cluster calculations are used to compute the energy of conversion between the neutral and the zwitterionic forms of beta-carboline. The stability of the different species is discussed in terms of charge separation and aromatic character, which is related to magnetic criteria. By means of a linear response formalism the vertical excitation energies and oscillator strengths of the lowest singlet states of both structures as well as of the cationic species are determined. General agreement of the relative position and intensity of the different peaks with experimental data is achieved, but the overall spectra are slightly displaced because of solvent effects.
Carbon nanorings: A challenge to theoretical chemistry
2006
High-level quantum-chemical methods show that the binding in the inclusion complex of hexamethylbenzene (HMB) in 6-cycloparaphenilacetylene (6-CPPA) cannot be explained only in terms of electrostatic interactions - caused by the polarization associated to curved Ï-conjugated systems - and the inclusion of dispersion forces is definitely needed. The theoretical description of van der Waals interactions is notoriously complicated and in fact some DFT methods cannot even predict the existence of the relatively small supramolecular nanoring studied here. However, ab initio MP2 calculations agree with experimental data and show that, in the considered complex, the HMB fragment is placed at the …
Pressure effects on the vibrational properties of alpha-Bi2O3: an experimental and theoretical study
2014
We report an experimental and theoretical high-pressure study of the vibrational properties of synthetic monoclinic bismuth oxide (alpha-Bi2O3), also known as mineral bismite. The comparison of Raman scattering measurements and theoretical lattice-dynamics ab initio calculations is key to understanding the complex vibrational properties of bismite. On one hand, calculations help in the symmetry assignment of phonons and to discover the phonon interactions taking place in this low-symmetry compound, which shows considerable phonon anticrossings; and, on the other hand, measurements help to validate the accuracy of first-principles calculations relating to this compound. We have also studied …
Single-electron self-exchange between cage hydrocarbons and their radical cations in the gas phase.
2010
We show that the radical cations of adamantane (C(10)H(16)(*+), 1H(*+)) and perdeuteroadamantane (C(10)D(16)(*+), 1D(*+)) are stable species in the gas phase. The radical cation of adamantylideneadamantane (C(20)H(28)(*+), 2H(*+)) is also stable (as in solution). By using the natural (13)C abundances of the ions, we determine the rate constants for the reversible isergonic single-electron transfer (SET) processes involving the dyads 1H(*+)/1H, 1D(*+)/1D and 2H(*+)/2H. Rate constants for the reaction 1H(*+)+1D 1H+1D(*+) are also determined and Marcus' cross-term equation is shown to hold in this case. The rate constants for the isergonic processes are extremely high, practically collision-co…
Synthesis of C-17-functionalized spongiane diterpenes: diastereoselective synthesis of (-)-spongian-16-oxo-17-al, (-)-acetyldendrillol-1, and (-)-apl…
2003
The diastereoselective synthesis of spongiane diterpenes (-)-spongian-16-oxo-17-al 2, (-)-acetyldendrillol-1 15, and (-)-aplyroseol-14 16 has been completed efficiently via the common intermediate 14. Compound 14 was prepared in five synthetic steps from (+)-podocarp-8(14)-en-13-one 13, easily available from commercial (-)-abietic acid. The key steps in the syntheses were a regioselective reduction of a 1,4-dialdehyde unit, a one-pot acetalization-acetylation, and a translactonization. The synthesis of 15 and 16 has led us to a revision of the configuration at C-17 for natural (-)-acetyldendrillol-1 and a structural reassignment for aplyroseol-14. Thus, aplyroseol-14 16 presents an unpreced…
Density functional theory fragment descriptors to quantify the reactivity of a molecular family: Application to amino acids
2007
By using the exact density functional theory, one demonstrates that the value of the local electronic softness of a molecular fragment is directly related to the polarization charge (Coulomb hole) induced by a test electron removed (or added) from (at) the fragment. Our finding generalizes to a chemical group a formal relation between these molecular descriptors recently obtained for an atom in a molecule using an approximate atomistic model [P. Senet and M. Yang, J. Chem. Sci. 117, 411 (2005)]. In addition, a practical ab initio computational scheme of the Coulomb hole and related local descriptors of reactivity of a molecular family having in common a similar fragment is presented. As a b…
The prediction of molecular equilibrium structures by the standard electronic wave functions
1997
A systematic investigation has been carried out of the accuracy of molecular equilibrium structures of 19 small closed-shell molecules containing first-row atoms as predicted by the following standard electronic ab initio models: Hartree–Fock (HF) theory, Mo/ller–Plesset theory to second, third, and fourth orders (MP2, MP3, and MP4), coupled-cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) theory; CCSD theory with perturbational triples corrections [CCSD(T)], and the configuration-interaction singles and doubles (CISD) model. For all models, calculations were carried out using the correlation-consistent polarized valence double-zeta (cc-pVDZ) basis, the correlation-consistent polarized valence triple-zet…
Influence of electronic and geometric properties on melting of sodium clusters
2004
Systematics of the melting transition for sodium clusters with 40-355 atoms has been studied with both ab initio and semiclassical molecular dynamics simulations. The melting temperatures obtained with an ab initio method for Na55 + and Na93 + correlate well with the experimental results. The semiclassically determined melting temperatures show similarities with the experimentally determined ones in the size region from 55 to 93 and near size 142, and the latent heat in the size region from 55 to 139, but not elsewhere in the size region studied. This indicates that the nonmonotonical melting behavior observed experimentally cannot be fully explained by geometrical effects. The semiclassica…