We introduce a protocol aimed at reducing the dependence of predicted gas-phase heats of formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) via the reaction-based Feller-Peterson-Dixon approach. Automatic generation of a dataset...

Electronic and geometric structures of Ca(II) and Zn(II) complexes with porphyrazine (Pz) and tetrakis(1,2,5-thiadiazole)porphyrazine (TTDPz) were investigated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations and compared. The perimeter of the coordination cavity was found to be practically independent on the nature of a metal and a ligand. According to the results of the natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis and quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) calculations, Ca–N bonds possess larger ionic contributions as compared to Zn–N. The model electronic absorption spectra obtained with the use of time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations indicate a strong bathochromic shift (~70 nm) of the Q-band with a change of Pz ligand by TTDPz for both Ca and Zn complexes. Additionally, CaTTDPz was synthesized and its electronic absorption spectrum was recorded in pyridine and acetone.

1,8-Bis(phenylethynyl)anthracene (1,8-BPEA) was synthesized by a twofold Kumada cross-coupling reaction. The molecular structure of 1,8-BPEA was determined using a combination of gas-phase electron diffraction (GED), mass spectrometry (MS), quantum chemical calculations (QC) and single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD). Five rotamers of the molecule with different orientations of phenylethynyl groups were investigated by DFT calculations. According to these, molecules of C2 symmetry with co-directional rotation of the phenylethynyl groups are predicted to exist in the gas phase at 498 K. This was confirmed by a GED/MS experiment at this temperature. The bonding of this conformer was studied and described in terms of an NBO-analysis. Dispersion interactions in the solid state structure and in the free molecule are discussed. In the solid this symmetry is broken; the asymmetric unit of the single crystal contains 3.5 molecules and a herringbone packing motif of π-stacked dimers and trimers. The π-stacking in the dimers is between the anthracene units, and the trimers are linked by π-stacking between phenyl and anthracene units. The interaction between these stacks can be described in terms of σ(C-H)π interactions.

In this study, we compare the performance of various ab initio molecular dynamics (MD) sampling methods for the calculation of the observable vibrationally-averaged gas-phase structures of benzene, naphthalene and anthracene molecules. Nose-Hoover (NH), canonical and quantum generalized-Langevin-equation (GLE) thermostats as well as the a posteriori quantum correction to the classical trajectories have been tested and compared to the accurate path-integral molecular dynamics (PIMD), static anharmonic vibrational calculations as well as to the experimental gas electron diffraction data. Classical sampling methods neglecting quantum effects (NH and canonical GLE thermostats) dramatically underestimate vibrational amplitudes for the bonded atom pairs, both C-H and C-C, the resulting radial distribution functions exhibit nonphysically narrow peaks. This deficiency is almost completely removed by taking the quantum effects on the nuclei into account. The quantum GLE thermostat and a posteriori correction to the canonical GLE and NH thermostatted trajectories capture most vibrational quantum effects and closely reproduce computationally expensive PIMD and experimental radial distribution functions. These methods are both computationally feasible and accurate and are therefore recommended for calculations of the observable gas-phase structures. A good performance of the quantum GLE thermostat for the gas-phase calculations is encouraging since its parameters have been originally fitted for the condensed-phase calculations. Very accurate molecular structures can be predicted by combining the equilibrium geometry obtained at a high level of electronic structure theory with vibrational amplitudes and corrections calculated using MD driven by a lower level of electronic structure theory.

No abstract