An empirical method has been designed to account for the van der Waals interactions in practical molecular calculations with density functional theory. For each atom pair separated at a distance R, the method adds to the density functional electronic structure calculations an additional attraction energy EvdW=−fd(R)C6R−6, where fd(R) is the damping function which equals to one at large value of R and zero at small value of R. The coefficients C6 for pair interactions between hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms have been developed in this work by a least-square fitting to the molecular C6 coefficients obtained from the dipole oscillator strength distribution method by Meath and co-workers. Two forms of the damping functions have been studied, with one dropping to zero at short distances much faster than the other. Four density functionals have been examined: Becke’s three parameter hybrid functional with the Lee-Yang-Parr correlation functional, Becke’s 1988 exchange functional with the LYP correlation functional, Becke’s 1988 exchange functional with Perdew and Wang’s 1991 (PW91) correlation functional, and PW91 exchange and correlation functional. The method has been applied to three systems where the van der Waals attractions are known to be important: rare-gas diatomic molecules, stacking of base pairs and polyalanines’ conformation stabilities. The results show that this empirical method, with the damping function dropping to zero smoothly, provides a significant correction to both of the Becke’s hybrid functional and the PW91 exchange and correlation functional. Results are comparable to the corresponding second-order Møller-Plesset calculations in many cases.

Electrochemical reduction of CO 2 provides an opportunity to reach a carbon-neutral energy recycling regime, in which CO 2 emissions from fuel use are collected and converted back to fuels. The reduction of CO 2 to CO is the first step towards the synthesis of more complex carbon-based fuels and chemicals. Therefore, understanding this step is crucial for the development of high-performance electrocatalyst for CO 2 conversion to higher order products such as hydrocarbons. Here we synthesize atomic iron dispersed on nitrogen-doped graphene (Fe/NG) as an efficient electrocatalyst for CO 2 reduction to CO. Fe/NG has a low reduction overpotential with high Faradic efficiency up to 80%. The existence of nitrogenconfined atomic Fe moieties on the nitrogen-doped graphene layer was confirmed by aberration-corrected high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy and X-ray absorption fine structure analysis. The Fe/NG catalysts provide an ideal platform for comparative studies of the effect of the catalytic center on the electrocatalytic performance. The CO 2 reduction reaction mechanism on atomic Fe surrounded by four N atoms (Fe-N 4) embedded in nitrogen-doped graphene is further investigated through density functional theory calculations, revealing a possible promotional effect of nitrogen doping on graphene.

Specialized computational chemistry packages have permanently reshaped the landscape of chemical and materials science by providing tools to support and guide experimental efforts and for the prediction of atomistic and electronic properties. In this regard, electronic structure packages have played a special role by using first-principle-driven methodologies to model complex chemical and materials processes. Over the past few decades, the rapid development of computing technologies and the tremendous increase in computational power have offered a unique chance to study complex transformations using sophisticated and predictive many-body techniques that describe correlated behavior of electrons in molecular and condensed phase systems at different levels of theory. In enabling these simulations, novel parallel algorithms have been able to take advantage of computational resources to address the polynomial scaling of electronic structure methods. In this paper, we briefly review the NWChem computational chemistry suite, including its history, design principles, parallel tools, current capabilities, outreach, and outlook.

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