Syntheses,Characterizations, and Crystal Structures of Two Binuclear Silver Complexes Based on O,O'-Dialkyldithiophosphate and 1,10-Phenanthroline

Two binuclear silver complexes, [Ag2{μ-S2P(OCH2Ph)2}2(phen)2](1) and [Ag2{μ-S2P(OCH2CH2Ph)2}2(phen)2](2), were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, infrared spectrum, thermo-gravimetric analysis and X-ray single-crystal diffraction. Complex 1 crystallizes in the triclinic system, space group P1 with a = 9.7881(4), b = 10.7726(4), c = 13.1952(6) , a= 103.686(4), γ = 99.477(3), γ = 107.494(4)°, V = 1246.88(9) 3, Dc = 1.591 g·m-3 and Z = 1; Complex 2 is of monoclinic system, space group P21/n with a = 10.6014(8), b = 24.3969(15), c = 11.5353(10) , β = 14.125(10)°, V = 2722.9(4) 3, Dc = 1.526 g·m-3 and Z = 2. In the molecules of 1 and 2, O,O'-dialkyldithiophosphate anions,(PhCH2O)PS2- and(PhCH2CH2O)PS2- act as bridging ligands and connect two Ag(I) centers into a binuclear unit with Ag2S4P2 eight-membered rings in "chair" conformations. In both crystal structures, face-to-face π-π stacking interactions between the adjacent paralleling aromatic rings of 1,10-phenanthroline play a prominent role in the crystal packing and result in a 1D chain. And such 1D chains are further linked into 3D networks by weak intermolecular C–H···π interactions for 1.     

Supramolecular Self-assembly and Functionalization of Porphyrin-based Systems

Porphyrins are abundant in nature. They have been frequently employed as building blocks in the construction of nanoarchitectures and functional supramolecular systems. Recently, a series of novel porphyrin molecules including small molecules and polymers have been originally designed and synthesized with the aim of producing nanostructures with controllable-growth and materials with high-performance. Literature coverage is through 2004–2012. This review gives a full summary of related studies in our group.     

Experimental and Theoretical Study of Reactions between Manganese Oxide Cluster Cations and Hydrogen Sulfide

Manganese oxide cluster cations Mnm180n＋ were prepared by laser ablation and reacted with hydrogen sulfide （H2S） in a fast flow reactor under thermal collision conditions. A time-of-flight mass spectrometer was used to detect the cluster distributions before and after the interactions with H2S. The experiments suggest that oxygen-for-sulfur （O/S） ex- change reaction to release water took place in the reactor for most of the manganese oxide cluster cations： MnmlSOn＋＋H2S→Mnm18On-1S＋＋H218O. Density functional theory cal- culations were performed for reaction mechanisms of Mn202＋＋H2S, Mn203＋＋H2S, and Mn204＋＋H2S. The computational results indicate these O/S exchange reactions are both thermodynamically and kinetically favorable, thus in good agreement with the experimental observations. The O/S exchange reactions identified in this gas-phase cluster study parallel similar behavior of related condensed phase reaction systems.     

Frist-principles Band Structures Calculation of Tin-phthalocyanine

We adopt the density function theory with generalized approximation by the Beeke exchange plus Lee-Yang-Parr correlation functional to calculate the electronic first-principles band structure of tin-phthalocyanine （SnPc）. The intermolecular interaction related to transport behavior was analyzed from the F-point wave function as well as from the bandwidths and band gaps. From the calculated bandwidths of the frontier bands as well as the effective masses of the electron and hole, it can be concluded that the mobility of the electron is about two times larger than that of the hole. Furthermore, when several bands near the Fermi surface are taken into account, we find that the interband gaps within the unoccupied bands are generally smaller than those of the occupied bands, indicating that the electron can hop from one band to another which is much easier than the hole. This may happen through electron-phonon coupling for instance, thus effectively yielding an even larger mobility for the electron than for the hole. These facts indicate that in SnPc the electrons are the dominant carriers in transport, in contrast to most organic materials.     

Theoretical Study of the Structure, Mechanism of Detonation Initiation and Stability of Transition Metal Carbohydrazide Nitrates

The geometric structure, mechanism of detonation initiation and stability of transition metal carbohydrazide （CHZ） nitrates are investigated via density functional theory. The obtained results show that the Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof （HSE） functional yields the most accurate geometry. The initiating reaction of detonation in [Mn（CHZ）3]（NO3）2 and [Zn（CHZ）3]（NO3）2 is the formation of NO3 radicals. The calculated heat of formation and energy gap predict that the Mn and Zn complexes, which have the half-filled （3d5） and full-filled （3d10） electron configurations for the transition metal ions, respectively are more stable than the Co, Ni and Cu complexes. This indicates that the electron configuration of transition metal ion plays an important role in the stabilities of these energetic complexes.     

Bonding of Hydroxyl and Epoxy Groups on Graphene： Insights from Density Functional Calculations

Density functional theory and GGA-PW91 exchange correlation function were performed to simulate the bonding behavior of hydroxyl and epoxy groups on the graphene surface. We compared the different binding energies for two epoxy groups, as well as one hydroxyl group and one epoxy group on all possible positions within a 6-fold ring, respectively. The calculated results suggest that two oxygen-containing groups always tend to bind with the neighboring carbon atoms at the opposite sides. Moreover, two hydroxyl groups on the meta position are unstable, and one of the hydroxyl groups easily migrates to the para position. In contrast to the disperse arrangement, the aggregation of multiply hydroxyl groups largely enhances the binding energy of every hydroxyl group. It is worth noting that the binding sites and hydrogen bonds play an important role in stability. Our work further points out the number of oxygen-containing groups and the location of oxide region largely influence the electronic properties of graphene oxide.     

Theoretical Investigation on Interaction between Guanine and Luteolin

The interacting patterns of the luteolin and guanine have been investigated by using the density functional theory B3LYP method with 6-31＋G＊ basis set. Eighteen stable structures for the luteolin-guanine complexes have been found respectively. The results indicate that the complexes are mainly stabilized by the hydrogen bonding interactions. Meanwhile, both the number and strength of hydrogen bond play important roles in determining the stability of the complexes which can form two or more hydrogen bonds. Theories of atoms in molecules and natural bond orbital have also been utilized to investigate the hydrogen bonds involved in all the systems. The interaction energies of all the complexes which were corrected by basis set superposition error are 6.04-56.94 kJ/mol. The calculation results indicate that there are strong hydrogen bonding interactions in the luteolin-guanine complexes. We compared the interaction between luteolin and four bases of DNA, and found luteolin-thymine was the strongest and luteolin-adenine was the weakest. The interaction between luteolin and DNA bases are all stronger than luteolin-water.     

Selective Sensing Characteristics of Ca Doped BeO Nano-sized Tube toward H20 and NH3

By means of density functional calculations, the structural and electronic properties of chemical modification of pristine and Ca-doped BeO nanotubes were investigated with NH3 and H20 molecules. It was found that the NH3 and H20 molecules can be adsorbed on the Be atom of the tube sidewall with the adsorption energies of about 36.1 and 39.0 kcal/mol, respectively. Density of states analysis shows that the electronic properties of the BeONT are slightly changed after the adsorption processes. Substitution of a Be atom in the tube surface with a Ca atom increases the adsorption energies by about 7.4 and 14.7 kcal/mol for NH3 and H20, respectively. Unlike the pristine tube, the electronic properties of Ca-doped BeONT are sensitive to NH3 and H20 molecules. Also, the Ca-doped tube is much more sensitive to H20 molecule than NH3 one.     

Theoretical Investigation on the Absence of Spore Photoproduct Analogue at Cytosine-Thymine Site

As a well known DNA photolesion product, the special UV induced pyrimidine dimmer called spore photoproduct （SP）, has aroused strong research interests. The SP formation was reported solely between two adjacent thymidine residues. It remains unclear in pervious experimental observations why there is an absence of the cytosine-derived SP-like photoprod- uct formation at the cytosine containing DNA strand, although the cytosine residue holds great similarity to thymine in terms of molecular structure. From a theoretical perspec- tive, we have explored this issue in this work by means of density functional theory at the B3LYP/6-311＋＋G（d,p） //B3LYP/6-31G（d,p） level for the DNA dinucleotide fragment, cy- tosine phosphate thymine （CpT）. Key factors blocking the formation of the SP-like product between two adjacent cytosine and thymidine residues are revealed. Instead of undergoing photochemical SP reaction, a photophysical deactivation pathway back to the ground state turns out to be favorable for the CpT dinucleotide fragment.     

Theoretical Insights into Intermolecular Hydrogen-Bonding Strengthening in Fluorenone-Methanol Complexes Induced by Electronic Excitation and Bulk Solvent Effect

This work presents a theoretical insight into the variation of the site-specific intermolecular hydrogen-bonding （HB）, formed between C=O group of fluorenone （FN） and O-H groups of methanol （MeOL） molecules, induced by both the electronic excitation and the bulk solvent effect. Through the calculation of molecular ground- and excited-state properties, we not only demonstrate the characters of HB strengthening induced by electronic excitation and the bulk solvent effect but also reveal the underlying physical mechanism which leads to the HB variation. The strengthening of the intermolecular HB in electronically excited states and in liquid solution is characterized by the reduced HB bond-lengths and the red-shift IR spectra accompanied by the increasing intensities of IR absorption corresponding to the characteristic vibrational modes of the O-H and C--O stretching. The HB strengthening in the excited electronic states and in solution mainly arises from the charge redistribution of the FN molecule induced by the electronic excitation and bulk solvent instead of the intermolecular charge transfer. The charge redistribution of the solute molecule increases the partial dipole moment of FN molecule and the FN-MeOL intermolecular interaction, which subsequently leads to the HB strengthening. With the bulk solvent effect getting involved, the theoretical IR spectra of HBed FN-MeOL complexes agree much better with the experiments than those of gas-phase FN-MeOL dimer. All the calculations are carried out based on our developed analytical approaches for the first and second energy derivatives of excited electronic state within the time-dependent density functional theory.     

Density Functional Theory Study on Spin States of LaCoO3 at Room Temperature

The electronic structure of the perovskite LaCoO3 at room temperature structure （293 K） was calculated by using PBE, PBE＋U and HSE. Different spin configurations have been considered. Our calculations showed that the choice of the Hubbard U parameter in DFT＋U and mixing factor α in HSE significantly influenced the band gap as well as relative energies. For the spin exited states, the optimal value for U and α were 3.0 eV and 0.05, respectively. Our calculation also emphasized that when U〉5.0 eV, PBE＋U would lead to unreasonable electronic structure and energy order.     

Cyclic M（S02） （M=Zn,Cd） and its Anions： Matrix Infrared Spectra and DFT Calculations

Reaction of laser ablated zinc and cadmium atoms with SO2 molecules was studied by low temperature matrix isolation infrared spectroscopy. Cyclic M（SO2） and anion M（SO2）-（M=Zn, Cd） were produced in excess argon and neon, which were identified by 34SO2 and S18O2 isotopic substitutions. The observed infrared spectra and molecular structures were confirmed by density functional theoretical calculations. Natural charge distributions indicated significant electron transfer from s orbitals of zinc or cadmium metal atom to S02 ligand and cyclic M（SO2） complexes favored ＂ion pair＂ M＋（SO2）-formation, which were trapped in low temperature matrices. In addition Zn-O or Cd-O bond in M（SO2） exhibited strong polarized covalent character. Reaction of Hg atom with SO2 was also investigated, but no reaction product was observed, due to the relativistic effect that resulted in the contraction of 6s valence shell and high ionization potential of Hg atom.     

Theoretical Characterization of Chiral Carbon Nanotube Encapsulating Ellipsoidal C70

The molecular orientation of ellipsoidal C70 in carbon nanotubes is carefully studied by first principles calculations. Using （14, 7） single-wall carbon nanotube （SWCNT） as a prototype material, we explored that the weak chemical interaction between SWCNT and C70 was the crucial factor to determine the molecular orientation. However, the small energy difference makes the distinguishment of two possible molecular orientations difficult. By simulating scanning tunneling microscope images and optical properties, we found that local electronic states sensitively depended on the molecular orientation of ellipsoidal C70, which provided a practical way of using scanning tunneling microscope to recognize the molecular orientation of ellipsoidal C70.     

DFT Study on Homolytic Dissociation Enthalpies of C-I Bonds

The C-I bond dissociation enthalpies （BDE） of various organic iodides were calculated using high-level theoretical methods including MP2 and CCSD（T） with extrapolated basis set as well as a number of density functional theory methods. After systematic evaluation of the theoretical results against available experimental C-I BDEs, it was found that the MPW LYPIM method gave the lowest root mean square error. We, therefore, used this method to examine the substituent effects on different categories of C（sp3）-I and C（sp2）-I bonds. Fur thermore, the remote substituent effects on the C-I BDEs of substituted iodobenzenes and substituted （iodomethyl）benzenes were also investigated at the same level. The C-I BDEs of typical heteroaromatic iodides including five-membered and six-membered heterocyclic iodides were also examined.     

Infrared Photodissociation Spectroscopy of Ti＋（CO2）2Ar and Ti＋（CO2）n （n=3-7） Complexes

Ti＋（CO2）2Ar and Ti＋（CO2）n （n=3-7） complexes are produced by laser vaporization in a pulsed supersonic expansion. The ion complexes of interest are each mass-selected in a time- of-flight spectrometer, and studied with infrared photodissociation spectroscopy. For each complex, a sharp band in the CO stretching frequency region is observed, which confirms the formation of the OTi＋CO（CO2）~_l oxide-carbonyl species. Small OTi＋CO（CO2）~_1 complexes （n_〈5） exhibit CO stretching and antisymmetric CO2 stretching vibrational bands that are blue-shifted from those of free CO and CO2. The experimental observations indicate that the coordination number of CO and CO2 molecules around TiO＋ is five. Evidence is also observed for the presence of another electrostatic bonding Ti＋（CO2）2 structural isomer for the Ti＋（CO2）2Ar complex, which is characterized to have a bent OCO-Ti＋-OCO structure stabilized by argon coordination.     

UV-Vis Spectrum and the Third-order Nonlinear Optical Properties of the Chiral Camphorderived β-diketonate Platinum Complexes

UV-Vis spectrum and the third-order nonlinear optical properties of the chiral camphor-derived β-diketonate have been studied at the B3LYP/6-31G* level. The results showed that the introduction of electron-drawing group-CF3 and-C3F7 on β-diketonate made the strongest absorption peak red-shift and the lowest energy absorption blue-shied. Introduction of-OC2H5 on the benzene or pyridine ring made the lowest energy absorption blue-shift. When the-C2H3 was introduced on the benzene or pyridine ring, the lowest energy absorption was red-shifted. Introduction of electron-donating group on β-diketonate can enlarge their nonlinear optical properties. On the contrary, the introduction of electron-drawing group dropped it down.     

Sequential Observation of Alkali-halide Gas Phase Clusters in High Resolution TOF-MS and Prediction of Their Structures

Alkali halide clusters are interesting model systems that can provide information about how crystal properties evolve. To study these properties, a high-resolution atmospheric pressure inlet time-of-flight mass spectrometry （APi-TOF-MS） study of the sequential sodium halides series, C1-（NaC1）n and Br-（NaBr）m, has been reported, and the viability of the APi-TOF- MS equipped with an electrospray ionization source in determining cluster compositions has been demonstrated. The isotopic patterns were well resolved, as n=4 and 7 were determined to be the magic numbers for C1-（NaC1）n clusters, which were particularly abundant in the mass spectra. A global minimum search based on density functional theory enabled basin hopping yield the most stable structures for the mentioned series. The structures exhibit several distinct motifs which can be roughly categorized as linear chain, rock salt, and hexag- onal ring. This work provides an effective way to discover and elucidate the nonstoichiometry sodium halide clusters. These clusters possess very high vertical detachment energies and are generally called as superhalogens, which play important roles in chemistry because they are widely used in the synthesis of new classes of charge-transfer salts.     

Theoretical Investigations on the Structure,Density, Thermodynamic and Performance Properties of Bis（2,2-dinitropropyl） formal

Density functional method was used to investigate the IR spectrum,heat of formation and thermal stability of a new energetic material bis(2,2-dinitropropyl) formal(BDNPF).The detonation velocity and pressure were evaluated by using the Kamlet-Jacobs equations based on the theoretical density and heat of formation.The bond dissociation energies for the weakest bonds were analyzed to investigate the thermal stability of the title compound.The results show that the C(1)-N(1) bond is predicted to be the trigger bond during pyrolysis.The crystal structure obtained by molecular mechanics belongs to the P21 space group,with the lattice parameters to be Z = 2,a = 11.5254,b = 6.2168,c = 9.5000  and ρ= 1.66 g/cm3.     

Stable Structure and Characteristic Spectroscopy of （CH3COCH3）n （n = 1-7） Clusters

The stable acetone molecule clusters have been studied by using Becke＇s threeparameter （B3LYP） density functional theory （DFT） with standard 6-31G（d） basis set. The calculated results show that the optimal structures of acetone clusters are cyclic and the cycles become larger and larger with the increase of cluster size. The strongest vibration peaks for neutral clusters are C=O stretching vibration. The C=O stretching peaks of cyclic acetone clusters split into double ones when n≥3, the frequencies are red-shifted and corresponding intensifies increase with the increase of cluster Size.