Jan Hermann

First-Principles Models for van der Waals Interactions in Molecules and Materials: Concepts, Theory, and Applications

Noncovalent van der Waals (vdW) or dispersion forces are ubiquitous in nature and influence the structure, stability, dynamics, and function of molecules and materials throughout chemistry, biology, physics, and materials science. These forces are quantum mechanical in origin and arise from electrostatic interactions between fluctuations in the electronic charge density. Here, we explore the conceptual and mathematical ingredients required for an exact treatment of vdW interactions, and present a systematic and unified framework for classifying the current first-principles vdW methods based on the adiabatic-connection fluctuation-dissipation (ACFD) theorem (namely the Rutgers-Chalmers vdW-DF, Vydrov-Van Voorhis (VV), exchange-hole dipole moment (XDM), Tkatchenko-Scheffler (TS), many-body dispersion (MBD), and random-phase approximation (RPA) approaches). Particular attention is paid to the intriguing nature of many-body vdW interactions, whose fundamental relevance has recently been highlighted in several landmark experiments. The performance of these models in predicting binding energetics as well as structural, electronic, and thermodynamic properties is connected with the theoretical concepts and provides a numerical summary of the state-of-the-art in the field. We conclude with a roadmap of the conceptual, methodological, practical, and numerical challenges that remain in obtaining a universally applicable and truly predictive vdW method for realistic molecular systems and materials.

Nanoscale π – π stacked molecules are bound by collective charge fluctuations

Non-covalent π−π interactions are central to chemical and biological processes, yet the full understanding of their origin that would unite the simplicity of empirical approaches with the accuracy of quantum calculations is still missing. Here we employ a quantum-mechanical Hamiltonian model for van der Waals interactions, to demonstrate that intermolecular electron correlation in large supramolecular complexes at equilibrium distances is appropriately described by collective charge fluctuations. We visualize these fluctuations and provide connections both to orbital-based approaches to electron correlation, as well as to the simple London pairwise picture. The reported binding energies of ten supramolecular complexes obtained from the quantum-mechanical fluctuation model joined with density functional calculations are within 5% of the reference energies calculated with the diffusion quantum Monte-Carlo method. Our analysis suggests that π−π stacking in supramolecular complexes can be characterized by strong contributions to the binding energy from delocalized, collective charge fluctuations—in contrast to complexes with other types of bonding.

Electronic Exchange and Correlation in van der Waals Systems: Balancing Semilocal and Nonlocal Energy Contributions

Short-range correlations in motion of electrons in matter are captured well by semilocal exchange-correlation (XC) functionals in density functional theory (DFT), but long-range correlations are neglected in such models and must be treated by van der Waals (vdW) dispersion methods. Whereas the effective range of distances at which fluctuations are correlated is usually explicit in the vdW models, the complementary range of semilocal functionals can be observed only implicitly, requiring an introduction of empirical damping functions to couple the semilocal and nonlocal contributions to the XC energy. We present a comprehensive study of the interplay between these short-range and long-range energy contributions in eight semilocal functionals (LDA, PBE, TPSS, SCAN, PBE0, B3LYP, SCAN0, M06-L) and three vdW models (MBD, D3, VV10) on noncovalently bonded organic dimers (S66×8), molecular crystals (X23), and supramolecular complexes (S12L), as well as on a series of graphene-flake dimers, covering a range of intermolecular distances and binding energies (0.5-130 kcal/mol). The binding-energy profiles of many of the DFT+vdW combinations differ both quantitatively and qualitatively, and some of the qualitative differences are independent of the choice of the vdW model, establishing them as intrinsic properties of the respective semilocal functionals. We find that while the SCAN+vdW method yields a narrow range of binding-energy errors, the effective range of SCAN depends on system size, and we link this behavior to the specific dependence of SCAN on the electron localization function α around α = 1. Our study provides a systematic procedure to evaluate the consistency of semilocal XC functionals when paired with nonlocal vdW models and leads us to conclude that nonempirical generalized-gradient and hybrid functionals are currently among the most balanced semilocal choices for vdW systems.

Communication: Many-body stabilization of non-covalent interactions: Structure, stability, and mechanics of Ag3Co(CN)6 framework

Stimuli-responsive metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and other framework materials exhibit a broad variety of useful properties, which mainly stem from an interplay of strong covalent bonds within the organic linkers with presumably weak van der Waals (vdW) interactions which determine the overall packing of the framework constituents. Using Ag3Co(CN)6 as a fundamental test case-a system with a colossal positive and negative thermal expansion [A. L. Goodwin et al., Science 319, 794 (2008)]-we demonstrate that its structure, stability, dielectric, vibrational, and mechanical properties are critically influenced by many-body electronic correlation contributions to non-covalent vdW interactions. The Ag3Co(CN)6 framework is a remarkable molecular crystal, being visibly stabilized, rather than destabilized, by many-body vdW correlations. A detailed comparison with H3Co(CN)6 highlights the crucial role of strongly polarized metallophilic interactions in dictating the exceptional properties of denser MOFs. Beyond MOFs, our findings indicate that many-body electronic correlations can substantially stabilize polarizable materials, providing a novel mechanism for tuning the properties of nanomaterials with intricate structural motifs.

Unifying Microscopic and Continuum Treatments of van der Waals and Casimir Interactions

We present an approach for computing long-range van der Waals (vdW) interactions between complex molecular systems and arbitrarily shaped macroscopic bodies, melding atomistic treatments of electronic fluctuations based on density functional theory in the former with continuum descriptions of strongly shape-dependent electromagnetic fields in the latter, thus capturing many-body and multiple scattering effects to all orders. Such a theory is especially important when considering vdW interactions at mesoscopic scales, i.e., between molecules and structured surfaces with features on the scale of molecular sizes, in which case the finite sizes, complex shapes, and resulting nonlocal electronic excitations of molecules are strongly influenced by electromagnetic retardation and wave effects that depend crucially on the shapes of surrounding macroscopic bodies. We show that these effects together can modify vdW interaction energies and forces, as well as molecular shapes deformed by vdW interactions, by orders of magnitude compared to previous treatments based on Casimir-Polder, nonretarded, or pairwise approximations, which are valid only at macroscopically large or atomic-scale separations or in dilute insulating media, respectively.

van der Waals Interactions in Material Modelling

Van der Waals (vdW) interactions stem from electronic zero-point fluctuations and are often critical for the correct description of structure, stability, and response properties of molecules and materials, including biomolecules, nanomaterials, and material interfaces. Here, we give a conceptual as well as mathematical overview of the current state of modeling vdW interactions, J. Hermann • A. Tkatchenko ( ) Physics and Materials Science Research Unit, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Luxembourg e-mail: alexandre.tkatchenko@uni.lu