Juan Carlos Sancho-García

Electronic and optical properties of polyfluorene and fluorene-based copolymers: A quantum-chemical characterization

We report a detailed quantum-chemical characterization of the electronic and optical properties of polyfluorene chains and compare them to those in copolymers containing alternating fluorene and benzothiadiazole or ethylenedioxythiophene units. The introduction of the comonomer can strongly modify the excitonic properties as well as the efficiency of charge- and energy-transfer processes. The choice of the comonomer is thus critical in targeting specific optical properties while maintaining good transport properties.

Multireference coupled-cluster calculations on the energy of activation in the automerization of cyclobutadiene: Assessment of the state-specific multireference Brillouin–Wigner theory

Hilbert-space state-universal multireference coupled-cluster (MR CC) data on cyclobutadiene [A. Balkova and R. J. Bartlett, J. Chem. Phys. 101, 8972 (1994)] were used as a benchmark for testing our recently developed state-specific (single-root) multireference Brillouin-Wigner coupled-cluster (MR BWCC) theory. For the energy of activation in the automerization of cyclobutadiene (i.e., the energy difference between the square and rectangular structures) at the CCSD/[3s2p1d/2s] level of theory, our MR BWCCSD method gives the value of 6.2 kcal/mol, compared to 6.5 kcal/mol given by MR CCSD. With the cc-pVDZ and cc-pVTZ/cc-pVDZ basis sets, the MR BWCCSD activation barrier is 6.4 and 7.0 kcal/mol, respectively. The effect of the triple excitations [in MR CCSD(T)] and of the frozen core approximation were estimated previously to be below 0.1 kcal/mol and in the opposite direction. This shows the way of how to arrive at a more accurate automerization barrier in future calculations: extension of the basis set see...

Assessment of recently developed exchange-correlation functionals for the description of torsion potentials in π-conjugated molecules

Newly developed exchange-correlation functionals in density functional theory (DFT) have been applied to describe conjugation effects in organic molecules. The performance of the various approaches is assessed through the calculation of torsion energy profiles and their critical comparison with available experimental data. Our results indicate that the OPTX-B95 exchange-correlation functional as well as its corresponding hybrid versions perform better than the well-established BLYP or B3LYP schemes when dealing with pi-conjugated molecules. In contrast, the recently introduced VSXC functional is not as reliable as other DFT methods for the systems examined here.

Communication: Double-hybrid functionals from adiabatic-connection: The QIDH model

A new approach stemming from the adiabatic-connection (AC) formalism is proposed to derive parameter-free double-hybrid (DH) exchange-correlation functionals. It is based on a quadratic form that models the integrand of the coupling parameter, whose components are chosen to satisfy several well-known limiting conditions. Its integration leads to DHs containing a single parameter controlling the amount of exact exchange, which is determined by requiring it to depend on the weight of the MP2 correlation contribution. Two new parameter-free DHs functionals are derived in this way, by incorporating the non-empirical PBE and TPSS functionals in the underlying expression. Their extensive testing using the GMTKN30 benchmark indicates that they are in competition with state-of-the-art DHs, yet providing much better self-interaction errors and opening a new avenue towards the design of accurate double-hybrid exchange-correlation functionals departing from the AC integrand.

Nonlocal van der Waals Approach Merged with Double-Hybrid Density Functionals: Toward the Accurate Treatment of Noncovalent Interactions.

Noncovalent interactions drive the self-assembly of weakly interacting molecular systems to form supramolecular aggregates, which play a major role in nanotechnology and biochemistry. In this work, we present a thorough assessment of the performance of different double-hybrid density functionals (PBE0-DH-NL, revPBE0-DH-NL, B2PLYP-NL, and TPSS0-DH-NL), as well as their parent hybrid and (meta)GGA functionals, in combination with the most modern version of the nonlocal (NL) van der Waals correction. It is shown that this nonlocal correction can be successfully coupled with double-hybrid density functionals thanks to the short-range attenuation parameter b, which has been optimized against reference interaction energies of benchmarking molecular complexes (S22 and S66 databases). Among all the double-hybrid functionals evaluated, revPBE0-DH-NL and B2PLYP-NL behave remarkably accurate with mean unsigned errors (MUE) as small as 0.20 kcal/mol for the training sets and in the 0.25-0.42 kcal/mol range for an independent database (NCCE31). They can be thus seen as appropriate functionals to use in a broad number of applications where noncovalent interactions play an important role. Overall, the nonlocal van der Waals approach combined with last-generation density functionals is confirmed as an accurate and affordable computational tool for the modeling of weakly bonded molecular systems.

Theoretical Rationalization of the Singlet–Triplet Gap in OLEDs Materials: Impact of Charge-Transfer Character

New materials for OLED applications with low singlet-triplet energy splitting have been recently synthesized in order to allow for the conversion of triplet into singlet excitons (emitting light) via a Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence (TADF) process, which involves excited-states with a non-negligible amount of Charge-Transfer (CT). The accurate modeling of these states with Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT), the most used method so far because of the favorable trade-off between accuracy and computational cost, is however particularly challenging. We carefully address this issue here by considering materials with small (high) singlet-triplet gap acting as emitter (host) in OLEDs and by comparing the accuracy of TD-DFT and the corresponding Tamm-Dancoff Approximation (TDA), which is found to greatly reduce error bars with respect to experiments thanks to better estimates for the lowest singlet-triplet transition. Finally, we quantitatively correlate the singlet-triplet splitting values with the extent of CT, using for it a simple metric extracted from calculations with double-hybrid functionals, that might be applied in further molecular engineering studies.

Effect of an external electric field on the charge transport parameters in organic molecular semiconductors

Internal reorganization energies and interchain transfer integrals are two key parameters governing the charge-transport properties of organic semiconducting materials. Here, in order to model some aspects of device operation in field-effect transistors based on conjugated oligomers, we investigate via semiempirical quantum-chemical calculations the way these two parameters are modified when a static electric field in the range 106–108 V/cm is applied along the long axis of pentacene and sexithienyl molecules. For the highest fields, a pronounced redistribution of the charges along the oligomer chains occurs, which is accompanied by significant geometric distortions. However, these charge redistribution effects are found not to impact significantly the transport parameters.

Ab Initio Modeling of Donor-Acceptor Interactions and Charge-Transfer Excitations in Molecular Complexes: The Case of Terthiophene-Tetracyanoquinodimethane.

This work presents a thorough quantum chemical study of the terthiophene-tetracyanoquinodimethane complex as a model for π-π donor-acceptor systems. Dispersion-corrected hybrid (B3LYP-D) and double hybrid (B2PLYP-D), hybrid meta (M06-2X and M06-HF), and recently proposed long-range corrected (LC-wPBE, CAM-B3LYP, and wB97X-D) functionals have been chosen to deal with π-π intermolecular interactions and charge-transfer excitations in a balanced way. These properties are exhaustively compared to those computed with high-level ab initio SCS-MP2 and CASPT2 methods. The wB97X-D functional exhibits the best performance. It provides reliable intermolecular distances and interaction energies and predicts a small charge transfer from the donor to the acceptor in the ground state. In addition, wB97X-D is also able to yield an accurate description of the charge-transfer excitations in comparison to benchmark CASPT2 calculations.

Assessment of the reliability of the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof functionals in the determination of torsional potentials in π-conjugated molecules

Abstract We have assessed the reliability of the Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof (PBE) exchange-correlation functionals for describing conjugation effects in organic materials through analysis of torsional potential profiles. The best agreement with experimental data is obtained for hybrid methods where a fraction of Hartree–Fock exchange is introduced. The performance of the various approaches is discussed by characterizing the contribution to the potential energy curves, of the various terms entering the total energy at the density functional theory level. Analysis of the data points out that much care needs to be taken when using the PBE functionals to investigate processes associated to breaks in conjugation.

Accurate Treatment of Large Supramolecular Complexes by Double-Hybrid Density Functionals Coupled with Nonlocal van der Waals Corrections

In this work, we present a thorough assessment of the performance of some representative double-hybrid density functionals (revPBE0-DH-NL and B2PLYP-NL) as well as their parent hybrid and GGA counterparts, in combination with the most modern version of the nonlocal (NL) van der Waals correction to describe very large weakly interacting molecular systems dominated by noncovalent interactions. Prior to the assessment, an accurate and homogeneous set of reference interaction energies was computed for the supramolecular complexes constituting the L7 and S12L data sets by using the novel, precise, and efficient DLPNO-CCSD(T) method at the complete basis set limit (CBS). The correction of the basis set superposition error and the inclusion of the deformation energies (for the S12L set) have been crucial for obtaining precise DLPNO-CCSD(T)/CBS interaction energies. Among the density functionals evaluated, the double-hybrid revPBE0-DH-NL and B2PLYP-NL with the three-body dispersion correction provide remarkably accurate association energies very close to the chemical accuracy. Overall, the NL van der Waals approach combined with proper density functionals can be seen as an accurate and affordable computational tool for the modeling of large weakly bonded supramolecular systems.