Qinghua Ren

Ketone Formation via Mild Nickel-Catalyzed Reductive Coupling of Alkyl Halides with Aryl Acid Chlorides

The present work highlights unprecedented Ni-catalyzed reductive coupling of unactivated alkyl iodides with aryl acid chlorides to efficiently generate alkyl aryl ketones under mild conditions.

Quantum control of molecular motion including electronic polarization effects with a two-stage toolkit

A method for incorporating strong electric field polarization effects into optimal control calculations is presented. A Born-Oppenheimer-type separation, referred to as the electric-nuclear Born-Oppenheimer (ENBO) approximation, is introduced in which variations of both the nuclear geometry and the external electric field are assumed to be slow compared with the speed at which the electronic degrees of freedom respond to these changes. This assumption permits the generation of a potential energy surface that depends not only on the relative geometry of the nuclei but also on the electric field strength and on the orientation of the molecule with respect to the electric field. The range of validity of the ENBO approximation is discussed in the paper. A two-stage toolkit implementation is presented to incorporate the polarization effects and reduce the cost of the optimal control dynamics calculations. As an illustration of the method, it is applied to optimal control of vibrational excitation in a hydrogen molecule aligned along the field direction. Ab initio configuration interaction calculations with a large orbital basis set are used to compute the H-H interaction potential in the presence of the electric field. The significant computational cost reduction afforded by the toolkit implementation is demonstrated.

Quantum control of molecular vibrational and rotational excitations in a homonuclear diatomic molecule: a full three-dimensional treatment with polarization forces

The optimal control of the vibrational excitation of the hydrogen molecule [Balint-Kurti et al., J. Chem. Phys. 122, 084110 (2005)] utilizing polarization forces is extended to three dimensions. The polarizability of the molecule, to first and higher orders, is accounted for using explicit ab initio calculations of the molecular electronic energy in the presence of an electric field. Optimal control theory is then used to design infrared laser pulses that selectively excite the molecule to preselected vibrational-rotational states. The amplitude of the electric field of the optimized pulses is restricted so that there is no significant ionization during the process, and a new frequency sifting method is used to simplify the frequency spectrum of the pulse. The frequency spectra of the optimized laser pulses for processes involving rotational excitation are more complex than those relating to processes involving only vibrational excitation.

Magnetic exchange cooperative effect of the bridges in μ-hydroxo and μ-acetato bridged chromium(III) dimers: a density functional theory coupling the broken-symmetry approach

Abstract The magnetic exchange behaviour for μ-hydroxo and μ-acetato double-bridged chromium(III) dimer is investigated based on calculations of density functional theory combined with the broken-symmetry approach. It is demonstrated that there is a magnetic exchange cooperative effect of the two bridging ligands in a double-bridged dimer systems with approximate equal coupling intensity. Meanwhile, the calculated results reveal that the deprotonation of the μ-hydroxo ligand causes a sharp increase of the magnetic exchange interaction between the chromium centers. Replacing either the μ-hydroxo bridging ligand by one water bridging ligand or the μ-acetato bridging ligands by two terminal water ligands produces a relatively reasonable model to examine the contribution on the magnetic exchange interaction of another individual bridging ligand.

Density functional theory study of the mechanisms of iron-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions of alkyl grignard reagents.

When compared with the established palladium and nickel catalyst systems, simple iron salts turn out to be highly efficient, cheap, toxicologically benign, and environmentally friendly precatalysts for a host of cross-coupling reactions of alkyl or aryl Grignard reagents. The inorganic Grignard reagent [Fe(MgX)(2)], where X corresponds to Br or I, is a good catalyst for cross-coupling reactions. The present study reports a thorough theoretical analysis of the mechanisms of the [Fe(MgBr)(2)] catalyzed cross-coupling reaction between 4-chlorobenzoic acid methyl ester and n-hexylicmagnesium bromide using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Our calculations show that the overall catalytic cycle includes three basic steps: oxidation of [Fe(MgBr)(2)] to obtain [Ar-Fe(MgBr)], addition to yield [Ar-(n-hexyl)-Fe(MgBr)(2)], and reductive elimination to return to [Fe(MgBr)(2)]. The energy barrier is lower if n-hexylicmagnesium bromide attacks the intermediate of the oxidative addition directly before [Cl-Mg-Br] dissociates to form the middle product [Ar-Fe(MgBr)] than if the attack occurs after the dissociation of [Cl-Mg-Br]. The solvation effect in this step clearly leads to a lowering of the energy barrier. The rate-limiting step in the whole catalytic cycle is the reductive elimination of [Ar-(n-hexyl)-Fe(MgBr)(2)] to regenerate the catalyst [Fe(MgBr)(2)], where the electronic energy barrier ΔE is 29.74 kcal/mol in the gas phase and the Gibbs free energy in solvent THF ΔG(sol) is 28.13 kcal/mol computed using the C-PCM method.

Improving the solubility of dexlansoprazole by cocrystallization with isonicotinamide.

Cocrystallization of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) with a cocrystal former (co-former) is widely used to tailor the physicochemical properties of parent APIs. For proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs), the isolation of cocrystals has not been widely investigated. Here, a 1:1 cocrystal of a PPI molecule, dexlansoprazole (DLS), was obtained by solvent crystallization with isonicotinamide (INM). The product was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), solid-state and liquid NMR, as well as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques. A two-point R2(2)(9) hetero-synthon was proposed to exist in the cocrystal, where intermolecular hydrogen bonding occurs between NH, SO groups of DLS and amide of INM. The dissolution profiles of DLS and DLS-INM in water were also collected, and the results demonstrate the cocrystal exhibits superior apparent maximum solubility relative to the pure drug.

Theoretical Study of Electronic Properties of X-Doped (X = F, Cl, Br, I) VO2 Nanoparticles for Thermochromic Energy-Saving Foils.

First-principles density functional theory (DFT) electronic structure calculations were carried out for the model halogen-doped VO2 (M1 phase) to evaluate the effect of halogen (X = F, Cl, Br, I) doping on the band edges. The model structures of X-doped VO2 with X at V site or O site were constructed on the basis of 96-atom 2 × 2 × 2 supercell of monoclinic M1 phase of VO2. Our results showed that the band gap Eg2 for Cl-doped VO2 at O1 site (0.51 eV) is smaller than that of F-doped VO2 at O1 site (0.61 eV) and that of pure VO2 (0.78 eV). We also investigated the substitution of chlorine, bromine, and iodine for vanadium in VO2, where the band gaps Eg2 are 0.40, 0.45, and 0.37 eV for Cl-, Br-, and I-doped VO2 at V site, respectively. The Cl-doped VO2 at V site is the best one for achieving good VO2 thermochromic energy-saving foils.

An ab Initio Study of van der Waals Potential Energy Parameters for Silver Clusters

We employ ab initio calculations of van der Waals complexes to study the potential energy parameters (C(6) coefficients) of van der Waals interactions for modeling of the adsorption of silver clusters on the graphite surface. Electronic structure calculations of the (Ag(2))(2), Ag(2)-H(2), and Ag(2)-C(6)H(6) complexes are performed using a coupled-cluster approach that includes single, double, and perturbative triple excitations (CCSD(T)), Møller-Plesset second-order perturbation theory (MP2), and spin-component-scaled MP2 (SCS-MP2) methods. Using the atom pair approximation, the C(6) coefficients for silver-silver, silver-hydrogen, and silver-carbon atom systems are obtained after subtracting the energies of quadrupole-quadrupole interactions from the total electronic energy.

Design of infrared laser pulses for the deexcitation of highly excited homonuclear diatomic molecules

We explore the possibility of using shaped infrared laser pulses to deexcite a homonuclear diatomic molecule from its highest vibrational state down to its ground vibrational state. The motivation for this study arises from the need to deexcite alkali metal dimers in a similar way so as to stabilize molecular Bose-Einstein condensates. We demonstrate that for the case of the H(2) molecule, where it is possible to evaluate all the necessary high accuracy ab initio data on the interaction of the molecule with an electric field, we are able to successfully design a sequence of infrared laser pulses to accomplish the desired deexcitation process in a highly efficient manner.

Ab Initio design of picosecond infrared laser pulses for controlling vibrational-rotational excitation of CO molecules

Optimal control of rovibrational excitations of the CO molecule using picosecond infrared laser pulses is described in the framework of the electric-nuclear Born-Oppenheimer approximation [G. G. Balint-Kurti et al., J. Chem. Phys. 122, 084110 (2005)]. The potential energy surface of the CO molecule in the presence of an electric field is calculated using coupled cluster theory with a large orbital basis set. The quantum dynamics of the process is treated using a full three dimensional treatment of the molecule in the laser field. The detailed mechanisms leading to efficient control of the selected excitation processes are discussed.