Shi-Ling Sun

Density functional theory characterization and design of high-performance diarylamine-fluorene dyes with different π spacers for dye-sensitized solar cells

To rationalize the marked difference in the energy conversion efficiency of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on organic dyes 1 and 2 different only in their π spacer, density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT calculations of the geometries, electronic structures and absorption spectra of the organic dyes before and after binding to titanium oxide were carried out. These enable us to determine factors such as dipole moments associated with the open-circuit photovoltage (Voc), and to quantify parameters such as the light harvesting efficiency, the electron injection efficiency associated with the short-circuit photocurrent density (Jsc). The results reveal that compared to 2 with a thiazole spacer, 1 with a thiophene spacer could cause a red shift of the absorption spectrum, increase the oscillator strength and improve the driving force for electron injection, thus leading to the larger Jsc, in good agreement with experimental data. As for Voc, our results stress that apart from the generally emphasized vertical dipole moment of the dyes pointing outward from the semiconductor surface, the number of photoinjected electrons from the dye to the semiconductor is also crucial to obtain high performance dyes with high Voc. After justifying the reliability of the quantum-chemical methods, we designed another four dyes with different π spacers to screen more efficient organic dyes. Fortunately, taking 1 as reference, we find that dye 4 with a thienothiophene spacer displays an enhanced Jsc and Voc, indicating that it will be a more efficient diarylamine-fluorene-based organic dye used in DSSCs, which will play a theoretical guiding role in the design and synthesis of new organic dyes.

Quantum chemical research on structures, linear and nonlinear optical properties of the Li@n-acenes salt (n = 1, 2, 3, and 4).

On the basis of the n-acenes (n = 1, 2, 3 and 4), the α-Li@n-acenes and β-Li@n-acenes salts were selected to investigate how increasing the number n of conjugated benzenoid rings affects the linear and nonlinear optical responses. The α-Li@n-acenes and β-Li@n-acenes salts are obtained by a lithium atom substituting the α-H and β-H, respectively. In the present work, both ab initio (HF and MP2) and DFT (B3LYP, BhandHLYP, M05-2X, and CAM-B3LYP) methods are adopted to calculate the polarizability (α(0)) and first hyperpolarizability (β(tot)) of the α-Li@n-acenes and β-Li@n-acenes salts. MP2 results show that the α(0) values of both classes of lithium salts increase with increasing number n of conjugated benzenoid rings. Interestingly, we found that the β(tot) values of α-Li@n-acenes and β-Li@n-acenes salts take on opposite trends: the β(tot) values of α-Li@n-acenes are decreasing slowly (2187 for α-Li@benzene > 1978 for α-Li@naphthalene > 1898 for α-Li@anthrecene > 1830 au for α-Li@tetracene) and inceasing remarkably (2738 for β-Li@naphthalene < 3186 for β-Li@anthrecene < 3314 au for β-Li@tetracene) for β-Li@n-acenes. Furthermore, we found that the β(tot) values (2738-3314 au) of the β-Li@n-acenes are larger than those of the α-Li@n-acenes (1830-2187 au). On the other hand, comparing the results of different methods, the β(tot) values obtained by the M05-2X and CAM-B3LYP methods reproduce the polarizability and first hyperpolarizability of the α-Li@n-acenes and β-Li@n-acenes salts well, which test and verify the results of the MP2 method. Our present work may be beneficial to development of high-performance organic NLO optical materials.

The Excess Electron in a Boron Nitride Nanotube: Pyramidal NBO Charge Distribution and Remarkable First Hyperpolarizability

The unusual properties of species with excess electrons have attracted a lot of interest in recent years due to their wide applications in many promising fields. In this work, we find that the excess electron could be effectively bound by the B atoms of boron nitride nanotube (BNNT), which is inverted pyramidally distributed from B-rich edge to N-rich edge. Further, Li@B-BNNT and Li@N-BNNT are designed by doping the Li atom to the two edges of BNNT, respectively. Because of the interaction between the Li atom and BNNT, the 2s valence electron of Li becomes a loosely bound excess electron. Interestingly, the distribution of the excess electron in Li@N-BNNT is more diffuse and pyramidal from B-rich edge to N-rich edge, which is fascinating compared with Li@B-BNNT. Correspondingly, the transition energy of Li@N-BNNT is 0.99 eV, which is obviously smaller than 2.65 eV of Li@B-BNNT. As a result, the first hyperpolarizability (3.40×10(4) a.u.) of Li@N-BNNT is dramatically larger (25 times) than 1.35×10(3) a.u. of Li@B-BNNT. Significantly, we find that the pyramidal distribution of the excess electron is the key factor to determine the first hyperpolarizability, which reveals useful information for scientists to develop new electro-optic applications of BNNTs.

Theoretical investigation on redox-switchable second-order nonlinear optical responses of push-pull Cp*CoEt2C2B4H3-expanded (metallo)porphyrins.

The second‐order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of the Cp*Co(C2H5)2C2B4H3‐expanded (metallo)porphyrins (Cp* = C5Me5) have been investigated by using ab inito RHF and density functional theory (DFT) methods. The investigation shows that the compound with expand porphyrin possesses remarkable large molecular hyperpolarizability βtot value, ∼414.1 × 10−30 esu (at LC‐ωPBE level), and might be an excellent second‐order NLO material. From the character of charge transfer (CT) transition, it indicates that the −Cp*Co(C2H5)2C2B4H3 acts as an electron donor in this kind of systems. As a result of the redox behavior on expanded (metallo)porphyrin, the redox switching character of the NLO responses for the systems 2a–4a has also been studied. The results show that the βtot values of reduced forms are larger than that of neutral ones. Furthermore, the time‐dependent DFT calculation illustrates that reduced forms have a significant difference on the CT patterns versus neutral ones. The present investigation provides insight into the comparison with DFT results on estimating first hyperpolarizability and the NLO properties of the series of push–pull compounds.

Strategy for enhancing second-order nonlinear optical properties of the Pt(II) dithienylethene complexes: substituent effect, π-conjugated influence, and photoisomerization switch.

The second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of a series of Pt(II) dithienylethene (DTE) complexes possessing the reversible photochromic behavior have been investigated by density functional theory (DFT) combined with the analytic derivatives method. The results show that the calculated static first hyperpolarizabilities (βtot) of the open-ring and closed-ring systems significantly increase in the range of 2.1-4.5 times through strengthening of the electron-withdrawing ability of the substituent R (R = H, CF3, NO2) and an increase of the number of thiophene rings. Moreover, there is a large enhancement of the βtot values from the open-ring systems to the corresponding closed-ring systems. This efficient enhancement is attributed to the better delocalization of the π-electron system, the more obvious degree of charge transfer, and the larger f(os)/E(gm)(3) (f(os) is the oscillator strength, and E(gm) is the transition energy between the ground and the excited states) values in the closed forms according to the bond length alternation (BLA) and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations. In addition, the dispersion has less influence on the frequency-dependent first hyperpolarizabilities (βtot(ω)) of the studied systems at the low-frequency area ω (0.000-0.040 au). Our present work would be beneficial for further theoretical and experimental studies on large second-order NLO responses of metal complexes.

Spiral Intramolecular Charge Transfer and Large First Hyperpolarizability in Möbius Cyclacenes: New Insight into the Localized π Electrons

Much effort has been devoted to investigating the unusual properties of the π electrons in Möbius cyclacenes, which are localized in a special region. However, the localized π electrons are a disadvantage for applications in optoelectronics, because intramolecular charge transfer is limited. This raises the question of how the intramolecular charge transfer of a Möbius cyclacene with clearly localized π electrons can be enhanced. To this end, [8]Möbius cyclacene ([8]MC) is used as a conjugated bridge in a donor-π-conjugated bridge-acceptor (D-π-A) system, and NH(2)-6-[8]MC-10-NO(2) exhibits a fascinating spiral charge-transfer transition character that results in a significant difference in dipole moments Δμ between the ground state and the crucial excited state. The Δμ value of 6.832 D for NH(2)-6-[8]MC-10-NO(2) is clearly larger than that of 0.209 D for [8]MC. Correspondingly, the first hyperpolarizability of NH(2)-6-[8]MC-10-NO(2) of 12,467 a.u. is dramatically larger than that of 261 a.u. for [8]MC. Thus, constructing a D-π-A framework is an effective strategy to induce greater spiral intramolecular charge transfer in MC although the π electrons are localized in a special region. This new insight into the properties of π electrons in Möbius cyclacenes may provide valuable information for their applications in optoelectronics.

After the electronic field: structure, bonding, and the first hyperpolarizability of HArF.

In this work, we add different strength of external electric field (Eext) along molecule axis (Z‐axis) to investigate the electric field induced effect on HArF structure. The H‐Ar bond is the shortest at Eext = −189 × 10−4 and the Ar‐F bond show shortest value at Eext = 185 × 10−4 au. Furthermore, the wiberg bond index analyses show that with the variation of HArF structure, the covalent bond H‐Ar shows downtrend (ranging from0.79 to 0.69) and ionic bond Ar‐F shows uptrend (ranging from 0.04 to 0.17). Interestingly, the natural bond orbital analyses show that the charges of F atom range from −0.961 to −0.771 and the charges of H atoms range from 0.402 to 0.246. Due to weakened charge transfer, the first hyperpolarizability (βtot) can be modulated from 4078 to 1087 au. On the other hand, make our results more useful to experimentalists, the frequency‐dependent first hyperpolarizabilities were investigated by the coupled perturbed Hartree‐Fork method. We hope that this work may offer a new idea for application of noble‐gas hydrides.

Enhancement of second-order nonlinear optical response in boron nitride nanocone: Li-doped effect.

The unusual properties of Li-doped boron nitride nanomaterials have been paid further attention due to their wide applications in many promising fields. Here, density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been carried out to investigate the second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of boron nitride nanocone (BNNC) and its Li-doped BNNC derivatives. The natural bond orbital charge, electron location function, localized orbital locator and frontier molecular orbital analysis offer further insights into the electron density of the Li-doped BNNC derivatives. The electron density is effectively bounded by the Li atom and its neighboring B atoms. The Li-doped BNNC molecules exhibit large static first hyperpolarizabilities (β(tot)) up to 1.19×10³ a.u. for Li@2N-BNNC, 5.05×10³ a.u. for Li@2B-BNNC, and 1.08×10³ a.u. for Li@BN-BNNC, which are significantly larger than that of the non-doped BNNC (1.07×10² a.u.). The further investigations show that there are clearly dependencies of the first hyperpolarizabilities on the transition energies and oscillator strengths. Moreover, time-dependent DFT results show that the charge transfer from BNNC to Li atom becomes more pronounced as doping the Li atom to BNNC. It is also found that the frequency-dependent effect on the first hyperpolarizabilities is weak, which may be beneficial to experimentalists for designing Li-doped BNNC molecules with large NLO responses.

Probing the linear and nonlinear optical properties of nitrogen-substituted carbon nanotube.

AbstractIn view of their intriguing structural and electrical properties, the linear and nonlinear optical (NLO) responses of six carbon nanotube (CNT) molecules substituted by nitrogen atoms at one end have been explored by using the CAM-B3LYP method. Molecules 1, 2 and 3 were obtained by increasing the lengths of the CNTs, and 1-Li, 2-Li and 3-Li were constructed by doping one Li atom into the N-substituted end of 1, 2 and 3 (mentioned above), respectively. Two effective approaches have been proposed to increase nonlinear optical properties(NLO): increasing the length of the CNT as well as doping one Li atom into the N-substituted end. The results show that both the linear polarizabilities (α0) and nonlinear first hyperpolarizabilities (βtot) values increase with increasing the lengths of the CNTs: 188 of 1 < 307 of 2 < 453 of 3 for α0 and 477 of 1 < 2654 of 2 < 3906 au of 3 for βtot. Significantly, compared with the non-doped CNTs, the βtot values are remarkably enhanced by doping one Li atom into the N-substituted end: 477 of 1 < 23258 of 1-Li, 2654 of 2 < 37244 of 2-Li, and 3906 of 3 < 72004 au of 3-Li. Moreover, the βvec values show a similar trend to the βtot values. Our results may be beneficial to experimentalists in exploring high-performance nonlinear optical materials based on CNT. FigureThe first hyperpolarizabilities increase with increasing the lengths of the CNTs. Significantly, compared with the Non-doped CNTs, the first hyperpolarizabilities are remarkably enhanced by doping one Li atom into the N-substituted end

The encapsulated lithium effect of Li@C60Cl8 remarkably enhances the static first hyperpolarizability

Recently, C60Cl8 (C2v) has been experimentally synthesized (Y.-Z. Tan, et al., Nat. Mater., 2008, 7, 790) by the addition of eight chlorine atoms to C60 (C2v), which is associated with a Stone–Wales transformation of C60 (Ih). In this work, the first hyperpolarizabilities (βtot) of C60 (C2v) and C60Cl8 (C2v) are investigated. After the Stone–Wales transformation and chlorine addition reaction, the βtot values slightly increase from 0 for C60 (Ih) to 60 au for C60 (C2v) and 502 au for C60Cl8 (C2v), respectively. To further enhance the first hyperpolarizability, the endohedral fullerene derivative, Li@C60Cl8, formed by encapsulating a lithium (Li) atom inside the C60Cl8, has been designed. Interestingly, the electron transfer between Li and C60Cl8 leads to an extremely large βtot value of 25 569 au, which is considerably larger (51 times) than the 502 au of C60Cl8. It shows that the encapsulated Li effect plays an important role in enhancing the first hyperpolarizability, so the Li@C60Cl8 can be considered as a candidate for high-performance nonlinear optical materials.