Scalable Ab Initio Electronic Structure Methods with Near Chemical Accuracy for Main Group Chemistry.

This study evaluates the precision of widely recognized quantum chemical methodologies, CCSD(T), DLPNO-CCSD(T), and localized ph-AFQMC, for determining the thermochemistry of main group elements. DLPNO-CCSD(T) and localized ph-AFQMC, which offer greater scalability compared to canonical CCSD(T), have emerged over the past decade as pivotal in producing precise benchmark chemical data. Our investigation includes closed-shell, neutral molecules, focusing on their heat of formation and atomization energy sourced from four specific small molecule data sets. First, we selected molecules from the G2 and G3 data sets, noted for their reliable experimental heat of formation data. Additionally, we incorporate molecules from the W4-11 and W4-17 sets, which provide high-level theoretical reference values for atomization energy at 0 K. Our findings reveal that both DLPNO-CCSD(T) and ph-AFQMC methods are capable of achieving a root-mean-square deviation of less than 1 kcal/mol across the combined data set, aligning with the threshold for chemical accuracy. Moreover, we make efforts to confine the maximum deviations within 2 kcal/mol, a degree of precision that significantly broadens the applicability of these methods in fields such as biology and materials science.

Solvent-Dependent Folding Behavior of a Helix-Forming Aryl-Triazole Foldamer.

Aromatic foldamers make up a novel class of bioinspired molecules that display helical conformations and have functions that rely on control over their coil-helix folding preferences. While the folding has been extensively examined by experiment, it has rarely been paired with the types of atomic level insights offered by theory. We present the results of all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to examine the role of solvent polarity on driving the helical folding behavior of the aryl-triazole foldamer. The temperature-dependent enhanced sampling technique, replica-exchange MD simulations, was employed to understand the folding phenomena. The simulation results show that in a low polarity solvent (dichloromethane), the foldamer prefers to stay in the unfolded state. The unfolded state has four dipolar triazoles (5 D) in their favored all-anti geometries and favoring anti-parallel geometries. However, an increase in solvent polarity using acetonitrile resulted in solvophobic collapse, yielding the helically folded form as the predominant state. The folded helix has an all-syn geometry, with triazoles in parallel arrangements. Intermediate conformations with a mixture of syn and anti arrangements of the triazoles are of lower abundance in both the DCM and MeCN solvents. The chiral handedness of the helix observed experimentally is assigned as left-handed by correlation with computed electronic circular dichroism spectra using time-dependent density functional theory.

Accurate Quantum Chemical Reaction Energies for Lithium-Mediated Electrolyte Decomposition and Evaluation of Density Functional Approximations.

An important concern related to the performance of Li-ion batteries is the formation of a solid electrolyte interphase on the surface of the anode. This film is formed from the decomposition of electrolytes and can have important effects on the stability and performance. Here, we evaluate the decomposition pathway of ethylene carbonate and related organic electrolyte molecules using a series of density functional approximations and correlated wave function (WF) methods, including the coupled-cluster theory with single, double, and perturbative triple excitations [CCSD(T)] and auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo (AFQMC). We find that the transition state barrier associated with ring opening varies widely across different functionals, ranging from 3.01 to 17.15 kcal/mol, which can be compared to the value of 12.84 kcal/mol predicted by CCSD(T). This large variation underscores the importance of benchmarking against accurate WF methods. A performance comparison of all of the density functionals used in this study reveals that the M06-2X-D3 (a meta-hybrid GGA), CAM-B3LYP-D3 (a range-separated hybrid), and B2GP-PLYP-D3 (a double hybrid) perform the best, with average errors of about 1.50-1.60 kcal/mol compared to CCSD(T). We also compared the performance of the WF methods that are more scalable than CCSD(T), finding that DLPNO-CCSD(T) and phaseless AFQMC with a DFT trial wave function exhibit average errors of 1.38 and 1.74 kcal/mol, respectively.

Investigating the Stacking Interactions Responsible for Driving 3D Self-Association of Tricarb Macrocycles.

We have investigated the noncovalent forces that play a crucial role in the three-dimensional (3D) self-association of the tricarb macrocycle (composed of alternating triazoles and carbazoles) to understand the multilayer stacks observed through electron microscopy. To explore this idea quantitatively, we have investigated a stacked dimer model of tricarb, where we consider homochiral as well as heterochiral forms of the dimer. We have computed the rotational potential energy surface of the dimer by conducting an angle-dependent scan between the two macrocycles using different levels of theory including the RI-MP2 ab initio method. We observe that dimers oriented at an angle of 60° exhibit the highest stability, while a secondary minimum is observed at an angle of 30°. While density functional theory (DFT) describes the behavior of both minima very close to that obtained with RI-MP2, semiempirical and MM models appear to obtain only a shoulder instead of the second minimum. To further understand the underlying interactions responsible for stabilizing the self-assembly of the macrocycles, we employed energy decomposition analysis (EDA) using SAPT0. This quantitative assessment allowed us to identify the major contributing noncovalent interactions, including electrostatic, exchange-repulsion, dispersion, and induction. Finally, we expanded our study to evaluate the accuracy of the MIM (molecules-in-molecules) fragmentation methodology in capturing the crucial π-stacking interactions. Our benchmarking results using the MIM method accurately replicated the angle-dependent PES results. This shows the efficacy of MIM in predicting the noncovalent interactions responsible for the construction of 3D and other higher-order nanoarchitectures for tricarb and related compounds.

Approaching Coupled Cluster Accuracy with Density Functional Theory Using the Generalized Connectivity-Based Hierarchy.

This Perspective reviews connectivity-based hierarchy (CBH), a systematic hierarchy of error-cancellation schemes developed in our group with the goal of achieving chemical accuracy using inexpensive computational techniques ("coupled cluster accuracy with DFT"). The hierarchy is a generalization of Pople's isodesmic bond separation scheme that is based only on the structure and connectivity and is applicable to any organic and biomolecule consisting of covalent bonds. It is formulated as a series of rungs involving increasing levels of error cancellation on progressively larger fragments of the parent molecule. The method and our implementation are discussed briefly. Examples are given for the applications of CBH involving (1) energies of complex organic rearrangement reactions, (2) bond energies of biofuel molecules, (3) redox potentials in solution, (4) pKa predictions in the aqueous medium, and (5) theoretical thermochemistry combining CBH with machine learning. They clearly show that near-chemical accuracy (1-2 kcal/mol) is achieved for a variety of applications with DFT methods irrespective of the underlying density functional used. They demonstrate conclusively that seemingly disparate results, often seen with different density functionals in many chemical applications, are due to an accumulation of systematic errors in the smaller local molecular fragments that can be easily corrected with higher-level calculations on those small units. This enables the method to achieve the accuracy of the high level of theory (e.g., coupled cluster) while the cost remains that of DFT. The advantages and limitations of the method are discussed along with areas of ongoing developments.

Revealing the Hidden Costs of Organization in Host-Guest Chemistry Using Chloride-Binding Foldamers and Their Solvent Dependence.

Preorganization is a key concept in supramolecular chemistry. Preorganized receptors enhance binding by minimizing the organization costs associated with adopting the conformation needed to orient the binding sites toward the guest. Conversely, poorly organized receptors show affinities below what is possible based on the potential of their specific binding interactions. Despite the fact that the organization energy is paid each time like a tax, its value has never been measured directly, though many compounds have been developed to measure its effects. We present a method to quantify the hidden costs of receptor organization by independently measuring the contribution it makes to chloride complexation by a flexible foldameric receptor. This method uses folding energy to approximate organization energy and relies on measurement of the coil-helix equilibrium as a function of solvent. We also rely on the finding, established with rigid receptors, that affinity is inversely related to the solvent dielectric and expect the same for the foldamer's helically organized state. Increasing solvent polarity across nine dichloromethane-acetonitrile mixtures we see an unusual V-shape in affinity (decrease then increase). Quantitatively, this shape arises from weakened hydrogen-bonding interactions with solvent polarity followed by solvent-driven folding into an organized helix. We confirm that dielectric screening impacts the stability of host-guest complexes of flexible foldamers just like rigid receptors. These results experimentally verify the canonical model of binding (affinity depends on the sum of organization and noncovalent interactions). The picture of how solvent impacts complex stability and conformational organization thereby helps lay the groundwork for de novo receptor design.

Eliminating Systematic Errors in DFT via Connectivity-Based Hierarchy: Accurate Bond Dissociation Energies of Biodiesel Methyl Esters.

We present a computational study focusing on the determination of accurate bond dissociation energies (BDEs) involved in the combustion of biodiesel methyl esters. We have adapted our previously developed efficient error-cancellation protocols, based on the systematic "connectivity-based hierarchy" (CBH), to derive accurate BDEs of biodiesel molecules at a modest computational cost. Using DFT energies on the full biodiesel molecule in conjunction with accurate G4 energies on the small fragments involved in the CBH reaction schemes, systematic errors in the DFT methods can be cancelled efficiently. Herein, we apply our G4-corrected ΔCBH-2 and ΔCBH-3 schemes in conjunction with several popular DFT methods to determine accurate bond dissociation energies of different C-C, C-H, and C-O bonds in biodiesel surrogate molecules. We first evaluate the performance of different DFT methods using a test set of 21 reactions involving various bond dissociations in small to medium biodiesel surrogates (up to methyl decanoate, a C10-methyl ester) by calibration against accurate values calculated with multireference methods (MRACPF2), reported by Carter and co-workers. The CBH-2 corrections for all tested dispersion-corrected functionals yield mean absolute deviations (MADs) in a narrow range of 1.3-1.5 kcal/mol, the best performance being obtained for B97-D3 and ωB97X-D functionals (MAD = 1.3 kcal/mol). Further, significant improvement yielding a MAD of only 0.9 kcal/mol is obtained using the G4-corrected CBH-3 scheme. Finally, the protocol has been applied to derive accurate BDEs of eight different bonds in the larger biodiesel molecule, methyl linolenate, yielding a MAD of only 1.13 kcal/mol using the ΔCBH-3 error correction scheme. The results suggest that our protocol in conjunction with different DFT methods should be broadly applicable to yield accurate BDEs for a variety of large biodiesel molecules.

Allosteric Control of Photofoldamers for Selecting between Anion Regulation and Double-to-Single Helix Switching.

Allosteric regulation of protein structure and function is a hallmark of biology. The structures of protein-like abiological foldamers have been subject to allosteric control, however, regulation of their function is rare. We report this behavior using a photoactive foldamer following the discovery that small and large anions select between single and double helical structures, respectively. Correspondingly, these anions activate different functions in the photofoldamer; small anions turn on photoregulation of anion concentrations while large anions turn on chiroptical switching of quaternary structure. For this demonstration, we used an aryl-triazole based photofoldamer in which the light-driven trans-cis isomerization of azobenzenes alters intrastrand π-π contacts while the triazoles define the allosteric anion-binding site. Binding to 11 anions of increasing size was quantified (Cl-, Br-, NO2-, I-, NO3-, SCN-, BF4-, ClO4-, ReO4-, PF6-, SbF6-). Contrary to expectations that single helices will expand to accommodate larger and larger guests, this behavior only occurs for smaller anions (Cl- to NO3-; <45 Å3) beyond which the larger anions form double helices (SCN- to SbF6-; >45 Å3). With small anions, the single helix regulates anion concentrations when the azobenzenes are photoswitched. The binding of large anions favors a chiral double helix and activates light-driven switching into racemic single helices thereby modulating the quaternary structure and chiroptical activity. This work shows how complex multifunctional outcomes emerge when allosteric changes in structure are expressed in intrinsically functional foldamers.

Fragment-Based Approaches for Supramolecular Interaction Energies: Applications to Foldamers and Their Complexes with Anions.

We explore the application of our multilayer Molecules-in-Molecules (MIM) fragment-based method for the study of the energies in supramolecular systems, viz. foldamers and their anion bound complexes. The performance of five different density functional theory (DFT) methods in conjunction with the fragmentation-based method is evaluated against the unfragmented energies for a test set of 5 foldamers (82 to 170 atoms). A systematic protocol has been developed to account for the π···π interactions in such systems in addition to the traditional fragmentation of the system along the backbone comprised of covalently bonded dimer (or trimer) units. We find a significant improvement in the performance of the method on going from a one-layer MIM1 model (errors >10 kcal/mol) to a two-layer MIM2 model (errors 0-2 kcal/mol), due to the incorporation of long-range interactions in the latter approach. Furthermore, we extend the applicability of MIM2 models to determine accurate binding energies of macromolecular receptor-anion complexes. For three different anion bound macrocycles, our MIM2 protocol provides total energies within 1.5 kcal/mol of the unfragmented energies for most of the DFT methods. The corresponding anion binding energies are calculated within 0.5 kcal/mol of the unfragmented binding energies due to systematic error cancellation between the macrocycle and the macrocycle-anion complex. Finally, we have calibrated the absolute accuracy in the calculated binding energies by comparison with unfragmented DLPNO-CCSD(T) calculations on three macromolecule-chloride anion complexes. The most accurate results are obtained using a MIM2 model using DLPNO-CCSD(T) calculations on trimer units as the high level and DFT-D3 (e.g., M06-2X-D3) as the low level of theory, yielding sub kcal/mol errors in the anion binding energies. Our protocol can be an accurate method to calculate anion binding energies for very large supramolecular systems.

Amphiphile self-assembly dynamics at the solution-solid interface reveal asymmetry in head/tail desorption.

Amphiphilic alkoxybenzonitriles (ABNs) of varying chain length are studied at the solution/graphite interface to analyze dynamics of assembly. Competitive self-assembly between ABNs and alkanoic acid solvent is shown by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to be controlled by concentration and molecular size. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations reveal key roles of the sub-nanosecond fundamental steps of desorption, adsorption, and on-surface motion. We discovered asymmetry in desorption-adsorption steps. Desorption starting from alkyl chain detachment from the surface is favored due to dynamic occlusion by neighbouring chains. Even though the nitrile head has a strong solvent affinity, it more frequently re-adsorbs following a detachment event.

Host-Host Interactions Control Self-assembly and Switching of Triple and Double Decker Stacks of Tricarbazole Macrocycles Co-assembled with anti-Electrostatic Bisulfate Dimers.

Hierarchical assembly provides a route to complex architectures when using building blocks with strong and structurally well-defined recognition elements. These rules are traditionally expressed using cationic templates with reliable metal-ligand bonding but use of anions is rare on account of weak anion-host contacts. We investigate an approach that relies on host-host interactions to fortify assemblies formed between bisulfate anion dimers, [HSO4⋅⋅⋅HSO4]2- , and shape-persistent macrocycles called tricarbazole triazolophanes. These macrocycles have significant self-association. In chloroform, they form high fidelity, triple-decker stacks with bisulfate dimers. The strength of host-host interactions allows for preferential formation of the 3:2 tricarb:bisulfate architecture over an ion-paired architecture seen with analogous macrocycles with much weaker self-association. Solvent was expected and found to tune host-host contacts enabling formation of a 2:2 complex and solvent-driven switching between triple- and double-stacked structures. Crystallography of the 2:2:2 complex supports the idea that significant host-host interactions with tricarb arises from dipole-stabilized π-stacking. Computational studies were also conducted further highlighting the importance of host-host interactions in stacked complexes of tricarb. These findings unambiguously verify the importance of host-host interactions in the assembly and stability of discrete, responsive anion-templated architectures.