One lithium atom binding with P-nitroaniline: lithium salts or lithium electrides?

Recently, both lithium (Li) salts and Li electrides formed by one Li atom interacting with ligand complexes, have been widely investigated. An interesting question emerges: is the configuration of one Li atom interacting with ligand complexes a Li salt or electride? In the present work, four configurations n-Li-PNA (n = 1-4) were obtained by binding one Li atom with the p-nitroaniline (PNA) at different positions to explore this question. The results show that 1-Li-PNA and 2-Li-PNA are typical Li salts, and 4-Li-PNA is a typical Li electride. Significantly, 3-Li-PNA possesses both characteristics of Li salt and electride. At the same time, 3-Li-PNA has the largest first hyperpolarizability (2.9 × 10(6) au) by ROMP2 method compared with the other three configurations. Furthermore, the first hyperpolarizability of 3-Li-PNA is about 2600 times larger than that of PNA. Further, the vertical ionization potential (VIP) and interaction energy (E int) indicate that 3-Li-PNA is less stable than 1-Li-PNA and 2-Li-PNA (Li salts), but is more stable than 4-Li-PNA (Li electrides).

Modulating the charge transfer of D-S-A molecules: structures and NLO properties.

Very recently, the investigation of an Li atom doped effect on the "through-space" electronic interaction (S) of a donor-S-acceptor (D-S-A, 1) shows that the Li-doping effect can modulate the first hyperpolarizability of 1 ( Dyes Pigm. 2014 , 106 , 7 - 13 ). Can we further enhance the first hyperpolarizability (ßtot) of 1 by modulating the charge transfer of D-S-A molecules? The present work indicates that the ßtot value can be successfully modulated by replacing the sp(2)-hybridized CH═CH moiety connected with substituted para-cyclophane (PCP). On the other hand, the NO2 contributes more than NH2 to the ßtot value. The results of time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) provide a good explanation for the variation in the ßtot value. Interestingly, the ßtot value of 3 (4.09 × 10(3) au) is larger than 1.52 × 10(3) au of 4, while the difference between the dipole moments (Δµ) of the ground state and the crucial excited state of 3 (2.93 D) is smaller than that of 4 (7.79 D). Further, the charge-transfer excitation length (D(CT)) of 3 (1.41 Å) is smaller than that of 4 (2.89 Å). Therefore, D(CT) is the major factor in determining the Δµ value.

Superatoms (Li3O and BeF3) induce phenalenyl radical π-dimer: fascinating interlayer charge-transfer and large NLO responses.

Recently, the well-known phenalenyl radical π-dimer with its fascinating 2-electron/12-center (2e/12c) bond has attracted our attention. In this work, we designed two molecules, Li3OC13H9 () and BeF3C13H9 (). Interestingly, owing to the inductive effect of superatoms, an electron is transferred from Li3O to phenalenyl in , while an electron is transferred from phenalenyl to BeF3 in . Further, we employed and as building blocks to assemble two novel molecules with 2e/12c bonds: Li3O(C13H9)2BeF3 () and Li3O(C13H9)2BeF3 (). Remarkably, and with novel 2e/12c bonds exhibit a dramatic interlayer charge-transfer character, which results in a significant difference of dipole moments (Δµ: 2.6804 for and 3.8019 Debye for ) between the ground state and the crucial excited state. As a result, the static first hyperpolarizabilities (ß0: 5154 for and 12 500 au for ) are considerably larger than the values of 347 for and 328 au for . It is our expectation that the results of the present work might provide beneficial information for further theoretical and experimental studies on the fascinating properties of molecules with interlayer charge-transfer character.

Isomeric thiophene-fused benzocarborane molecules--different lithium doping effect on the nonlinear optical property.

Recently, two isomeric thiophene-fused benzocarborane derivatives Tb1 and Tb2 with different locations of sulfur atoms, labeled as 1, 4 and 6, 9 of the thiophene were synthesized by Morisaki (Chem.-Eur. J., 2012, 18, 11251-11257) and Barrere (Macromolecules, 2009, 42, 2981-2987), respectively. In the present work, natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis shows that after doping one lithium atom into the isomeric structures Tb1 and Tb2, the electrons transfer to different regions in Tb1 and Tb2. For Tb1-Li, the transferred electrons mainly locate at S1, C2, C3, and S4, but for Tb2-Li, the transferred electrons mainly locate at C2, C3, C7, and C8. Significantly, the charge distribution is a crucial factor influencing the static first hyperpolarizabilities for Tb1-Li and Tb2-Li. Furthermore, the ßtot value of Tb1-Li is 6222 au, which is about 160 times larger than that of Tb1 (39 au). However, the ßtot value of Tb2-Li (498 au) is only about 5 times larger than that of the corresponding Tb2 (91 au). It is our expectation that this work could provide useful information for the development of nonlinear optical materials based on carboranes.

The symmetric and asymmetric thiophene-fused benzocarborane: structures and first hyperpolarizabilities.

The unusual properties of thiophene-fused benzocarborane have attracted a lot of interest in recent years due to their wide applications in photonics and optoelectronics. In the present work, nine molecules [M, N] (M, N are labeled as the number of thiophene rings on the left and right part, respectively) on the basis of thiophene-fused benzocarborane were considered. The first hyperpolarizability (ß tot) values of three synthesized symmetric molecules [1, 1], [2, 2], [3, 3] (M=N, Chem. Eur. J 2012. 18, 11251-11257) and six asymmetric molecules [1, 2], [1, 3], [1, 4], [1, 5], [2, 3], [2, 4] (M≠N) were investigated, ß tot values of symmetric molecules show the order: 39 of [1, 1]< 800 of [2, 2]< 903 au of [3, 3], which indicate that ß tot value increases with increasing the number of thiophene ring for symmetric molecules. The other order of ß tot values can be observed: 39 of [1, 1]< 800 of [1, 2]< 3553 of [1, 3]< 7998 of [1, 4]< 13049 au of [1, 5] and 66 of [2, 2]< 3240 of [2, 3]< 8029 au of [2, 4]. Interestingly, when sum of M and N is constant, larger difference between M and N is, larger ß tot value is: 800 au of [2, 2]< 3553 au of [1, 3]; 3240 au of [2, 3] < 7998 au of [1, 4]; 903 au of [3, 3]< 8029 au of [2, 4]< 13049 au of [1, 5]. Significantly, [1, 5] with six thiophene rings has the largest ß tot value (13049 au) which is greatly larger than 903 au of [3, 3] with six thiophene rings. Furthermore, the natural bond orbital (NBO) charge populations, the nucleus-independent chemical shift (NICS), the bond length alternation (BLA) of the nine molecules and crucial transition were studied in our work. We hope that the present work will be beneficial for future theoretical and experimental studies on the electro-optical properties of thiophene-fused benzocarborane molecules.

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

In this work, we add different strength of external electric field (E(ext)) along molecule axis (Z-axis) to investigate the electric field induced effect on HArF structure. The H-Ar bond is the shortest at E(ext) = -189 × 10(-4) and the Ar-F bond show shortest value at E(ext) = 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 from 0.79 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 (ß(tot)) 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.

Effect of dehydrogenation/hydrogenation on the linear and nonlinear optical properties of Li@porphyrins.

In the present work, Li@porphyrins and their derivatives were designed in order to explore the effect of dehydrogenation/hydrogenation on linear and nonlinear optical properties. Their stable structures were obtained by the M06-2X method. Moreover, the M06-2X method showed that dehydrogenation/hydrogenation has greatly influences polarizabilities (α0 values) and hyperpolarizabilities (ß(tot) and γ(tot) values): α0 values ranged from 331 to 389 au, ß(tot) values from 0 to 2465 au, and γ(tot) values from -21.2 × 104 to 21.4 × 104 au. This new knowledge of the effect of dehydrogenation/hydrogenation on nonlinear optical properties may prove beneficial to the design and development of high-performance porphyrin materials.