Ground state properties and spectral properties of borospherene B40 under different external electric fields

Abstract

The recent discovery of borospherene B40 marks the onset of a new class of all-boron fullerenes. External electric field can influence the structure and property of molecule. It is necessary to understand the electrostatic field effect in the borospherene B40. In this work, density functional theory method at the PBE0 level with the 6-31G* basis set is used to investigate the ground state structures, mulliken atomic charges, the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy levels, the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels, energy gaps, electric dipole moments, infrared spectra and Raman spectra of borospherene B40 under the external electric field within the range of values F=0-0.06 a.u.. The electronic spectra (the first 18 excited states contain excited energies, excited wavelengths and oscillator strengths) of borospherene B40 are calculated by the time-dependent density functional theory method (TD-PBE0) with the 6-31G* basis set under the same external electric field. The results show that borospherene B40 can be elongated in the direction of electric field and B40 molecule is polarized under the external electric field. Meanwhile, the addition of external electric field results in lower symmetry (C2v), however, electronic state of borospherene B40 is not changed under the external electric field. Moreover, the calculated results show that the electric dipole moment is proved to be increasing with the increase of the external field intensity, but the total energy and energy gap are proved to decrease with the increase of external field intensity. The addition of external electric field can modify the infrared and Raman spectra, such as the shift of vibrational frequency and the strengthening of infrared and Raman peaks. Furthermore, the calculated results indicate that the external electric field has a significant effect on the electronic spectrum of borospherene B40. The increase of the electric field intensity can lead to the redshift of electronic spectrum. With the change of the electric field intensity, the strongest excited state (with the biggest oscillator strength) can become very weak (with the small oscillator strength) or optically inactive (with the oscillator strength of zero). Meanwhile, the weak excited state can become the strongest excited state by the external field. The ground state properties and spectral properties of borospherene B40 can be modified by the external electric field. Our findings can provide theoretical guidance for the application of borospherene B40 in the future.