Oxidation-State Constrained Density Functional Theory for the Study of Electron-Transfer Reactions.

Abstract

We propose a new constrained density functional theory (CDFT) approach which directly controls the oxidation state of the target atoms. In this new approach called oxidation-state constrained density functional theory (OS-CDFT), the eigenvalues of the occupation matrix obtained from projecting the Kohn-Sham wave functions onto the valence orbitals are constrained to obtain the desired oxidation states. This approach is particularly useful to study electron transfer problems in transition metal-containing systems due to the multivalent nature of the transition metal ions. The calculation of the forces on the ions and of the coupling constant was implemented under the OS-CDFT scheme to allow efficient and accurate study of electron transfer reactions. We demonstrated the application of this method in the study of different electron transfer reactions including the aqueous ferrous-ferric self-exchange reaction, polaron hopping in the TiO2 anatase and bismuth vanadate, and photoexcited electron transfer in the sapphire.