Molecular Polarizability Research Articles

Nonlinear optical properties of novel crystalline complexes of cobalt (II) and nickel (II) with 4-bromo-3-methyl-1H-pyrazole: combined experimental and computational study

Two new isostructural cobalt [Co(II)(C4H5BrN2)4(Cl)2], I and nickel [Ni(II)(C4H5BrN2)4(Cl)2], II complexes were synthesized for linear and nonlinear optical (NLO) responses using the finite field method. The synthesized complexes were characterized using elemental analysis, infrared and H-NMR spectroscopy, TG/DSC analysis, and X-ray crystallography. The crystal analysis indicates that both complexes I and II are mononuclear, and crystallize in the monoclinic space group P21/c. The metal ion in each complex is six coordinated with four nitrogen atoms (from 4-bromo-3-methyl-1H-pyrazole ligand) and two chloride ligands adopting octahedral coordination geometry. Furthermore, the computational predictions for molecular geometries and average third-order nonlinear polarizabilities of I and II are made in current study. The average theoretically predicted third-order nonlinear polarizabilities 〈γ〉 of I and II are 95.50 × 10−36 and 91.25 × 10−36 esu, respectively. The 〈γ〉 amplitudes values of complexes I and II are ∼5.26 and ∼5.0 times greater than the prototype NLO molecule of para-nitroaniline (p-NA) at same level of theory, which indicates their decent potential as efficient NLO materials.

Synthesis and properties of biphenyl liquid crystal diluters terminated by 2,2-difluorovinyloxyl for high birefringence liquid crystals

ABSTRACT A series of liquid crystal (LC) diluters containing a rigid biphenyl core with a lateral fluorine substituent, a 2,2-difluorovinyloxyl terminal group and a flexible n-alkyl chain were designed and synthesised through classical organic synthetic reactions. Their chemical structures were characterised and confirmed by traditional methods. Meanwhile, the effects of alkyl-chain length, terminal group and lateral fluorine substituent on the melting point (T m), birefringence (Δn), dielectric anisotropy (Δε) and rotational viscosity (γ 1) of LC diluters were investigated. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were employed to obtain the molecular polarisability, dipole moment, frontier orbitals, biphenyl dihedral angle and aspect ratio. Furthermore, their comprehensive properties in low-Δn LC mixture 002 and high-Δn LC mixture P01-F were further evaluated, and it was found that the 2,2-difluorovinyloxyl LC diluter 3FV have a significant advantage in reducing the T m and γ 1 of LC mixtures, and increasing the values of Δn and Δε. The research results provide technical support and theoretical guidance for the molecular design of new LC diluters and the development of fast response liquid crystals.

Accurate and Efficient Prediction of Post-Hartree-Fock Polarizabilities of Condensed-Phase Systems.

To accurately and efficiently predict the molecular response properties (such as polarizability) at post-Hartree-Fock levels for condensed-phase systems under periodic boundary conditions (PBC) is still an unaccomplished and ongoing task. We demonstrate that static isotropic polarizabilities can be cost-effectively predicted at post-Hartree-Fock levels by combining the linear-scaling generalized energy-based fragmentation (GEBF) and information-theoretic approach (ITA) quantities. In PBC-GEBF, the total molecular polarizability of an extended system is obtained as a linear combination of the corresponding quantities of a series of small embedded subsystems of several monomers. Here, we show that in the PBC-GEBF-ITA framework, one can obtain the molecular polarizabilities and establish linear relations to ITA quantities. Once these relations are established for smaller subsystems, one can predict the polarizabilities of larger subsystems directly from the molecular wavefunction (or electron density) via ITA quantities. Alternatively, one can determine the total molecular polarizability via a linear combination equation in PBC-GEBF. We have corroborated that this newly proposed PBC-GEBF-ITA protocol is much more efficient than the original PBC-GEBF approach but is not much less accurate and that this conclusion holds for both many-body perturbation theory and the coupled cluster calculations. Good efficiency and transferability of the PBC-GEBF-ITA protocol are demonstrated for periodic systems with several hundred atoms in a unit cell.

The significance of fluctuating charges for molecular polarizability and dispersion coefficients.

The influence of fluctuating charges or charge flow on the dynamic linear response properties of isolated molecules from the TS42 database is evaluated, with particular emphasis on dipole polarizability and C6 dispersion coefficients. Two new descriptors are defined to quantify the charge-flow contribution to response properties, making use of the recoupled dipole polarizability to separate isotropic and anisotropic components. Molecular polarizabilities are calculated using the "frequency-dependent atom-condensed Kohn-Sham density functional theory approximated to second order," i.e., the ACKS2ω model. With ACKS2ω, the charge-flow contribution can be constructed in two conceptually distinct ways that appear to yield compatible results. The charge-flow contribution is significantly affected by molecular geometry and the presence of polarizable bonds, in line with previous studies. We show that the charge-flow contribution qualitatively reproduces the polarizability anisotropy. The contribution to the anisotropic C6 coefficients is less pronounced but cannot be neglected. The effect of fluctuating charges is only negligible for small molecules with at most one non-hydrogen atom. They become important and sometimes dominant for larger molecules or when highly polarizable bonds are present, such as conjugated, double, or triple bonds. Charge flow contributions cannot be explained in terms of individual atomic properties because they are affected by non-local features such as chemical bonding and geometry. Therefore, polarizable force fields and dispersion models can benefit from the explicit modeling of charge flow.

Synthesis and performance evaluation of fluorinated biphenyl diluters for high birefringence liquid crystals

ABSTRACT Liquid crystal (LC) mixtures with high birefringence (∆n) and low rotational viscosity play an essential role for fast-response LC devices. However, high birefringence and low rotational viscosity are a pair of contradictory performance parameters. In this work, two high-∆n LC diluters are proposed to achieve a fine balance between them. These two terminal olefin diluters containing a rigid biphenyl core with a lateral fluorine substituent, a buty-3-enyl terminal group and a flexible n-alkyl chain were designed and synthesised through classical organic synthetic reactions. Meanwhile, their comprehensive properties were further evaluated in a LC mixture P02-F containing fluoro-tolane and a LC mixture P12-ISO containing isothiocyano-tolane. The results show that the biphenyl diluters 2BBF2V and 3BFB2V could effectively decrease the T m of LC mixture P12-ISO to below −25°C, while maintain high ∆n and large Δε, which are suitable for the high-∆n LC mixtures containing isothiocyano-tolane. Furthermore, DFT calculations of molecular conformation and polarisability components were utilised to correlate the experimental findings.

Novel 1,3‐diphenyl‐4‐(N,N‐dimethylimido dicarbonimidic diamide azo)‐5‐pyrazolone and its chelates with manganese, nickel, copper, and zinc divalent metal ions as an antibacterial activity supported by molecular docking studies: Design, synthesis, DFT, and TD‐DFT/PCM calculations

A novel 1,3‐diphenyl‐4‐(N,N‐dimethylimidodicarbonimidic diamide azo)‐5‐pyrazolone as a ligand, simplified as DNP, and its chelates were prepared. Characterization of the structures was performed based on several analytical and spectroscopic techniques. To support these studies, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were carried out by using the B3LYP level, B3LYP/6‐311G** level for the free ligand, and B3LYP/6‐311G**‐LANL2DZ functional level for the solid chelates. The acquired results indicated that DFT calculations generally give compatible results with the experimental ones. Hyper conjugative interactions, molecular stability, bond strength, and intramolecular charge transfer were examined by applying natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis. Nonlinear optical properties of the obtained compounds were investigated by determining molecular polarizability (α), and hyperpolarizability (β) parameters provided a hint for the synthesized compounds' intriguing optical characteristics. The electronic structure of the ligand and its complexes were predicted using the time‐dependent DFT (TD‐DFT) method with a polarizable continuum model (PCM) exploiting the B3LYP approach combined with a 6‐31G(d,p) basis set. The prepared compounds' antibacterial activity was experimentally verified utilizing the agar well diffusion method versus selected G + and G‐ bacteria. The molecular docking mechanism between the bacterially resistant chelates and their inhibited bacteria protein pocket receptors was carried out to determine the modes that these compounds bind to the protein's active sites.

QSPR models for solvation enthalpy based on quantum chemical descriptors

After generation of quantum chemical descriptors calculated with the GEDIIS/GDIIS optimizer in Gaussian 09, five quantum chemical descriptors related to molecular polarizability, atomic charges, charge product between solvent and solute, were selected as the optimal descriptor subset for developing quantitative structure–property relationship (QSPR) models of 7215 enthalpies of solvation and vaporization. The random forest (RF) algorithm was used to develop the RF Model Ⅰ whose dataset division for training and testing was mainly based on the solvent types. The RF Model Ⅰ has the number (n) of enthalpies of solvation and vaporization being 3633, coefficient of determination R2 being 0.986, root mean square (rms) error being 2.598 kJ/mol for the training set and n = 3582, R2 = 0.933, rms = 5.501 kJ/mol for the test set. The RF Model Ⅵ based on Kennard-Stone algorithm for dataset selection possesses n = 4810, R2 = 0.987, rms = 2.550 kJ/mol (training set), n = 2405, R2 = 0.940, rms = 4.659 kJ/mol (test set). These statistical results are very accurate, compared with other QSPR models on enthalpies of solvation reported in the literature. Furthermore, the RF Model Ⅰ and Ⅵ based on large data sets can be used for predicting both of the solvation enthalpies and vaporization enthalpies.

Molecular dynamics simulation to reveal the transport mechanism of LiPF6 in ethylene carbonate + dimethylcarbonate binary solvent.

This paper presents the molecular dynamics simulation of 1 molkg-1 LiPF6 in a binary solvent of ethylene carbonate (EC) and dimethylcarbonate, which is a representative electrolyte solution for lithium-ion batteries. The simulation successfully reproduced the diffusion coefficient, ionic conductivity, and shear viscosity as functions of EC content at 300K, which had been experimentally determined in our previous study. The Yukawa potential was adopted to model intercharge interactions to reduce computational costs, which consequently allowed us to precisely calculate the conductivity and viscosity by directly integrating time-correlation functions without explicitly modeling the molecular polarization. Breaking down microscopic current correlation functions into components revealed that, whereas the cation-anion attractive interaction dominantly impedes the conduction when the EC content is low, it is the cation-cation and anion-anion repulsive interactions that reduce the conductivity at a high EC content. An analysis of the pressure correlations revealed that all components positively contribute to the viscosity in the binary solvent without the electrolyte. On the other hand, negative terms are observed in five out of six cross correlations in the presence of the electrolyte, implying that these correlations negatively contribute to the shear stress and entropy production, both of which are net positive.

Recent Developments in the Methods and Applications of Electrostatic Theory.

ConspectusThe review improves our understanding of how electrostatic interactions in the electrolyte, gas phase, and on surfaces can drive the fragmentation and assembly of particles. This is achieved through the overview of our advanced theoretical and computational modeling toolbox suitable for interpretation of experimental observations and discovery of novel, tunable assemblies and architectures. In the past decade, we have produced a significant, fundamental body of work on the development of comprehensive theories based on a rigorous mathematical foundation. These solutions are capable of accurate predictions of electrostatic interactions between dielectric particles of arbitrary size, anisotropy, composition, and charge, interacting in solvents, ionized medium, and on surfaces. We have applied the developed electrostatic approaches to describe physical and chemical phenomena in dusty plasma and planetary environments, in Coulomb fission and electrospray ionization processes, and in soft matter, including a counterintuitive but widespread attraction between like-charged particles.Despite its long history, the search for accurate methods to provide a deeper understanding of electrostatic interactions remains a subject of significant interest, as manifested by a constant stream of theoretical and experimental publications. While major international effort in this area has focused predominantly on the computational modeling of biocatalytic and biochemical performance, we have expanded the boundaries of accuracy, generality, and applicability of underlying theories. Simple solvation models, often used in calculating the electrostatic component of molecular solvation energy and polarization effects of solvent, rarely go beyond the induced dipole approximation because of computational costs. These approximations are generally adequate at larger separation distances; however, as particles approach the touching point, more advanced charged-induced multipolar descriptions of the electrostatic interactions are required to describe accurately a collective behavior of polarizable neutral and charged particles. At short separations, the electrostatic forces involving polarizable dielectric and conducting particles become nonadditive which necessitates further developments of quantitatively accurate many-body approaches. In applications, the electrostatic response of materials is commonly controlled by externally applied electric fields, an additional complex many-body problem that we have addressed most recently, both theoretically and numerically.This review reports on the most significant results and conclusions underpinning these recent advances in electrostatic theory and its applications. We first discuss the limitations of classical approaches to interpreting electrostatic phenomena in electrolytes and complex plasmas, leading to an extended analytical theory suitable for accurate estimation of the electrostatic forces in a dilute solution of a strong electrolyte. We then introduce the concept and numerical realization of many-body electrostatic theory focusing on its performance in selected experimental cases. These experiments underpin, among other applications, electrostatic self-assembly of two-dimensional lattice structures, melting of ionic colloidal crystals in an external electric field, and coalescence of charged clusters.

Frequency modes filtering of spectral peaks in optical frequency combs through molecular gas absorption and nonlinear polarization rotation.

Spectral peak generation is a recently reported phenomenon that narrow spectral dips of the optical spectrum turn into sharp peaks as they propagate through nonlinear optical fibers. We demonstrated the nonlinear polarization rotation-based spectral peak mode filtering to increase the signal-to-background ratio (SBR). The spectral peaks with almost constant frequency separation were generated from the femtosecond pulses absorbed by the CH4 gas through the highly nonlinear fiber. The generated spectral peaks were filtered through the polarizing beam splitter by the nonlinear polarization rotation, and the SBR was improved from 9 dB to ∼20 dB. The spectral peak generation phenomenon and the mode filtering were numerically confirmed by solving the coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations. The demonstrated method can generate strong comb modes with wide frequency spacing which are useful for highly sensitive environmental gas sensing spectroscopy. The wavelengths of the spectral peaks are fixed by the absorption spectra of the used gas cells. Therefore, this method can generate high quality spectral peaks of any wavelengths with wide spectral ranges through proper combinations of gas cells.

Influence of the molecular structure of compounds with terminal isothiocyanate group on the induction of the smectic A phase: Part II

ABSTRACT The influence of the structure of compounds having terminal isothiocyanate group in binary mixtures with compounds having terminal alkyl chains on the induction of the smectic A phase is shown. Compounds with a triple bond in the molecular core exhibit a weaker induction of a SmA phase than compounds without it. Molecular lengths, dipole moments and polarisabilities of investigated compounds were calculated. Dielectric spectroscopy studies were done for the chosen system to show that single compounds have the opposite signs of the dielectric anisotropy, while the mixture with maximum temperature of SmA-N phase transition in the nematic phase has a positive dielectric anisotropy. In addition, the dielectric spectroscopy results confirm that the SmA phase is indeed nucleated in the mixture. It has been concluded that there is a competition of different factors, like the shape of molecules, their polarity and polarisability affecting the induction of SmA phase. The shape of a molecule appears to be a crucial factor here since it determines the distance between molecules and influences the contribution of dispersion forces.

De novo unified robust antidiabetic pharmacophores based on biopotent hybrid material: DFT‐assisted design, optimized molecular structure, and understanding mechanism of antidiabetic bioassay

De novo unified robust antidiabetic pharmacophores based on hybrid material were rationally designed, generated, and characterized by spectroscopic evidences and DFT (B3LYP method). These hybrid pharmacophores demonstrated robust antidiabetic activity. Semicarbazones were used for the generation of these hybrid pharmacophores. Semicarbazones of heterocyclic β‐diketones were synthesized by conventional heating as well by green approach (microwave heating). The results obtained from both the approaches have been summarized and compared. Incorporation of dimethyltin(IV) moiety into some semicarbazones of heterocyclic β‐diketones resulted in the formation of biopotent dimethyltin(IV) formulations of the type Me2SnLA where LH2 = , R = −CH3, L(1)H2, Complex 1; R = −CH2CH3, L(2)H2, Complex 2; R = −C6H5, L(3)H2, Complex 3; and R = p‐ClC6H4−, L(4)H2, Complex 4. One representative semicarbazone of heterocyclic β‐diketone (L(4)H2) and its corresponding dimethyltin(IV) complex Me2SnL(4) (Complex 4) were also studied using computational method (DFT‐B3LYP). Optimized molecular structure, bond lengths, bond angles, EHOMO, ELUMO, dipole moment, polarizability, and other global reactivity parameters were calculated. Energy gap (ΔE) of the ligand L(4)H2 and its corresponding complex has also been compared. Optimized molecular structure–antidiabetic activity relationship of two representative ligands and the corresponding complexes has also been studied. The unified hybrid pharmacophores exhibited robust antidiabetic activity.

Characterization of solute-solvent interactions in liquid chromatography systems: A fast method based on Abraham's linear solvation energy relationships

The Abraham's solvation parameter model, based on linear solvation energy relationships (LSER), allows the accurate characterization of the selectivity of chromatographic systems according to solute-solvent interactions (polarizability, dipolarity, hydrogen bonding, and cavity formation). However, this method, based on multilinear regression analysis, requires the measurement of the retention factors of a considerably high number of compounds, turning it into a time-consuming low throughput method. Simpler methods such as Tanaka's scheme are preferred. In the present work, the Abraham's model is revisited to develop a fast and reliable method, similar to the one proposed by Tanaka, for the characterization of columns employed in reversed-phase liquid chromatography and particularly in hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography. For this purpose, pairs of compounds are carefully selected in order to have in common all molecular descriptors except for a specific one (for instance, similar molecular volume, dipolarity, polarizability, and hydrogen bonding basicity features, but different hydrogen bonding acidity). Thus, the selectivity factor of a single pair of test compounds can provide information regarding the extent of the dissimilar solute-solvent interactions and their influence on chromatographic retention. The proposed characterization method includes the determination of the column hold-up volume and Abraham's cavity term by means of the injection of four alkyl ketone homologues. Therefore, five chromatographic runs in a reversed-phase column (four pairs of test solutes and a mixture of four homologues) are enough to characterize the selectivity of a chromatographic system. Tanaka's method is also analyzed from the LSER point of view.

Regulating local molecular polarization of triazine-PDI based polymer for high-efficient photocatalytic coupling of benzylamine

Designing a robust built-in electric field (BF) is a charming strategy for enhancing the separation and transportation of charges via introducing large π-conjugated molecules. However, it has flexible or semiflexible geometries, which significantly disorder the crystalline and deteriorated the built-in electric field. Here, a straightforward tactic for creating a cyano-functionalized smaller D (benzene) - A (triazine) units in PDI- triazine based polymer (PDIMB) to enhance intrinsic molecule dipole has been proposed. The density functional theory (DFT) calculation revealed that the modification of smaller D-A groups destroyed the π-localization of charges, which enhanced the molecular dipole and the BF for promoting the exciton dissociation and charge transfer. Moreover, it not only exposed number of active sites, but also enhanced the interfacial molecular interacting. Therefore, PDIMB-2 exhibits high activity (24.5 mmol g-1 h-1) and selectivity (>99%) for the photooxidation of benzylamine to N-benzylidenebenzylamine under mild conditions. Our work offers a potential and simple synthetic option for enhancing the built-in electric field of polymer.

Solubility study of hydrogen in direct coal liquefaction solvent based on quantitative structure–property relationships model

Direct coal liquefaction (DCL) is an important and effective method of converting coal into high-value-added chemicals and fuel oil. In DCL, heating the direct coal liquefaction solvent (DCLS) from low to high temperature and pre-hydrogenation of the DCLS are critical steps. Therefore, studying the dissolution of hydrogen in DCLS under liquefaction conditions gains importance. However, it is difficult to precisely determine hydrogen solubility only by experiments, especially under the actual DCL conditions. To address this issue, we developed a prediction model of hydrogen solubility in a single solvent based on the machine-learning quantitative structure–property relationship (ML-QSPR) methods. The results showed that the squared correlation coefficient R2 = 0.92 and root mean square error RMSE = 0.095, indicating the model’s good statistical performance. The external validation of the model also reveals excellent accuracy and predictive ability. Molecular polarization (α) is the main factor affecting the dissolution of hydrogen in DCLS. The hydrogen solubility in acyclic alkanes increases with increasing carbon number. Whereas in polycyclic aromatics, it decreases with increasing ring number, and in hydrogenated aromatics, it increases with hydrogenation degree. This work provides a new reference for the selection and proportioning of DCLS, i.e., a solvent with higher hydrogen solubility can be added to provide active hydrogen for the reaction and thus reduce the hydrogen pressure. Besides, it brings important insight into the theoretical significance and practical value of the DCL.

3D Printed Auxetic Structure‐Assisted Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting and Sensing

AbstractThe fast development of wearable electronic systems requires a sustainable energy source that can harvest energy from the ambient environment and does not require frequent charging. Piezoelectric polymer films are a perfect candidate for fabricating piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) to harvest mechanical energy from the environment due to their flexibility, good piezoelectricity, and environmental‐independent stable performance because of their inherent polarization. However, most of their applications are limited to the pressing mode energy harvesting that is based on the 3‐3‐direction piezoelectric effect due to the molecular polarization and nonstretchability. In this work, by 3D printing an auxetic structure on a polymer film‐based PENG, the bending deformation of the PENG can be transformed into the well‐controlled in‐plane stretching deformation, enabling the 3‐1‐direction piezoelectric effect. The synclastic effect of the auxetic structure is applied in flexible energy harvesting device for the first time, which makes the previously untapped bending deformation on a film a valuable device for energy harvesting and increases the bending output voltage of the PENG by 8.3 times. The auxetic structure‐assisted PENG is also demonstrated as a sensor to sense the bending angle and monitor the motion by mounting on different joints of the human body and soft robotic finger.

Predict the Polarizability and Order of Magnitude of Second Hyperpolarizability of Molecules by Machine Learning.

In order to determine the polarizability and hyperpolarizability of a molecule, several key parameters need to be known, including the excitation energy of the ground and excited states, the transition dipole moment, and the difference of dipole moment between the ground and excited states. In this study, a machine-learning model was developed and trained to predict the molecular polarizability and second-order hyperpolarizability on a subset of QM9 data set. The density of states was employed as input to the model. The results demonstrated that the machine-learning model effectively estimated both polarizability and the order of magnitude of second-order hyperpolarizability. However, the model was unable to predict the dipole moment and first-order hyperpolarizability, suggesting limitations in its ability to predict the difference of dipole moment between the ground and excited states. The computational efficiency of machine-learning models compared to traditional quantum mechanical calculations enables the possibility of large-scale screening of molecules that satisfy specific requirements using existing databases. This work presents a potential solution for the efficient exploration and analysis of molecules on a larger scale.

Phase Compositions and Microwave Dielectric Properties of Na1+xSrB5O9+0.5x Ceramics

Microwave dielectric ceramics composed of Na1+xSrB5O9+0.5x (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.125) were synthesized via a traditional solid-state reaction approach. The effects of non-stoichiometric Na on the crystal structures, phase compositions, chemical bond characteristics, and microwave dielectric properties of the Na1+xSrB5O9+0.5x ceramics were systematically studied. All Na1+xSrB5O9+0.5x ceramics sintered at optimum temperatures consisted of a NaSrB5O9 solid-solution phase and a SrB2O4 phase. Appropriate excess Na could suppress the generation of the SrB2O4 phase, and the lowest content of the SrB2O4 phase was achieved at x = 0.075. The εr values of the Na1+xSrB5O9+0.5x ceramics were primarily affected by the relative density and molecular polarization. The Q × f values showed a positive correlation with the lattice energy. The τf value was correlated to the SrB2O4 phase content, bond valence, and bond energy. Typically, the Na1.075SrB5O9.0375 ceramic sintered at 825 °C possessed good microwave dielectric properties of εr = 5.61, Q × f = 31, 937 GHz, and τf = −3.09 ppm/°C, which are suitable for high-frequency, low-temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCCs) substrate applications.

Role of Polarization Interactions in the Formation of Dipole-Bound States.

Even though there is a critical dipole moment required to support a dipole-bound state (DBS), how molecular polarizability may influence the formation of DBSs is not well understood. Pyrrolide, indolide, and carbazolide provide an ideal set of anions to systematically examine the role of polarization interactions in the formation of DBSs. Here, we report an investigation of carbazolide using cryogenic photodetachment spectroscopy and high-resolution photoelectron spectroscopy (PES). A polarization-assisted DBS is observed at 20 cm-1 below the detachment threshold for carbazolide, even though the carbazolyl neutral core has a dipole moment (2.2 D) smaller than the empirical critical value (2.5 D) to support a dipole-bound state. Photodetachment spectroscopy reveals nine vibrational Feshbach resonances of the DBS, as well as three intense and broad shape resonances. The electron affinity of carbazolyl is measured accurately to be 2.5653 ± 0.0004 eV (20,691 ± 3 cm-1). The combination of photodetachment spectroscopy and resonant PES allows fundamental frequencies for 14 vibrational modes of carbazolyl to be measured. The three shape resonances are due to above-threshold excitation to the three low-lying electronic states (S1-S3) of carbazolide. Resonant PES of the shape resonances is dominated by autodetachment processes. Ultrafast relaxation from the S2 and S3 states to S1 is observed, resulting in constant kinetic energy features in the resonant PES. The current study provides decisive information about the role that polarization plays in the formation of DBSs, as well as rich spectroscopic information about the carbazolide anion and the carbazolyl radical.

A Quantitative Description for Optical Mass Measurement of Single Biomolecules.

Label-free detection of single biomolecules in solution has been achieved using a variety of experimental approaches over the past decade. Yet, our understanding of the magnitude of the optical contrast and its relationship with the underlying atomic structure as well as the achievable measurement sensitivity and precision remain poorly defined. Here, we use a Fourier optics approach combined with an atomic structure-based molecular polarizability model to simulate mass photometry experiments from first principles. We find excellent agreement between several key experimentally determined parameters such as optical contrast-to-mass conversion, achievable mass accuracy, and molecular shape and orientation dependence. This allows us to determine detection sensitivity and measurement precision mostly independent of the optical detection approach chosen, resulting in a general framework for light-based single-molecule detection and quantification.