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Abstract This Roadmap article provides a succinct, comprehensive overview of the state of electronic structure (ES) methods and software for molecular and materials simulations. Seventeen distinct sections collect insights by 51 leading scientists in the field. Each contribution addresses the status of a particular area, as well as current challenges and anticipated future advances, with a particular eye towards software related aspects and providing key references for further reading. Foundational sections cover density functional theory and its implementation in real-world simulation frameworks, Green’s function based many-body perturbation theory, wave-function based and stochastic ES approaches, relativistic effects and semiempirical ES theory approaches. Subsequent sections cover nuclear quantum effects, real-time propagation of the ES, challenges for computational spectroscopy simulations, and exploration of complex potential energy surfaces. The final sections summarize practical aspects, including computational workflows for complex simulation tasks, the impact of current and future high-performance computing architectures, software engineering practices, education and training to maintain and broaden the community, as well as the status of and needs for ES based modeling from the vantage point of industry environments. Overall, the field of ES software and method development continues to unlock immense opportunities for future scientific discovery, based on the growing ability of computations to reveal complex phenomena, processes and properties that are determined by the make-up of matter at the atomic scale, with high precision. 

Abstract Three binuclear species [LCo^III₂(μ‐Pz)₂](ClO₄)₃(1), [LNi^II₂(CH₃OH)₂Cl₂]ClO₄(2), and [LZn^II₂Cl₂]PF₆(3) supported by the deprotonated form of the ligand 2,6‐bis[bis(2‐pyridylmethyl) amino‐methyl]‐4‐methylphenol were synthesized, structurally characterized as solids and in solution, and had their electrochemical and spectroscopic behavior established. Species1–3had their water reduction ability studied aiming to interrogate the possible cooperative catalytic activity between two neighboring metal centers. Species1and2reduced H₂O to H₂effectively at an applied potential of −1.6 V_Ag/AgCl, yielding turnover numbers of 2,820 and 2,290, respectively, after 30 minutes. Species3lacked activity and was used as a negative control to eliminate the possibility of ligand‐based catalysis. Pre‐ and post‐catalytic data gave evidence of the molecular nature of the process within the timeframe of the experiments. Species1showed structural, rather than electronic cooperativity, while species2displayed no obvious cooperativity. DFT methods complemented the experimental results determining plausible mechanisms.