Fast Screening of Minimum Energy Crossing Points with Semiempirical Tight-Binding Methods

Overview on Building Blocks and Applications of Efficient and Robust Extended Tight Binding

The extended tight binding (xTB) family of methods opened many new possibilities in the field of computational chemistry. Within just 5 years, the GFN2-xTB parametrization for all elements up to Z = 86 enabled more than a thousand applications, which were previously not feasible with other electronic structure methods. The xTB methods provide a robust and efficient way to apply quantum mechanics-based approaches for obtaining molecular geometries, computing free energy corrections or describing noncovalent interactions and found applicability for many more targets. A crucial contribution to the success of the xTB methods is the availability within many simulation packages and frameworks, supported by the open source development of its program library and packages. We present a comprehensive summary of the applications and capabilities of xTB methods in different fields of chemistry. Moreover, we consider the main software packages for xTB calculations, covering their current ecosystem, novel features, and usage by the scientific community.

Automated search of minimum-energy conical intersections with projected metadynamics

We present a new method for the automated search of minimum-energy conical intersections (MECIs) based on metadynamics. In this method, two independent forces are constructed and projected into the minimization subspace and the constraint subspace, respectively. One force is directed toward the minimum-energy point, while the other is directed toward the conical intersection seam. The root-mean-square deviation based bias potential is added to the potential energy surface to force the structure escape from the already explored regions. The additional constraint function is used to enable the structure reach different intersection seams. This method can be used for systematically and automatically searching MECIs or exploring conical intersection seams. Compared to the penalty function-based metadynamics method, this new method is more effective and stable in searching MECIs. Furthermore, this method can be combined with any kind of constraint, whether geometric or non-geometric, making it a generalized tool for the automated search of constrained minimum.

Nonadiabatic Exciton Dynamics and Energy Gradients in the Framework of FMO-LC-TDDFTB

We introduce a novel methodology for simulating the excited-state dynamics of extensive molecular aggregates in the framework of the long-range corrected time-dependent density-functional tight-binding fragment molecular orbital method (FMO-LC-TDDFTB) combined with the mean-field Ehrenfest method. The electronic structure of the system is described in a quasi-diabatic basis composed of locally excited and charge-transfer states of all fragments. In order to carry out nonadiabatic molecular dynamics simulations, we derive and implement the excited-state gradients of the locally excited and charge-transfer states. Subsequently, the accuracy of the analytical excited-state gradients is evaluated. The applicability to the simulation of exciton transport in organic semiconductors is illustrated on a large cluster of anthracene molecules. Additionally, nonadiabatic molecular dynamics simulations of a model system of benzothieno-benzothiophene molecules highlight the method's utility in studying charge-transfer dynamics in organic materials. Our new methodology will facilitate the investigation of excitonic transfer in extensive biological systems, nanomaterials, and other complex molecular systems consisting of thousands of atoms.

CREST-A program for the exploration of low-energy molecular chemical space

Conformer-rotamer sampling tool (CREST) is an open-source program for the efficient and automated exploration of molecular chemical space. Originally developed in Pracht et al. [Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 22, 7169 (2020)] as an automated driver for calculations at the extended tight-binding level (xTB), it offers a variety of molecular- and metadynamics simulations, geometry optimization, and molecular structure analysis capabilities. Implemented algorithms include automated procedures for conformational sampling, explicit solvation studies, the calculation of absolute molecular entropy, and the identification of molecular protonation and deprotonation sites. Calculations are set up to run concurrently, providing efficient single-node parallelization. CREST is designed to require minimal user input and comes with an implementation of the GFNn-xTB Hamiltonians and the GFN-FF force-field. Furthermore, interfaces to any quantum chemistry and force-field software can easily be created. In this article, we present recent developments in the CREST code and show a selection of applications for the most important features of the program. An important novelty is the refactored calculation backend, which provides significant speed-up for sampling of small or medium-sized drug molecules and allows for more sophisticated setups, for example, quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics and minimum energy crossing point calculations.

High-throughput screening of spin states for transition metal complexes with spin-polarized extended tight-binding methods

The semiempirical GFNn-xTB ( n = 1 , 2 ) tight-binding methods are extended with a spin-dependent energy term (spin-polarization), enabling the fast and efficient screening of different spin states for transition metal complexes. While GFNn-xTB methods inherently can not differentiate properly between high-spin (HS) and low-spin (LS) states, this shortcoming is corrected with the presented methods termed spGFNn-xTB. The performance of spGFNn-xTB methods for spin state energy splittings is evaluated on a newly compiled benchmark set of 90 complexes (27 HS and 63 LS complexes) containing 3d, 4d, and 5d transition metals (termed TM90S) employing DFT references at the TPSSh-D4/def2-QZVPP level of theory. The challenging TM90S set contains complexes with charges between - 4 and +3, spin multiplicities between 1 and 6, and spin-splitting energies that range from - 47.8 to 146.6 kcal/mol with a mean average of 32.2 kcal/mol. On this set the (sp)GFNn-xTB methods, the PM6-D3H4 method, and the PM7 method are evaluated with spGFN1-xTB yielding the lowest MAD of 19.6 kcal/mol followed by spGFN2-xTB with 24.8 kcal/mol. While for the 4d and 5d subsets small or no improvements are observed with spin-polarization, large improvements are obtained for the 3d subset with spGFN1-xTB yielding the smallest MAD of 14.2 kcal/mol followed by spGFN2-xTB with 17.9 kcal/mol and PM6-D3H4 with 28.4 kcal/mol. The correct sign of the spin state splittings is obtained with spGFN2-xTB in 89% of all cases closely followed by spGFN1-xTB with 88%. On the full set, a pure semiempirical vertical spGFN2-xTB//GFN2-xTB-based workflow for screening purposes yields a slightly better MAD of 22.2 kcal/mol due to error compensation, while being qualitative correct for one additional case. In combination with their low computational cost (scanning spin states in seconds), the spGFNn-xTB methods represent robust tools for pre-screening steps of spin state calculations and high-throughput workflows.

Finding Excited-State Minimum Energy Crossing Points on a Budget: Non-Self-Consistent Tight-Binding Methods

The automated exploration and identification of minimum energy conical intersections (MECIs) is a valuable computational strategy for the study of photochemical processes. Due to the immense computational effort involved in calculating non-adiabatic derivative coupling vectors, simplifications have been introduced focusing instead on minimum energy crossing points (MECPs), where promising attempts were made with semiempirical quantum mechanical methods. A simplified treatment for describing crossing points between almost arbitrary diabatic states based on a non-self-consistent extended tight-binding method, GFN0-xTB, is presented. Involving only a single diagonalization of the Hamiltonian, the method can provide energies and gradients for multiple electronic states, which can be used in a derivative coupling-vector-free scheme to calculate MECPs. By comparison with high-lying MECIs of benchmark systems, it is demonstrated that the identified geometries are good starting points for further MECI refinement with ab initio methods.

Multifaceted View on the Mechanism of a Photochemical Deracemization Reaction

Upon irradiation in the presence of a chiral benzophenone catalyst (5 mol %), a racemic mixture of a given chiral imidazolidine-2,4-dione (hydantoin) can be converted almost quantitatively into the same compound with high enantiomeric excess (80-99% ee). The mechanism of this photochemical deracemization reaction was elucidated by a suite of mechanistic experiments. It was corroborated by nuclear magnetic resonance titration that the catalyst binds the two enantiomers by two-point hydrogen bonding. In one of the diastereomeric complexes, the hydrogen atom at the stereogenic carbon atom is ideally positioned for hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) to the photoexcited benzophenone. Detection of the protonated ketyl radical by transient absorption revealed hydrogen abstraction to occur from only one but not from the other hydantoin enantiomer. Quantum chemical calculations allowed us to visualize the HAT within this complex and, more importantly, showed that the back HAT does not occur to the carbon atom of the hydantoin radical but to its oxygen atom. The achiral enol formed in this process could be directly monitored by its characteristic transient absorption signal at λ ≅ 330 nm. Subsequent tautomerization leads to both hydantoin enantiomers, but only one of them returns to the catalytic cycle, thus leading to an enrichment of the other enantiomer. The data are fully consistent with deuterium labeling experiments and deliver a detailed picture of a synthetically useful photochemical deracemization reaction.