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Computational Design and Modelling of Organic Materials for Energy Applications
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Computational Design and Modelling of Organic Materials for Energy Applications

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Computational and Theoretical Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 May 2021) | Viewed by 10867

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Daniele Padula

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy
Interests: materials science; organic materials; organic semiconductors; organic photovoltaics; quantum chemistry; QM/MM; machine learning; circular dichroism

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Thanks to their versatility, organic semiconductors play a central role in the search for solutions to some of the most fascinating problems in energy research. The quest for efficient and stable singlet fission materials or photocatalysts, the rationalization of the impact of three-dimensional order and disorder on charge mobility, and the elucidation of general design principles for emissive (TADF, AIE) candidates are only some of the challenges that our community is facing.

The objective of this Special Issue is to gather contributions that advance the design of organic materials or shed light on theoretical aspects of the physical processes involved, from a computational perspective.

We welcome communications, full papers, and reviews on the aforementioned topics.

Dr. Daniele Padula
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Computational materials design
  • Computational materials screening
  • Organic materials
  • Singlet fission
  • TADF
  • AIE
  • Organic photovoltaics
  • Photocatalysis
  • Charge mobility
  • Electron–phonon coupling

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 4136 KiB  
Article
Impact of Fluoroalkylation on the n-Type Charge Transport of Two Naphthodithiophene Diimide Derivatives
by Gaetano Ricci, Sofia Canola, Yasi Dai, Daniele Fazzi and Fabrizia Negri
Molecules 2021, 26(14), 4119; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26144119 - 06 Jul 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1935
Abstract
In this work, we investigate two recently synthesized naphthodithiophene diimide (NDTI) derivatives featuring promising n-type charge transport properties. We analyze the charge transport pathways and model charge mobility with the non-adiabatic hopping mechanism using the Marcus-Levich-Jortner rate constant formulation, highlighting the role of [...] Read more.
In this work, we investigate two recently synthesized naphthodithiophene diimide (NDTI) derivatives featuring promising n-type charge transport properties. We analyze the charge transport pathways and model charge mobility with the non-adiabatic hopping mechanism using the Marcus-Levich-Jortner rate constant formulation, highlighting the role of fluoroalkylated substitution in α (α-NDTI) and at the imide nitrogen (N-NDTI) position. In contrast with the experimental results, similar charge mobilities are computed for the two derivatives. However, while α-NDTI displays remarkably anisotropic mobilities with an almost one-dimensional directionality, N-NDTI sustains a more isotropic charge percolation pattern. We propose that the strong anisotropic charge transport character of α-NDTI is responsible for the modest measured charge mobility. In addition, when the role of thermally induced transfer integral fluctuations is investigated, the computed electron–phonon couplings for intermolecular sliding modes indicate that dynamic disorder effects are also more detrimental for the charge transport of α-NDTI than N-NDTI. The lower observed mobility of α-NDTI is therefore rationalized in terms of a prominent anisotropic character of the charge percolation pathways, with the additional contribution of dynamic disorder effects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computational Design and Modelling of Organic Materials for Energy Applications)
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13 pages, 11632 KiB  
Article
A Computational Protocol Combining DFT and Cheminformatics for Prediction of pH-Dependent Redox Potentials
by Rocco Peter Fornari and Piotr de Silva
Molecules 2021, 26(13), 3978; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26133978 - 29 Jun 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3350
Abstract
Discovering new materials for energy storage requires reliable and efficient protocols for predicting key properties of unknown compounds. In the context of the search for new organic electrolytes for redox flow batteries, we present and validate a robust procedure to calculate the redox [...] Read more.
Discovering new materials for energy storage requires reliable and efficient protocols for predicting key properties of unknown compounds. In the context of the search for new organic electrolytes for redox flow batteries, we present and validate a robust procedure to calculate the redox potentials of organic molecules at any pH value, using widely available quantum chemistry and cheminformatics methods. Using a consistent experimental data set for validation, we explore and compare a few different methods for calculating reaction free energies, the treatment of solvation, and the effect of pH on redox potentials. We find that the B3LYP hybrid functional with the COSMO solvation method, in conjunction with thermal contributions evaluated from BLYP gas-phase harmonic frequencies, yields a good prediction of pH = 0 redox potentials at a moderate computational cost. To predict how the potentials are affected by pH, we propose an improved version of the Alberty-Legendre transform that allows the construction of a more realistic Pourbaix diagram by taking into account how the protonation state changes with pH. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computational Design and Modelling of Organic Materials for Energy Applications)
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12 pages, 2752 KiB  
Article
Mechanisms of a Cyclobutane-Fused Lactone Hydrolysis in Alkaline and Acidic Conditions
by Zhangxia Wang and Haibo Ma
Molecules 2021, 26(12), 3519; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26123519 - 09 Jun 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1995
Abstract
Searching for functional polyesters with stability and degradability is important due to their potential applications in biomedical supplies, biomass fuel, and environmental protection. Recently, a cyclobutane-fused lactone (CBL) polymer was experimentally found to have superior stability and controllable degradability through hydrolysis reactions after [...] Read more.
Searching for functional polyesters with stability and degradability is important due to their potential applications in biomedical supplies, biomass fuel, and environmental protection. Recently, a cyclobutane-fused lactone (CBL) polymer was experimentally found to have superior stability and controllable degradability through hydrolysis reactions after activation by mechanical force. In order to provide a theoretical basis for developing new functional degradable polyesters, in this work, we performed a detailed quantum chemical study of the alkaline and acidic hydrolysis of CBL using dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D3) and mixed implicit/explicit solvent models. Various possible hydrolysis mechanisms were found: BAC2 and BAL2 in the alkaline condition and AAC2, AAL2, and AAL1 in the acidic condition. Our calculations indicated that CBL favors the BAC2 and AAC2 mechanisms in alkaline and acidic conditions, respectively. In addition, we found that incorporating explicit water solvent molecules is highly necessary because of their strong hydrogen-bonding with reactant/intermediate/product molecules. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computational Design and Modelling of Organic Materials for Energy Applications)
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20 pages, 2894 KiB  
Article
Key Electronic, Linear and Nonlinear Optical Properties of Designed Disubstituted Quinoline with Carbazole Compounds
by Bakhat Ali, Muhammad Khalid, Sumreen Asim, Muhammad Usman Khan, Zahid Iqbal, Ajaz Hussain, Riaz Hussain, Sarfraz Ahmed, Akbar Ali, Amjad Hussain, Muhammad Imran, Mohammed A. Assiri, Muhammad Fayyaz ur Rehman, Chenxi Wang and Changrui Lu
Molecules 2021, 26(9), 2760; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26092760 - 07 May 2021
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 2752
Abstract
Organic materials development, especially in terms of nonlinear optical (NLO) performance, has become progressively more significant owing to their rising and promising applications in potential photonic devices. Organic moieties such as carbazole and quinoline play a vital role in charge transfer applications in [...] Read more.
Organic materials development, especially in terms of nonlinear optical (NLO) performance, has become progressively more significant owing to their rising and promising applications in potential photonic devices. Organic moieties such as carbazole and quinoline play a vital role in charge transfer applications in optoelectronics. This study reports and characterizes the donor–acceptor–donor–π–acceptor (D–A–D–π–A) configured novel designed compounds, namely, Q3D1–Q3D3, Q4D1–Q1D2, and Q5D1. We further analyze the structure–property relationship between the quinoline–carbazole compounds for which density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) calculations were performed at the B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) level to obtain the optimized geometries, natural bonding orbital (NBO), NLO analysis, electronic properties, and absorption spectra of all mentioned compounds. The computed values of λmax, 364, 360, and 361 nm for Q3, Q4, and Q5 show good agreement of their experimental values: 349, 347, and 323 nm, respectively. The designed compounds (Q3D1–Q5D1) exhibited a smaller energy gap with a maximum redshift than the reference molecules (Q3–Q5), which govern their promising NLO behavior. The NBO evaluation revealed that the extended hyperconjugation stabilizes these systems and caused a promising NLO response. The dipole polarizabilities and hyperpolarizability (β) values of Q3D1–Q3D3, Q4D1-Q1D2, and Q5D1 exceed those of the reference Q3, Q4, and Q5 molecules. These data suggest that the NLO active compounds, Q3D1–Q3D3, Q4D1–Q1D2, and Q5D1, may find their place in future hi-tech optical devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computational Design and Modelling of Organic Materials for Energy Applications)
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