Symmetric croconate (CR) and squarylium dyes (SQ) are well-known near-infrared (NIR) dyes and, in general, are considered to be donor-acceptor-donor type molecules. It is established in the literature that CR dyes absorb in a longer wavelength region than the corresponding SQ dyes. This has been attributed to the CR ring being a better acceptor than the SQ ring. Thus increasing the donor capacity should lead to a bathochromic shift in both SQ and CR. On the other hand, some experiments reported in the literature have revealed that increasing the conjugation in the donor part of the SQ molecule leads first to red shift, which upon a further increase of the conjugation changes to a blue shift. Hence, to understand the role of the central ring and the substitutions in the absorption of these dyes, we carried out high-level symmetry-adapted cluster-configuration interaction (SAC-CI) calculations of some substituted SQ and CR dyes and compare the absorption energy with the existing experimental data. We found that there is very good agreement. We also carried out SAC-CI calculations of some smaller model molecules, which contain the main oxyallyl substructure. We varied the geometry (angle) of the oxyallyl subgroup and the substitution in these model molecules to establish a correlation with the bathochromic shift. We found that the charge transfer is very small and does not play the key role in the red shift, but on the other hand, the perturbation of the HOMO-LUMO gap (HLG) from both the geometry and substitution seems to be responsible for this shift. We suggest as a design principle that increasing the donor capacity of the groups may not help in the red shift, but introducing groups which perturb the HLG and decrease it without changing the MO character should lead to a larger bathochromic shift.

Ab initio coupled perturbated Hartree-Fock calculations, using 6-31G** basis sets, on a heterocyclic zwitterionic molecule with a σ-spacer between the donor and the acceptor ring shows a static first hyperpolarizability ( 0 ) of around 240 × 10 -30 esu. Substitution of electron withdrawing functional groups, such as NO 2 , on the acceptor ring of this molecule enhances the 0 value to around 3960 × 10 -30 esu. Studies on various such zwitterionic molecules demonstrate the importance of π-σ orbital mixing (through bond interaction) between the π-aromatic rings and the σ-spacers in enhancing the nonlinear optical (NLO) response. Analysis of the transitions reveals low oscillator strengths, large changes in the dipole moments, and very low energy charge transfers that take place in the excited states of the molecule, while in the ground state they are stabilized in a charge separated resonance form. This is mainly responsible for the large NLO response. MP2 calculations on small molecules with dominant through bond interactions show that the inclusion of electron correlation further enhances the 0 value. The molecules, which have a strong IR absorption, have potential applications in filters, polarizers, optical recording, etc.

To be planar or to be twisted at the bridge junctions in biphenyls or biaryl types of molecular systems, are mainly dependent on two counter forces, (1) steric repulsions (destabilization)...

It is well-known from experimental studies that the oxyallyl-substructure-based squarylium and croconium dyes absorb in the NIR region of the spectrum. Recently, another dye has been reported (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 348) which contains the same basic chromophore, but the absorption is red-shifted by at least 300 nm compared to the former dyes and is observed near 1100 nm. To analyze the reasons behind the large red shift, in this work we have carried out symmetry-adapted cluster-configuration interaction (SAC-CI) studies on some of these NIR dyes which contain the oxyallyl substructure. From this study, contrary to the earlier reports, it is seen that the donor groups do not seem to play a major role in the red-shift of the absorption. On the other hand, on the basis of the results of the high-level calculations carried out here and using qualitative molecular orbital theory, it is observed that the orbital interactions play a key role in the red shift. Finally, design principles for the oxyallyl-substructure-based NIR dyes are suggested.

"How the fundamental life elements are created in the interstellar medium (ISM)?" is one of the intriguing questions related to the genesis of life. Using computational calculations, we have discussed the reaction of CH2=NH, CO and H2O for the formation of glycine, the simplest life element. This reaction proceeds through a concerted mechanism with reasonably large barriers for the cases with one and two water molecules as reactants. For the two water case we found that the extra water molecule exhibits some catalytic role through the hydrogen transport relay effect and the barrier height is reduced substantially compared to the case with one water molecule. These two cases can be treated as ideal cases for the hot-core formation of the interstellar glycine. With an increasing number of water molecules as the reactants, we found that when the numbers of water molecules are three or more than three, the barrier height reduced so drastically that the transition states were more stable than the reactants. Such a situation gives a clear indication that with excess water molecules as the reactants, this reaction will be feasible even under the low temperature conditions existing in the cold interstellar clouds and the exothermic nature of the reaction will be the driving force.

Glycine being the simplest amino acid and also having significant astrobiological implications, has meant that intensive investigations have been carried out in the past, starting from its detection in the interstellar medium (ISM) to analysis of meteorites and cometary samples and laboratory synthesis, as well as computational studies on the possible reaction paths. In this present work quantum chemical calculations have been performed to investigate the possible interstellar formation of glycine via two different paths; (1) in a two-step process via a dihydroxy carbene intermediate and (2) through a one-step concerted mechanism, starting from reactants like CH2[double bond, length as m-dash]NH, CO, CO2, H2O and H2. For the two reactions representing the carbene route, it was observed that the formation of dihydroxy carbene from either CO + H2O or CO2 + H2 is highly endothermic with large barrier heights, whereas the subsequent step of interaction of this carbene with CH2[double bond, length as m-dash]NH to give glycine is exothermic and the barrier is below the reactants. Based on this observation it is suggested that the formation of glycine via the carbene route is a least favourable or even unfavourable path. On the other hand, the two reactions CH2[double bond, length as m-dash]NH + CO + H2O and CH2[double bond, length as m-dash]NH + CO2 + H2 representing the concerted paths were found to be favourable in leading to the formation of glycine. After an extensive study on the first concerted reaction in our previous work (Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016, 18, 375-381), in this work a detailed investigation has been carried out for the second concerted reaction, CH2[double bond, length as m-dash]NH + CO2 + H2, which can possibly lead to the interstellar formation of glycine. It was observed that this reaction proceeds through a large barrier and at the same time the transition state shows prominent hydrogen dynamics, indicating a tunnelling possibility for this reaction. Based on these observations the possible formation of glycine via this reaction in hot-cores and in cold interstellar clouds has been proposed. The cold-core possibility of this reaction is argued on the basis of the phenomenon of tunnelling assisted by a van der Waals' complex.

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