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Avdhoot Datar

Publications and source records attributed to Avdhoot Datar.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Static Electric Fields as a Model for Hydrogen-Bond-Induced Dissociation of HF and HCl

The influence of static electric fields on the electronic structure and dissociation behavior of the polar diatomics \ce{HF} and \ce{HCl} is investigated using quantum chemical calculations. Ground- and excited-state potential energy surfaces (PESs) are computed as a function of bond distance and external electric field strength to examine field-induced modifications of chemical bonding. The calculations reveal pronounced bond softening and progressive destabilization of both molecules with increasing field intensity. Notably, the ground-state PES of \ce{HCl} becomes entirely dissociative at field strengths of approximately 450 MV/cm, whereas \ce{HF} requires a substantially stronger field of nearly 700 MV/cm to induce dissociation. This difference reflects the greater polarizability and weaker bond localization in \ce{HCl} relative to \ce{HF}, providing a molecular-scale perspective on the contrasting macroscale acid strengths of the two species. Field-dependent dipole moments further demonstrate the stronger electronic response of \ce{HCl} to external perturbations, highlighting how molecular polarizability drives electric-field-induced bond activation. Ultimately, these results map out a detailed picture of field-controlled dissociation in hydrogen halides, supporting the view that local electric fields generated by surrounding hydrogen-bonding networks play a key role in modulating bond activation and condensed-phase acidity.

physics.chem-ph

Overview of Topics in Electrocatalysis for Sustainability: Reactions, Electrocatalysts, Degradation, and Mitigation

Electrocatalysis provides an avenue for transitioning the global energy dependence from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. While electrocatalytic reactions are being used for several decades, recently, there is a growing interest for electrocatalytic reactions that are useful from sustainability perspective. The wide industrial applications of these sustainable electrocatalytic processes is largely limited by the degradation of the electrocatalysts. This review begins with an introduction to such reactions, followed by a detailed discussion of the electrocatalysts. Finally we describe the processes that are responsible for the degradation of electrocatalytic activity.

physics.chem-ph

Robust Tensor Hypercontraction of the Particle-Particle Ladder Term in Equation-of-Motion Coupled Cluster Theory

One method of representing a high-rank tensor as a (hyper-)product of lower-rank tensors is the tensor hypercontraction (THC) method of Hohenstein et al. This strategy has been found to be useful for reducing the polynomial scaling of coupled-cluster methods by representation of a four dimensional tensor of electron-repulsion integrals in terms of five two-dimensional matrices. Pierce et al. have already shown that the application of a robust form of THC to the particle-particle ladder term (PPL) reduces the cost of this term in couple-cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) from $\mathcal{O} (N^6)$ to $\mathcal{O} (N^5)$ with negligible errors in energy with respect to the density-fitted variant. In this work we have implemented the least-squares variant of THC (LS-THC) which does not require a non-linear tensor factorization, including the robust form (R-LS-THC), for the calculation of the excitation and electron attachment energies using equation-of-motion coupled cluster methods EOMEE-CCSD and EOMEA-CCSD, respectively. We have benchmarked the effect of the R-LS-THC-PPL approximation on excitation energies using the comprehensive QUEST database and the accuracy of electron attachment energies using the NAB22 database. We find that errors on the order of 1 meV are achievable with a reduction in total calculation time of approximately $5\times$.

physics.chem-ph

Ab Initio Investigation of Intramolecular Charge Transfer States in DMABN by Calculation of Excited State X-ray Absorption Spectra

Dual fluorescence in 4-(dimethylamino)benzonitrile (DMABN) and its derivatives in polar solvents has been studied extensively for the past several decades. An intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) minimum on the excited state potential energy surface, in addition to the localized low-energy (LE) minimum, has been proposed as a mechanism for this dual fluorescence, with large geometric relaxation and molecular orbital reorganization a key feature of the ICT pathway. Herein, we have used both equation-of-motion coupled-cluster with single and double excitations (EOM-CCSD) and time-dependent density functional (TDDFT) methods to investigate the landscape of excited state potential energy surfaces across a number of geometric conformations proposed as ICT structures. In order to correlate these geometries and valence excited states in terms of potential experimental observables, we have calculated the nitrogen K-edge ground and excited state absorption spectra for each of the predicted "signpost" structures, and identified several key spectral features which could be used to interpret a future time-resolved x-ray absorption experiment.

physics.chem-ph

Theoretical Investigation of The X-Ray Stark Effect in Small Molecules

We have studied the Stark effect in the soft x-ray region for various small molecules by calculating the field-dependent x-ray absorption spectra. This effect is explained in terms of the response of molecular orbitals (core and valence), the molecular dipole moment, and the molecular geometry to the applied electric field. A number of consistent trends are observed linking the computed shifts in absorption energies and intensities with specific features of the molecular electronic structure. We find that both the virtual molecular orbitals (valence and/or Rydberg) as well as the core orbitals contribute to observed trends in a complementary fashion. This initial study highlights the potential impact of x-ray Stark spectroscopy as a tool to study electronic structure and environmental perturbations at a sub-molecular scale.

physics.chem-ph