Computational Approach to Electron Charge Transfer Reactions

The step from ab initio atomic and molecular properties to thermodynamic - or macroscopic - properties requires the combination of several theoretical tools. This dissertation presents constant temperature molecular dynamics with bond length constraints, a hybrid quantum mechanics-molecular mechanics scheme, and tools to analyse statistical data and generate relative free energies and free energy surfaces. The methodology is applied to several charge transfer species and reactions in chemical environments - chemical in the sense that solvent, counter ions and substrate surfaces are taken in to account - which directly influence the reactants and resulting reaction through both physical and chemical interactions. All methods are though general and can be applied to different types of chemistry. First, the basis of the various theoretical tools is presented and applied to several test systems to show general (or expected) properties. Properties such as in the physical and (semi-)chemical interface between classical and quantum systems and the effects of molecular bond length constraints on the temperature during simulations. As a second step the methodology is applied to the symmetric and asymmetric charge transfer reactions between several first-row transition metals in water. The results are compared to experiments and rationalised with classical analytic expressions. Shortcomings of the methods are accounted for with clear steps towards improved accuracy. Later the analysis is extended to more complex systems composed of a larger osmium complex in solution and at the solute-substrate interfaces, where in particular the redox state of the complex is controlled through chemical means. The efficiency of the hybrid-classical and quantum mechanics method is used to generate adequate statistics and a simple post-sampling scheme used to generate free energy surfaces - which compare to full ab initio calculations. In the last part both the molecular dynamics and hybrid classical and quantum mechanics method are used to generate a vast data set for the accurate analysis of dynamical structure modes. This is for a large iridium-iridium dimer complex which shows a dramatic structural (and vibrational) change upon electronic excitation.