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Title: Describing excited state relaxation and localization in TiO2 nanoparticles using TD-DFT

Journal Article · · Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/ct4010273· OSTI ID:1167290
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Univ. College London, London (United Kingdom)
  2. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

We have investigated the description of excited state relaxation in naked and hydrated TiO2 nanoparticles using Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT) with three common hybrid exchange-correlation (XC) potentials; B3LYP, CAM-B3LYP and BHLYP. Use of TD-CAM-B3LYP and TD-BHLYP yields qualitatively similar results for all structures, which are also consistent with predictions of coupled cluster theory for small particles. TD-B3LYP, in contrast, is found to make rather different predictions; including apparent conical intersections for certain particles that are not observed with TD-CAM-B3LYP nor with TD-BHLYP. In line with our previous observations for vertical excitations, the issue with TD-B3LYP appears to be the inherent tendency of TD-B3LYP, and other XC potentials with no or a low percentage of Hartree-Fock Like Exchange, to spuriously stabilize the energy of charge-transfer (CT) states. Even in the case of hydrated particles, for which vertical excitations are generally well described with all XC potentials, the use of TD-B3LYP appears to result in CT-problems for certain particles. We hypothesize that the spurious stabilization of CT-states by TD-B3LYP even may drive the excited state optimizations to different excited state geometries than those obtained using TD-CAM-B3LYP or TD-BHLYP. In conclusion, focusing on the TD-CAM-B3LYP and TD-BHLYP results, excited state relaxation in naked and hydrated TiO2 nanoparticles is predicted to be associated with a large Stokes’ shift.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1167290
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-105025; 48197; KP1704020; TRN: US1500467
Journal Information:
Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, Vol. 10, Issue 3; ISSN 1549-9618
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 56 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Time-dependent DFT and experimental study on visible light photocatalysis by metal oxides of Ti, V and Zn after complexing with a conjugated polymer journal January 2019
Investigating the character of excited states in TiO 2 nanoparticles from topological descriptors: implications for photocatalysis journal January 2020
Optical excitation of MgO nanoparticles; a computational perspective journal January 2014
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