(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-01-12)
Arnstein, Stephen A.
The following thesis focuses on two areas of chemistry, pi-pi interactions and radical cation dimers. Approximations to the exact solution to the Schrodinger equation are investigated for these types of chemical systems with a variety of theoretical methods. The first chapter provides an introduction to the various quatum mechanical methods used in this research. The second chapter focuses specifically on pi-pi interaction. In this chapter, high quality quantum mechanical methods are used to examine how substituents tune pi-pi interactions between monosubstituted benzene dimers in parallel-displaced geometries. In addition, the role of dispersion
and coulombic interactions in these systems is investigated to determine the nature
of the substituent effect. In the third chapter radical cation dimers are investigated.
Benchmark results with full configuration interaction (FCI) and equation-of-motion
coupled-cluster for ionized systems (EOM-IP-CCSD) are presented for prototypical charge transfer species. Conclusions regarding chapters 2 and 3 are presented in the final chapter. This work may form the basis for improved approaches to rational drug design, organic optical materials, and molecular electronics.