Orientador: Bernardo Laks / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Fisica Gleb Wataghin / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-12T11:04:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcal_Nei_D.pdf: 86929566 bytes, checksum: 04c8aa7c4176175d973ff0990de45bad (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: Antes da década de 70, todos os materiais poliméricos eram considerados como isolantes e suas aplicações tecnológicas levavam em conta esta característica. De lá para cá, uma nova classe desses materiais, os polímeros conjugados, determinaram uma nova forma de aplicação de sistemas poliméricos baseados em suas propriedades elétricas e de ótica não-linear. Um maior estímulo surgiu a partir do experimento de Mac Diarmid, Heeger e Shirakawa [1] que, expondo o Poliacetileno a agentes oxidantes, demonstraram ser possível obter um sistema no estado metálico. Atualmente encontramos filmes de Poliacetileno com condutividade elétrica da ordem do cobre (105 S/cm). O Poliacetileno, quando no regime metálico, i.e., sob alta dopagem, apresenta algumas características de metal comum: alta condutividade elétrica (cresce 13 ordens de grandeza), susceptibilidade de Pauli finita e absorção no infravermelho. Já outras propriedades como a presença de modos vibracionais localizados no infravermelho e o não comportamento da condutividade com o inverso da temperatura evidenciam ser este um material não usual. Estes polímeros conjugados que apresentam uma extensiva delocalização de elétrons são considerados semicondutores orgânicos com gap de energia relativamente pequeno, da ordem de 1,5 a 2,0 eV. O comportamento semicondutor e as propriedades decorrentes entre os elétrons e a luz têm originado a construção de vários dispositivos semicondutores e optoeletrônicos [2, 7, 3]. Problemas técnicos como estabilidade ao ambiente, processabilidade e solubilidade destes materiais provocaram a produção de uma nova classe de materiais poliméricos que foi obtida por polimerização eletroquímica [57, 58, 59] cuja estrutura molecular trata-se de sistemas que introduzem grupos vinilas (V) entre anéis de tiofeno (T). Experimentos de voltametria cíclica, espectroscopia de absorção ótica e ressonância eletrônica de spin indicam que esses sistemas possuem potencial de ionização e gap de energia menores que o apresentado pelo Politiofeno. Estudos com oligômeros de tiofeno (T) com vinilenos (V) sugerem a possibilidade de escolha desse material como alternativa ao politiofeno. O objetivo deste trabalho foi investigar teoricamente a influência do grupo vinila (V) sobre as propriedades eletrônicas nestes polímeros, reproduzir os resultados experimentais e determinar qual proporção de vinilenos (V) e tiofenos (T) que provoque o menor gap de energia de forma que quando sobre dopagem possibilite uma transição isolante metal. Desta maneira, primeiramente, determinamos as geometrias dos sistemas de interesse utilizando métodos semi-empíricos. Posteriormente investigamos a estrutura eletrônica dos polímeros de tiofeno (T) com vinilenos (V), sendo que estes polímeros foram estudados para o caso neutro e na presença de defeitos conformacionais do tipo pólaron e bipólaron. Finalizamos o estudo investigando as absorções ópticas UV-vis dos sistemas de interesse através de cálculos semi-empíricos utilizando o código ZINDO/S. / Abstract: Before the 1970s, all polymeric materials were considered insulators; therefore their technological applications would take this trait into account. Since then, a new development on these materials, the conjugated polymers, determined new applications for polymeric systems based in their electrical and nonlinear optical properties. Greater interest arose from the experiment by Mac Diarmid, Heeger and Shirakawa [1] who, by using polyacetylene and oxidizing agents, showed that it is possible to obtain a system in the metallic state. Nowadays it is possible to find polyacetylene films with electrical conductivity of the order of copper (10-5 S/cm). Polyacetylene, when in its metallic behavior, i.e., under high dopage, presents some characteristics of real metal: high electrical conductivity (increased by 13 orders of magnitude), finite Pauli susceptibility and infrared absorption. On the other hand, other properties such as the presence of vibrational modes localized on infrared and the odd behavior of conductivity versus the inverse of temperature make clear that this is a unusual material. These conjugated polymers, presenting an extensive delocalization of electrons, are considered organic semiconductors with relatively low energy gap, of the order of 1.5 to 2.0 eV. The semiconductive behavior and the resulting properties of the interaction between electrons and light have been the drive for the manufacturing of several semiconductor and optoelectronic devices [2, 7, 3]. Technical problems, such as environmental stability, processability and solubility of these materials, gave rise to the production of a new kind of polymeric materials that were obtained by electrochemical polymerization [57, 58, 59], in which the molecular structure is a system that introduces vinylene groups (V) between tiophene rings (T). Experiments involving cyclic voltametry, optical absorption spectrometry and spin electronic ressonance indicate that these systems have ionization potential and energy gap smaller than those presented by Polythiophene. Studies with thiopene oligomers (T) with vinylene (V) suggest this material can be chosen as an alternative to Polytiophene. The goal of this work is to theoretically investigate the in uence of the vinyle group (V) on the electronic properties on these polymers, reproduce experimental results and determine what is the vinylene (V) to thiophene (T) rate that causes the smallest energy gap, such that doping will produce a insulator-metal transition. Therefore, we first determine the target systems' geometry using semi-empirical methods. Then we investigate the electronic structure of the tiophene (T) and vinylene (V) polymers both for neutral systems and in the presence of conformational defects of polaron and bipolaron types. We nalized the study by investigating the UV-vis optical absorption of the target systems through semi-empirical calculations using ZINDO/S code. / Doutorado / Estrutura Eletronica de Atomos e Moleculas ; Teoria / Doutor em Ciências

Spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is a relativistic effect whose origin lies in the Dirac’s equation – a relativistic analogue of Schrödinger’s equation. SOC corrects the electronic states of a quantum mechanical system up to ~1 eV in case of semiconductors and ~ 2 – 3.6 eV in case of actinides and heavy elements by considering not only the coordinates but also the spin of the electrons in the system. Most of the applications of the present day technology are based on manipulating the electronic structure of a system with very high accuracy and precision. This demands availability of correct electronic structure of a material or molecule within a feasible computational time. Some direct consequences of SOC in materials can be noticed in analyzing the charge-transport properties of a semiconductor, evaluating the candidature of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) for spintronic, twistronic and valleytronic applications, and in the origin of topological properties of a material. Not only in materials but also in molecules the SOC effects can be observed. Fine-structure of atomic spectra was explained on the account of SOC. Several additional peaks and wavelength shift in UV-vis spectroscopy of Gold Superatoms can only be explained by correctly considering the energy level splittings caused by SOC. SOC allows intersystem and reverse intersystem crossing by mixing the spin states, ultimately opening various chemical reaction pathways which were spin forbidden before. Current advancements in computational power enrich us to work shoulder to shoulder with experiments where one can simulate the synthesized structures containing thousands of atoms using semi-empirical methods as in DFTB, GFN-XTB. These methods so far considered SOC effects but only as case studies in testing the implementation of SOC Hamiltonian rather than a systemic extension of SOC parameters to most part of the periodic table and studying SOC effects for different categories of materials and molecules. This motivated us to implement the SOC either in the form of highly accurate parameters throughout the periodic table or as addition in hamiltonian in such methods. Twisted van der Waals 2D materials as in twisted TMDC bilayers shows exciting electronic and optoelectronic properties and depending on the twist angle and chemical composition they can have thousands of atoms in their superlattices. A correct electronic analysis of such structures with SOC corrected DFT is computationally very expensive but is feasible at semi-empirical level. Here, we have applied our implementation on TMDC homo and heterobilayer twisted superlattices and studied the effect of SOC on the excitonic properties of the system. Therefore, this work opens the way for realizing various exotic applications of present day materials as well as molecules.:Table of Contents Abstract 4 1 Introduction 8 1.1 Quantum Chemistry: 8 1.2 HF based Semi-Empirical Methods 9 1.3 DFT based Semi-Empirical Methods 11 1.3.1 Density Functional based Tight-Binding Method (DFTB) 11 1.3.2 Geometry, Frequency, Non-Covalent, extended Tight Binding (GFN-xTB) 12 1.4 Spin-Orbit Coupling (SOC) 14 1.4.1 SOC in Materials 18 1.4.2 SOC in Molecular Structures 22 1.5 Theoretical Models for Accounting SOC 24 1.6 Motivation, Objective and Outline of thesis 26 2 Methodology 29 2.1 Quantum Chemistry 30 2.1.1 Schrödinger equation 30 2.2 Density Functional Theory 33 2.2.1 Generalized Gradient Approximations 39 2.3 Spin-orbit Coupling (SOC) 41 2.3.1 Classical Picture of SOC in LS model 42 2.3.2 Quantum Picture of SOC in LS model: 43 2.3.3 Calculation of SOC Paramentes 45 2.4 Density Functional Based Semi-empirical Quantum Mechanical Methods 48 2.4.1 Self-Consistent Charge Density Functional Based Tight Binding Method (SCC-DFTB) 48 2.4.2 Extended Tight-Binding (GFN1-xTB) 51 2.4.3 Addition of Spin-Orbit Coupling Hamiltonian in DFTB and GFN-xTB 54 3 Benchmarking Spin-Orbit Coupling Parameters for DFTB 56 3.1 Introduction 58 3.2 Computational Details of the DFT benchmark calculations 60 3.3 Benchmarking Spin-Orbit Coupling Parameters 60 3.3.1 III-V Bulk Semiconductor 61 3.3.2 Transition Metal Dichalcogenide 2D Crystals 65 3.3.3 Topological Insulators 68 3.4 Conclusions 70 4 Spin-Orbit Coupling Corrections for the GFN-xTB method 71 4.1.1 Introduction 73 4.2 Computational Details of The Benchmark Calculations 75 4.3 Results & Discussion 76 4.3.1 Geometries 76 4.3.2 Effect of SOC on Charge Transport Properties of Chromophores in MOFs 77 4.3.3 Superatoms 82 4.3.4 Effect of SOC on Binding of O2 on Ferrous Deoxyheme 85 4.4 Conclusions 86 5 Spin Orbit Coupling Effects on The Excitonic Properties of Twisted Moiré Transition Metal Dichalcogenides 88 5.1 Introduction 90 5.2 Computational Details 92 5.3 Results & Discussions 93 5.4 Excitons in Twisted Moiré Homobilayers 93 5.5 Excitons in Twisted Moiré Heterobilayers 102 5.6 Conclusions 109 6 Summary 112 A. Acronym 116 B. Appendices 120 SOC Parameters 120 7 References 147 C. Acknowledgement 173

Dans la recherche de nouveaux traitements des maladies broncho-pulmonaires comme l'asthme et la broncho-pneumopathie chronique obstructive, les inhibiteurs de PDE4 sont des cibles intéressantes. Dans cette voie, notre laboratoire s'intéresse à la synthèse d'une nouvelle famille d'inhibiteurs à base pyridazinone. Pour cela, cette thèse couple la modélisation moléculaire (docking : développement méthodologique et application), la synthèse organique ainsi que des tests biologiques.Dans un premier temps, le développement du logiciel d'amarrage moléculaire AlgoGen a été poursuivi. AlgoGen (créé initialement à l'université de Lorraine en 2009) est un logiciel qui couple un algorithme génétique pour la recherche conformationnelle à une évaluation de l'énergie protéine-ligand à un niveau quantique semi-empirique alors que les autres logiciels existant effectuent ce calcul à un niveau classique en général. Le calcul d'une énergie à un niveau quantique est très coûteux en temps. C'est pourquoi, nous avons apporté de nombreuses modifications à ce logiciel afin d'accroître son efficacité dans la recherche conformationnelle. Ce logiciel a ensuite été utilisé sur un jeu de 22 dimères (typiques des reconnaissances moléculaires biologiques) et à huit systèmes protéine-ligand.Dans un deuxième temps, huit inhibiteurs ont été synthétisés et testés in vitro sur la cible PDE4. Pour compléter ce volet expérimental, une étude de structure-activité a été effectuée grâce au docking moléculaire (AlgoGen, Autodock, Glide) pour rationaliser les activités mesurées (IC50). Pour terminer, des pharmaco-modulations guidées par docking ont été réalisées afin de proposer de nouveaux inhibiteurs de plus grandes affinités avec la protéine PDE4D. / For the research of new treatment of bronchopulmonary diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the PDE4 inhibitors are an attractive target. Our laboratory is interested in a new PDE4 inhibitors family based on the pyridazinone pattern. For this purpose, this thesis couples molecular modeling (docking: methodological development and application), organic synthesis and biological tests.First, the development of the molecular docking software AlgoGen was continued. AlgoGen (initially created at university of Lorraine in 2009) is a program which couples a genetic algorithm for the conformational research and a protein-ligand energy evaluation at the quantum semi-empirical level while other software do this evaluation at a classical level. Quantum energy calculations are very time consuming. That is the reason why some modifications have been made to improve its efficiency for the conformational search. This software was then used for calculations on a set of 22 dimers (typical in biological molecular recognition) as well on 8 ligand-protein complexes.Secondly, eight inhibitors were synthesized and tested in vitro on the PDE4 target. To complete the experimental part, a structure-activity relationship study was carried out through a molecular docking to rationalize the measured activity (IC50). Finally, pharmaco-modulations guided by docking were made to propose new inhibitors with more affinity with the protein.

Submitted by Jorge Silva (jorgelmsilva@ufrrj.br) on 2017-09-12T18:24:02Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2016 - Larissa Henriques Evangelista Castro.pdf: 3738174 bytes, checksum: 04e651a55fa9b4054c2810389592be67 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-12T18:24:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2016 - Larissa Henriques Evangelista Castro.pdf: 3738174 bytes, checksum: 04e651a55fa9b4054c2810389592be67 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-02 / CAPES / CNPq / FAPERJ / Trypanosoma cruzi is the parasite that causes american trypanosomiasis (or Chagas disease), a neglected tropical disease previously restricted to South and Central Americas and Mexico, but now with several cases around the world. Currently in Brazil, the treatment of Chagas disease is done, only using benznidazole, which is not effective for the disease?s chronic phase and causes aggressive side effects, which explains the necessity of researches to find novel anti-Chagas compounds. A strategy adopted for the development of bioactive compounds against T. cruzi consists on the inhibition of the sterol 14?-demethylase enzyme (CYP51), which is essential for the parasite?s cellular membrane integrity. The inhibition can be achieved by a complexation of heterocyclic ring-containing compounds with the iron atom of heme group, present on CYP51. Thus, molecular modeling techniques were used on this study to analyze the interaction of a heterocyclic compounds (with known activity) with T. cruzi CYP51 in order to obtain the necessary information to construct an effective model for the theoretical activity prediction of these and also novel compounds. The proposed model presented a good multiple correlation coefficient (r? = 0.84) with the terms used to its construction. The model was used to help the design of novel piperine derivatives with a triazole ring, that presented promising theorical activities against T. cruzi CYP51, calculated by the model. The most promising compounds were selected and synthesized with the purpose of being tested in vitro and in vivo against T. cruzi. / O Trypanosoma cruzi ? o parasito causador da tripanossom?ase americana (Doen?a de Chagas), uma doen?a tropical negligenciada antes restrita ? Am?rica do Sul, Am?rica Central e M?xico, mas que vem apresentando um n?mero cada vez maior de casos no mundo. Atualmente, o tratamento da Doen?a de Chagas no Brasil ? limitado ao uso do f?rmaco benzonidazol, que ? pouco eficaz para a fase cr?nica da doen?a e causa efeitos colaterais agressivos, o que torna a pesquisa por novos f?rmacos imprescind?vel. Uma estrat?gia adotada para o desenvolvimento de compostos bioativos contra T. cruzi consiste na inibi??o de uma enzima essencial para a integridade da membrana celular do parasito, a enzima esterol 14?-desmetilase (CYP51), causada pela coordena??o de compostos contendo an?is heteroc?clicos com o ?tomo de ferro do grupo heme presente na enzima, fundamental para a atividade. Dessa maneira, foram utilizadas nesse estudo t?cnicas de modelagem molecular, incluindo docagem molecular e c?lculos qu?nticos semi-emp?ricos, para analisar a intera??o de uma s?rie de compostos heteroc?clicos de atividade conhecida sobre a CYP51 do T. cruzi e com isso se obter informa??es necess?rias para a constru??o de um modelo efetivo para a previs?o te?rica da atividade destes compostos. O modelo proposto apresentou um bom coeficiente de correla??o m?ltipla com os termos utilizados para sua constru??o, com um r?=0,84. Esse modelo foi utilizado para o planejamento de novos triaz?is derivados da piperina, com atividade te?rica calculada promissora contra a CYP51 de T. cruzi. Alguns dos melhores compostos foram selecionados e sintetizados neste projeto, com a proposta de serem avaliados em testes in vitro e in vivo contra a doen?a de Chagas.

http://www.pharmacol.usyd.edu.au/thesis This thesis is primarily concerned with a class of chemical compounds known as pyridazinediones, being 6-membered aromatic rings containing two adjacent nitrogen atoms (pyridazine), doubly substituted with oxygen. In particular, the work focuses on pyridazine-3,6-diones, derivatives of maleic hydrazide (1). Understanding of the chemistry of these compounds is extended, using theoretical and synthetic techniques. This thesis is also concerned with two very important classes of receptors which bind amino acids in the brain: firstly, the inhibitory GABA receptor, which binds g-aminobutyric acid (GABA) (2) in vivo, and for which muscimol (3) is an agonist of the GABAA subclass; secondly, Excitatory Amino Acid (EAA) receptors, which bind glutamate (4) in vivo, and in particular the AMPA subclass, for which (S)-2-amino-3-(3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazol-4-yl)propionic acid (AMPA) (5) is an agonist. The connection between pyridazinediones and amino acid receptors is the design, synthesis, and evaluation of structures based on pyridazinediones as potential GABA and EAA receptor ligands. Techniques of theoretical chemistry, molecular modelling, synthetic chemistry, and in vitro pharmacology are used to explore pyridazine-3,6-dione derivatives as ligands.

<p>The absorption spectra of a recently designed low-bandgap conjugated polymer has been studied using the semi-empirical method ZINDO and TDDFT/B3LYP/6-31G. The vertical excitation energies have been calculated for monomer up to hexamer. Two main absorption peaks can be seen, the one largest in wavelength corresponding to a HOMO to LUMO transition, and one involving higher order excitations. TDDFT results are red-shifted compared to the ZINDO results. Comparison with experiment yields that short conjugation lengths are dominating. This is possibly due to steric interactions between polymer chains, breaking the conjugation length. Such effects are also studied.</p>

The absorption spectra of a recently designed low-bandgap conjugated polymer has been studied using the semi-empirical method ZINDO and TDDFT/B3LYP/6-31G. The vertical excitation energies have been calculated for monomer up to hexamer. Two main absorption peaks can be seen, the one largest in wavelength corresponding to a HOMO to LUMO transition, and one involving higher order excitations. TDDFT results are red-shifted compared to the ZINDO results. Comparison with experiment yields that short conjugation lengths are dominating. This is possibly due to steric interactions between polymer chains, breaking the conjugation length. Such effects are also studied.

Accurate characterization and evaluation of tire/pavement friction is critical in assuring runway and highway safety. Historically, Pavement Friction Measurement Devices (PFMDs) employing different measuring mechanisms have been used to evaluate tire/pavement friction. They yield significantly disparate friction coefficients under the same contact conditions. Currently, an empirically developed data harmonization method based on a reference device (Dynamic Friction Tester (DFT)) is used in an attempt to overcome the disparities between the measurements using various different PFMDs. However, this method, which has been standardized by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM E1960), has been criticized for its inconsistency by researchers and runway/highway operations personnel. The objective of this dissertation research was to develop a systematic and physically intuitive harmonization method for PFMDs that will improve the comparability of their data. As a foundation for such a harmonization, the LuGre tire model that employs physically meaningful parameters to represent the main attributes of tire/pavement friction was evaluated and validated. Measurements of tire/pavement friction by three widely used PFMDs; Locked Wheel Skid Trailer (LWST), Runway Friction Tester (RFT) and DFT, were accurately predicted using nonlinear optimization of LuGre model parameters. The LuGre model was found to be superior compared to the model used in the current ASTM E1960 standardization procedure for predicting PFMD measurements. A sensitivity analysis was performed to identify the relative significance of the LuGre model parameters in characterizing tire/pavement friction, and to study the effects of variation of those parameters on predicted frictional behavior. A set of laboratory tire experiments was designed and performed to validate the physical significance of LuGre tire model parameters and to study how they behave under typical load, inflation pressure, excitation frequency, and amplitude conditions. An empirical method was developed to accommodate the effects of water film thickness on tire/pavement friction in the LuGre model. The results of the sensitivity analysis and the experiments to directly estimate the model parameters were used to identify and quantify appropriate modifications to the measurement mechanisms of PFMDs that can be introduced to improve the comparability of their results. Friction experiments performed after introducing such modifications to the LWST showed an average reduction of 20% in the deviations between the results of LWST and RFT measurements. The research carried out in this dissertation is significant because it: (i) identified the deficiencies in the current method for harmonizing PFMD measurements and the underlying reasons for these deficiencies, (ii) emphasized the importance of a standardization approach that regulates the physical condition of PFMDs, in order to achieve universal comparability of tire/pavement friction measurements, (iii) validated that the LuGre tire model is a tire/pavement friction model capable of facilitating a better standardization approach, and, (iv) initialized the development of a physically meaningful harmonization procedure for PFMDs.

Die vorliegende Arbeit konzentriert sich auf die Entwicklung und Validierung eines reaktiven Kraftfelds (ReaxFF) für die Strukturbildungsprozesse der Zwillingspolymerisation (ZP). Die ZP ist eine neue Synthesemethode zur Herstellung nanostrukturierter Hybridmaterialien, wie beispielsweise nanostrukturierter Kohlenstoffe als Gasspeichermedium. Die ZP beruht dabei auf der Verwendung geeigneter Zwillingsmonomere, die kovalent gebundene organische und anorganische Strukturkomponenten aufweisen. Innerhalb der Polymerisation werden die Komponenten neu verknüpft, sodass mehrere ineinander verwobene Teilpolymere - zum Beispiel Phenolharz und Siliziumdioxid - als organisch-anorganische Mischung entstehen. Die Nanostrukturierung innerhalb des Prozesses liegt dabei an dem gekoppelten Wachstum durch die anfängliche kovalente Bindung im Zwillingsmonomer. Ein Überblick über die chemischen Details wird im zweiten Kapitel gegeben. Weiterhin werden für die Modellbildung genutzte reduzierte Testsysteme vorgestellt. Basierend auf dieser komplexen Strukturbildung wird im dritten Kapitel die gewählte Modellierungsmethode der reaktiven Molekulardynamik mit dem Kraftfeld ReaxFF vorgestellt. Für die Modellierung mit ReaxFF werden Referenzdaten benötigt um einen Parametersatz für das Kraftfeld zu entwickeln, welcher das chemische Modell darstellen kann. Dazu wird im vierten Kapitel eine Übersicht über die benutzten Methoden zur Referenzdatenerzeugung gegeben. Im fünften Kapitel fokussiert sich die Arbeit auf die anfänglich als Referenz zur Verfügung gestellte Theorie und ihre Erweiterung zur Unterstützung der Kraftfeldmodellierung. Ausgehend von den erhaltenen Referenzdaten werden die Kraftfeldresultate für die erste Parametrisierung (TP-a) vorgestellt. Diese zeigte eine ungünstige Mittelung aus aromatischen Ringeigenschaften und nichtaromatischen Brückeneigenschaften, welche dann mit einer erweiterte Kraftfelddefinition (TP-b) aufgehoben werden konnte. In den Simulationen konnten damit alle definierte Schritte der ZP nachgewiesen werden, allerdings mit verbleibenden Problemen aufgrund der Charakteristik des geladenen Gesamtsystems. Für das sechste Kapitel wird daher die Implementierung eines Kraftfeldes für die vollständige Darstellung einer Säure durchgeführt. Ein weiterer wichtiger Aspekt für diese Erweiterung ist die damit verbundene Aufklärung der Rolle des Anions in der Strukturbildung. Das siebte Kapitel fasst die Arbeit zusammen und erlaubt den Ausblick auf zukünftige Verbesserung der Modellierung. Weiterhin werden Aussagen zur Transferierbarkeit der Ergebnisse innerhalb der Zwillingspolymerisierung getroffen.

In recent years, bulk amorphous alloys and nanocrystalline materials have been synthesized in a number of ferrous and non-ferrous based alloys systems, which have gained some applications due to their unique physico-chemical and mechanical properties. In the last decade, Zr-based alloys with a wide supercooled liquid region and excellent glass forming ability have been discovered. These systems have promising application fields due to their mechanical properties / high tensile strength, high fracture toughness, high corrosion resistance and good machinability. In this study, the aim is to model, synthesize and characterize the Zr-based bulk amorphous alloys. Initially, theoretical study on the basis of the semi-empirical rules well known in literature and the electronic theory of alloys in pseudopotential approximation has been provided in order to predict the potential impurity elements that would lead to an increase in the GFA of the selected Zr-Ni, Zr-Fe, Zr-Co and Zr-Al based binary systems. Furthermore, thermodynamic and structural parameters were calculated for mentioned binary and their ternary systems. According to the theoretical study, Zr67Ni33 binary system was selected and its multicomponent alloys were formed by adding its potential impurity elements / Mo, W and Al. Centrifugal casting method was used to produce alloy systems. Structural characterizations were performed by DSC, XRD, SEM and EDS methods. In the near-surface regions of Zr60Ni25Mo10W5 and Zr50Ni20Al15Mo10W5 alloys, amorphous structure has been observed. Experimental studies have shown that Zr-Ni based systems with impurity elements Mo, W and Al, not widely used in literature, might be good candidates for obtaining high GFA.