Abstract In this thesis nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magneto-optical rotation (MOR) parameters are investigated for water, paying special attention to the effect of solvation from gaseous to liquid phase. Nuclear magnetic shielding and quadrupole coupling tensors of NMR spectroscopy are studied for gaseous and liquid water. Liquid state is modelled by a 32-molecule Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulation, followed by property calculations for the central molecules in clusters cut out from the simulation trajectory. Gaseous state is similarly represented by a one-molecule simulation. Gas-to-liquid shifts for shielding constants obtained this way are in good agreement with experiments. To get insight into the local environment and its effect on the properties the clusters are divided into groups of distinct local features, namely the number of hydrogen bonds. The analysis shows in detail how the NMR tensors evolve as the environment changes gradually from the gas to liquid upon increasing the number of hydrogen bonds to the molecule of interest. The study sheds light on the usefulness of NMR experiments in investigating the local coordination of liquid water. To go a bit further, the above mentioned NMR parameters along with the spin-spin coupling constant are examined for water dimer in various geometries to have insight into solvation and hydrogen bonding phenomena from bottom to top. Characteristic changes in the properties are monitored as the geometry of the dimer is systematically varied from very close encounter of the monomers to distances and orientations where hydrogen bonding between monomers ceases to exist. No rapid changes during the hydrogen bond breaking are observed indicating that the hydrogen bonding is a continuous phenomenon rather than an on-off situation. However, for analysis purposes we provide an NMR-based hydrogen bond definition, expressed geometrically, based on the behaviour of the NMR properties as a function of dimer geometry. Our definition closely resembles widely used definitions and thus reinforces their validity. Magneto-optical rotation parameters, the nuclear spin optical rotation (NSOR) and the Verdet constant, are computed for gaseous and liquid water, in the same manner as the NMR properties above. Recent pioneering experiments including NSOR for hydrogen nuclei in liquid water and liquid xenon have demonstrated that this technique has a potential to be a useful new probe of molecular structure. We reproduce computationally, applying a first-principles theory developed recently in the group, the experimental NSOR for hydrogen nuclei in liquid water, and predict hydrogen NSOR in gaseous water along with the oxygen NSOR in liquid and gaseous water. NSOR is an emerging experimental technique that needs interplay between theory and computation for validation, steering and insight.

Abstract In this thesis, the magnetic resonance and magneto-optical rotation parameters are studied in single-layer carbon systems of two different dimensionalities. Based on electronic structure calculations, the spectral parameters are predicted for both extended (2D) and finite, molecular (0D) systems consisting of pure sp²-hybridised pristine graphene (G), as well as hydrogenated and fluorinated, sp³-hybridised graphene derivatives, graphane (HG) and fluorographene (FG), respectively. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) parameters are calculated for G, HG and FG systems at their large-system limit. For their 0D counterparts, graphene flakes, qualitative spectral trends are predicted as functions of their size and perimeter type. The last group of studied carbon systems consists of 2D graphenes containing spin-1/2 paramagnetic defects. Electron spin resonance (ESR) parameters and paramagnetic NMR shieldings are predicted for four different paramagnetic systems, including the vacancy-defected graphane and fluorographene, as well as graphene with hydrogen and fluorine adatoms. The magneto-optic properties of G and HG flakes are studied in terms of Faraday optical rotation and nuclear spin optical rotation parameters, to investigate the effects of their finite size and also the different level of hydrogenation. All the different investigated parameters displayed characteristic sensitivity to the electronic and atomic structure of the studied graphenes. The parameters obtained provide an insight into the physics of these 0D and 2D carbon materials, and encourage experimental verification.