In this work, we theoretically study the properties of diatomic molecular systems, their dynamics, and the control thereof through the use of laser fields. We more specifically study three compounds:<p>1) HeH+, a species of great astrochemical importance which is thought to be the first molecular species to have formed in the universe;<p>2) CO2+, a metastable dication of particular interest in quantum control experiments due to its long-lived lowest vibrational level;<p>3) 41K87Rb, a polar molecule that can be formed at very low temperature and trapped, making it a good candidate for quantum computing schemes.<p>First, we use ab initio methods to compute accurate potential energy curves for the lowest singlet and triplet states of HeH+ as well as the potential energy curves, transition dipole moments and nonadiabatic radial couplings of the ground 3Π state of CO2+ and of its 11 lowest 3Σ- states.<p>In a second step, we use this ab initio data to compute the photodissociation and radiative association cross sections for the a and b 3Σ+ states of HeH+, as well as the values of the corresponding rate constants for astrophysical environments. The photodissociation cross sections from the lowest vibrational level of CO2+ is also determined.<p>Going one step further, we optimize laser control fields that drive the photodissociation dynamics of HeH+ and CO2+ towards specific channels. We compare two field optimization methods: a Møller operator-based Local Control approach and Optimal Control Theory. In both cases, we add a constraint that minimizes the area of the optimized fields.<p>Finally, we focus on one of the potential applications of high-fidelity laser control: the use of small molecular systems as quantum computers. We more specifically study the potential implementation of both intra- and intermolecular logic gates on data encoded in hyperfine states of trapped ultracold polar 41K87Rb molecules, opening interesting perspectives in terms of extensibility.<p>/<p>Dans cette thèse, nous étudions théoriquement les propriétés de molécules diatomiques, leur dynamique de réaction ainsi que le contrôle de cette dynamique à l'aide de champs laser. Notre travail porte plus spécifiquement sur trois espèces :<p>1) HeH+, un composé-clé en astrochimie considéré comme la première espèce moléculaire qui s'est formée dans l'univers ;<p>2) CO2+, un dication métastable qui se prête bien à des expériences de contrôle quantique en raison du relativement long temps de vie de son état vibrationnel le plus bas ;<p>3) 41K87Rb, une molécule polaire qui présente la particularité de pouvoir être formée à très basse température et piégée, ce qui en fait un bon support physique potentiel pour la réalisation d'un ordinateur quantique moléculaire. <p>Nous utilisons tout d'abord des méthodes de calcul ab initio afin d'obtenir les courbes d'énergie potentielle des premiers états singulets et triplets de HeH+ avec un haut de degré de précision, ainsi que les courbes d'énergie potentielle, les moments dipolaires de transition et les couplages non-adiabatiques radiaux de l'état fondamental 3Π de CO2+ et de ses 11 premiers états 3Σ-.<p>Ensuite, nous utilisons ces données ab initio pour calculer les sections efficaces de photodissociation et d'association radiative des états a et b 3Σ+ de HeH+, ainsi que les constantes cinétiques associées à ces processus dans les conditions rencontrées dans des environnements astrophysiques. Les sections efficaces de photodissociation du niveau vibrationnel le plus bas de CO2+ sont également calculées. <p>Nous allons ensuite un cran plus loin en optimisant des champs laser qui guident la dynamique de photodissociation de HeH+ et CO2+ vers des canaux de dissociation spécifiques. Nous comparons deux méthodes d'optimisation de ces champs: une approche de contrôle local basée sur les opérateurs de Møller et la théorie du contrôle optimal. Dans le deux cas, nous incluons une contrainte qui minimise l'aire des champs. <p>Enfin, nous nous concentrons sur l'une des applications possibles du contrôle laser à haute fidélité :l'utilisation de petits systèmes moléculaires comme ordinateurs quantiques. Nous étudions plus spécifiquement l'implémentation possible d'opérations logiques intra- et intermoléculaires sur des données encodées dans des états hyperfins de molécules de 41K87Rb piégées, ce qui ouvre des perspectives intéressantes en terme d'extensibilité. / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Low-dimensional (D) materials, such as graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides and chalcogenide nanowires, are attractive for spintronics and valleytronics due to their unique physical and chemical properties resulting from low dimensionality. Emerging concepts of spintronics devices will greatly benefit from using 1D and 2D materials, which opens up new ways to manipulate spin. A majority of 1D and 2D materials is non-magnetic, thus their applications in spintronics are limited. The exploration, design and synthesis of new 1D and 2D materials with intrinsic magnetism and high spin-polarization remains a challenge. In addition, the valley polarization and spin-valley coupling properties of 2D materials have attracted great attention for valleytronics, which not only manipulates the extra degree of freedom of electrons in the momentum space of crystals but also proposes a new way to store the information. The computational investigation of magnetic and electronic properties of low-dimensional materials is the subject of this thesis. We have systematically investigated geometric, electronic, magnetic and valleytronic properties of several 2D and 1D materials by using the density functional theory. These investigations not only theoretically show rich and adjustable magnetic properties of...

Cette thèse aborde deux thématiques différentes. On s’intéresse d’abord au développement et à l’analyse de méthodes pour le sens électrique appliqué à la robotique. On considère en particulier la méthode des réflexions permettant, à l’image de la méthode de Schwarz, de résoudre des problèmes linéaires à partir de sous-problèmes plus simples. Ces deniers sont obtenus par décomposition des frontières du problème de départ. Nous en présentons des preuves de convergence et des applications. Dans le but d’implémenter un simulateur du problème direct d’électrolocation dans un robot autonome, on s’intéresse également à une méthode de bases réduites pour obtenir des algorithmes peu coûteux en temps et en place mémoire. La seconde thématique traite d’un problème inverse dans le domaine de la chimie quantique. Nous cherchons ici à déterminer les caractéristiques d’un système quantique. Celui-ci est éclairé par un champ laser connu et fixé. Dans ce cadre, les données du problème inverse sont les états avant et après éclairage. Un résultat d’existence locale est présenté, ainsi que des méthodes de résolution numériques. / This thesis tackle two different topics.We first design and analyze algorithms related to the electrical sense for applications in robotics. We consider in particular the method of reflections, which allows, like the Schwartz method, to solve linear problems using simpler sub-problems. These ones are obtained by decomposing the boundaries of the original problem. We give proofs of convergence and applications. In order to implement an electrolocation simulator of the direct problem in an autonomous robot, we build a reduced basis method devoted to electrolocation problems. In this way, we obtain algorithms which satisfy the constraints of limited memory and time resources. The second topic is an inverse problem in quantum chemistry. Here, we want to determine some features of a quantum system. To this aim, the system is ligthed by a known and fixed Laser field. In this framework, the data of the inverse problem are the states before and after the Laser lighting. A local existence result is given, together with numerical methods for the solving.

Proteins have an indispensable role in the cell. They carry out a wide variety of structural, catalytic and signaling functions in all known biological systems. To perform their biological functions, proteins establish interactions with other bioorganic molecules including other proteins. Therefore, protein-protein interactions is one of the central topics in molecular biology. My thesis is devoted to three different topics in the field of protein-protein interactions. The first one focuses on solvent contribution to protein interfaces as it is an important component of protein complexes. The second topic discloses the structural and functional potential of fluorine's unique properties, which are attractive for protein design and engineering not feasible within the scope of canonical amino acids. The last part of this thesis is a study of the impact of charged amino acid residues within the hydrophobic interface of a coiled-coil system, which is one of the well-established model systems for protein-protein interactions studies. I. The majority of proteins interact in vivo in solution, thus studies of solvent impact on protein-protein interactions could be crucial for understanding many processes in the cell. However, though solvent is known to be very important for protein-protein interactions in terms of structure, dynamics and energetics, its effects are often disregarded in computational studies because a detailed solvent description requires complex and computationally demanding approaches. As a consequence, many protein residues, which establish water-mediated interactions, are neither considered in an interface definition. In the previous work carried out in our group the protein interfaces database (SCOWLP) has been developed. This database takes into account interfacial solvent and based on this classifies all interfacial protein residues of the PDB into three classes based on their interacting properties: dry (direct interaction), dual (direct and water-mediated interactions), and wet spots (residues interacting only through one water molecule). To define an interaction SCOWLP considers a donor–acceptor distance for hydrogen bonds of 3.2 Å, for salt bridges of 4 Å, and for van der Waals contacts the sum of the van der Waals radii of the interacting atoms. In previous studies of the group, statistical analysis of a non-redundant protein structure dataset showed that 40.1% of the interfacial residues participate in water-mediated interactions, and that 14.5% of the total residues in interfaces are wet spots. Moreover, wet spots have been shown to display similar characteristics to residues contacting water molecules in cores or cavities of proteins. The goals of this part of the thesis were: 1. to characterize the impact of solvent in protein-protein interactions 2. to elucidate possible effects of solvent inclusion into the correlated mutations approach for protein contacts prediction To study solvent impact on protein interfaces a molecular dynamics (MD) approach has been used. This part of the work is elaborated in section 2.1 of this thesis. We have characterized properties of water-mediated protein interactions at residue and solvent level. For this purpose, an MD analysis of 17 representative complexes from SH3 and immunoglobulin protein families has been performed. We have shown that the interfacial residues interacting through a single water molecule (wet spots) are energetically and dynamically very similar to other interfacial residues. At the same time, water molecules mediating protein interactions have been found to be significantly less mobile than surface solvent in terms of residence time. Calculated free energies indicate that these water molecules should significantly affect formation and stability of a protein-protein complex. The results obtained in this part of the work also suggest that water molecules in protein interfaces contribute to the conservation of protein interactions by allowing more sequence variability in the interacting partners, which has important implications for the use of the correlated mutations concept in protein interactions studies. This concept is based on the assumption that interacting protein residues co-evolve, so that a mutation in one of the interacting counterparts is compensated by a mutation in the other. The study presented in section 2.2 has been carried out to prove that an explicit introduction of solvent into the correlated mutations concept indeed yields qualitative improvement of existing approaches. For this, we have used the data on interfacial solvent obtained from the SCOWLP database (the whole PDB) to construct a “wet” similarity matrix. This matrix has been used for prediction of protein contacts together with a well-established “dry” matrix. We have analyzed two datasets containing 50 domains and 10 domain pairs, and have compared the results obtained by using several combinations of both “dry” and “wet” matrices. We have found that for predictions for both intra- and interdomain contacts the introduction of a combination of a “dry” and a “wet” similarity matrix improves the predictions in comparison to the “dry” one alone. Our analysis opens up the idea that the consideration of water may have an impact on the improvement of the contact predictions obtained by correlated mutations approaches. There are two principally novel aspects in this study in the context of the used correlated mutations methodology : i) the first introduction of solvent explicitly into the correlated mutations approach; ii) the use of the definition of protein-protein interfaces, which is essentially different from many other works in the field because of taking into account physico-chemical properties of amino acids and not being exclusively based on distance cut-offs. II. The second part of the thesis is focused on properties of fluorinated amino acids in protein environments. In general, non-canonical amino acids with newly designed side-chain functionalities are powerful tools that can be used to improve structural, catalytic, kinetic and thermodynamic properties of peptides and proteins, which otherwise are not feasible within the use of canonical amino acids. In this context fluorinated amino acids have increasingly gained in importance in protein chemistry because of fluorine's unique properties: high electronegativity and a small atomic size. Despite the wide use of fluorine in drug design, properties of fluorine in protein environments have not been yet extensively studied. The aims of this part of the dissertation were: 1. to analyze the basic properties of fluorinated amino acids such as electrostatic and geometric characteristics, hydrogen bonding abilities, hydration properties and conformational preferences (section 3.1) 2. to describe the behavior of fluorinated amino acids in systems emulating protein environments (section 3.2, section 3.3) First, to characterize fluorinated amino acids side chains we have used fluorinated ethane derivatives as their simplified models and applied a quantum mechanics approach. Properties such as charge distribution, dipole moments, volumes and size of the fluoromethylated groups within the model have been characterized. Hydrogen bonding properties of these groups have been compared with the groups typically presented in natural protein environments. We have shown that hydrogen and fluorine atoms within these fluoromethylated groups are weak hydrogen bond donors and acceptors. Nevertheless they should not be disregarded for applications in protein engineering. Then, we have implemented four fluorinated L-amino acids for the AMBER force field and characterized their conformational and hydration properties at the MD level. We have found that hydrophobicity of fluorinated side chains grows with the number of fluorine atoms and could be explained in terms of high electronegativity of fluorine atoms and spacial demand of fluorinated side-chains. These data on hydration agrees with the results obtained in the experimental work performed by our collaborators. We have rationally engineered systems that allow us to study fluorine properties and extract results that could be extrapolated to proteins. For this, we have emulated protein environments by introducing fluorinated amino acids into a parallel coiled-coil and enzyme-ligand chymotrypsin systems. The results on fluorination effect on coiled-coil dimerization and substrate affinities in the chymotrypsin active site obtained by MD, molecular docking and free energy calculations are in strong agreement with experimental data obtained by our collaborators. In particular, we have shown that fluorine content and position of fluorination can considerably change the polarity and steric properties of an amino acid side chain and, thus, can influence the properties that a fluorinated amino acid reveals within a native protein environment. III. Coiled-coils typically consist of two to five right-handed α-helices that wrap around each other to form a left-handed superhelix. The interface of two α-helices is usually represented by hydrophobic residues. However, the analysis of protein databases revealed that in natural occurring proteins up to 20% of these positions are populated by polar and charged residues. The impact of these residues on stability of coiled-coil system is not clear. MD simulations together with free energy calculations have been utilized to estimate favourable interaction partners for uncommon amino acids within the hydrophobic core of coiled-coils (Chapter 4). Based on these data, the best hits among binding partners for one strand of a coiled-coil bearing a charged amino acid in a central hydrophobic core position have been selected. Computational data have been in agreement with the results obtained by our collaborators, who applied phage display technology and CD spectroscopy. This combination of theoretical and experimental approaches allowed to get a deeper insight into the stability of the coiled-coil system. To conclude, this thesis widens existing concepts of protein structural biology in three areas of its current importance. We expand on the role of solvent in protein interfaces, which contributes to the knowledge of physico-chemical properties underlying protein-protein interactions. We develop a deeper insight into the understanding of the fluorine's impact upon its introduction into protein environments, which may assist in exploiting the full potential of fluorine's unique properties for applications in the field of protein engineering and drug design. Finally we investigate the mechanisms underlying coiled-coil system folding. The results presented in the thesis are of definite importance for possible applications (e.g. introduction of solvent explicitly into the scoring function) into protein folding, docking and rational design methods. The dissertation consists of four chapters: ● Chapter 1 contains an introduction to the topic of protein-protein interactions including basic concepts and an overview of the present state of research in the field. ● Chapter 2 focuses on the studies of the role of solvent in protein interfaces. ● Chapter 3 is devoted to the work on fluorinated amino acids in protein environments. ● Chapter 4 describes the study of coiled-coils folding properties. The experimental parts presented in Chapters 3 and 4 of this thesis have been performed by our collaborators at FU Berlin. Sections 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2 and Chapter 4 have been submitted/published in peer-reviewed international journals. Their organization follows a standard research article structure: Abstract, Introduction, Methodology, Results and discussion, and Conclusions. Section 3.3, though not published yet, is also organized in the same way. The literature references are summed up together at the end of the thesis to avoid redundancy within different chapters.

This thesis presents computational studies of problems in the organic and polymer chemistry. The state-of-the art quantum chemical methods are used to gain further insight into the origin and the nature of the reactions in three different organic and polymer systems. The research questions are conceptually approached by identifying the key aspects. Then an appropriate strategy for the quantum chemical modeling is developed. In the scope of the polymer chemistry, the novel synthesis technique of nanostructured materials, the so-called twin polymerization, is investigated. Using three model systems of increasing complexity the influence of the anion (trifluoroacetate) in the reaction system is investigated. The effect of the solvent polarity as well as the effect of the entropic contributions are also considered. The rearrangement reaction of the volatile cyanotritylcarbenes is another topic. These carbenes readily rearrange to ethene main products, however also small amount of the unexpected heptafulvenes is formed. This unprecedented heptafulvene formation is modeled in detail and the energetics is systematically evaluated to identify most reasonable rearrangement pathways of the probable multiple alternative routes. Computational investigation of other tritylcarbenes with varying spectator substituents results in sophisticated data base for experimental investigations. At last, some controversial observations in experimental studies concerning the kinetics of the electrophilic alkylation of the barbiturate anion are studied. To interpret the kinetic measurements, different alkylation pathways are analyzed with respect to their energetics. Further, the influence of microsolvation is demonstrated.

<p dir="ltr">Tandem mass spectrometry (MSⁿ) has become the most widely used analytical technique for the chemical characterization of unknown organic compounds in complex mixtures. It has led to the development of a large number of mass spectrometers with different mass analyzers as well as a wide array of ionization methods. This technique can be coupled with a diverse range of chromatography methods, such as gas chromatography (GC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Some of the primary strengths of MS include its great sensitivity, its versatility to seamlessly integrate with various chromatography techniques and its flexibility in the sense of access to different mass analyzers and different ionization methods. During MS experiments, analytes are evaporated and ionized and the resulting ions are separated based on their mass-to-charge (<i>m/z</i>) ratios and then detected. On the other hand, MSⁿ experiments involve isolating a specific ion of interest from all other ions and subjecting them to reactions such as collision-activated dissociation (CAD) or ion-molecule reactions. These reactions generate product ions that can be used to obtain structural information for the analyte. In addition, MSⁿ experiments can be used to generate and study the chemical properties of reaction intermediates, such as oxenium cations. </p><p dir="ltr">The mass spectrometer and the ionization source used to perform the research discussed in this thesis are described in Chapter 2. After this, the development of experiments involving ion-molecule reactions accompanied by collision-activated dissociation in a linear quadrupole ion trap is discussed, with the goals of differentiating the aziridine functionality from structurally related functional groups, such as the amino group and identifying aromatic aldehyde functionalities in protonated oxygen-containing monofunctional analytes. The integration of machine learning with mass spectral data has become an increasingly prevalent and valuable way to interpret data faster and more accurately without human bias than conventional manual approaches. Chapter 5 discusses combining machine learning-guided automated HPLC analysis coupled with MSⁿ experiments based on diagnostic ion-molecule reactions for the structural elucidation of unknown compounds. Finally, experimental and computational studies on the gas-phase reactivity of quinoline-based ground-state singlet oxenium cations are discussed.</p>

Wird DNA mit UV-Licht bestrahlt, kommt es zur Bildung von Photoschäden, die zu Zelltod oder Krebs führen können. In dieser Arbeit wird die primäre Elektronentransferreaktion des lichtaktivierten Reparaturprozesses des (6-4)-Schadens in Drosophila melanogaster charakterisiert. Der katalytische Reparaturzyklus wird durch das Flavoprotein (6-4)-Photolyase (PL) realisiert. Der Elektronentransfer (ET) vom Flavin-Adenin-Dinukleotid (FADH⁻) Kofaktor zum Schaden initiiert die molekularen Umlagerungen. Diese Arbeit charakterisiert die primäre ET Reaktion mithilfe von molekulardynamischen Langzeitsimulationen (µs) in Kombination mit Quantenmechanik/Molekularmechanik-Simulationen. Ab initio lokale Coupled-Cluster- und Dichtefunktionaltheorierechnungen wurden angewendet, um die relative Energetik von lokal angeregten und Ladungstransferzuständen des (6-4)-Reparaturkomplexes zu charakterisieren. Es zeigt sich, dass die Reduktion des (6-4)-Schadens durch einen Ladungstransferzustand ermöglicht wird an dem die Adeninstruktur des FADH⁻ -Kofaktors beteiligt ist. Über die Simulationen wird ein mikroskopisches Bild der Reaktionskoordinate der Elektronentransferreaktion im Marcusbild entwickelt. Diese ist nicht vollständig durch parabolische freie Energiekurven beschrieben sondern wird, durch Wechselwirkungen in der aktiven Tasche, ein Multiminima-Reaktionspfad ausgebildet. Hierbei hat die Rotation der Seitenkette der benachbarten, geladenen Aminosäure Lys246 dominanten Einfluss. Dies legt nahe, dass die primäre ET Reaktion der (6-4) Schadensreparatur, einen vom Adenin unterstützten ET Weg von der PL zur 5’ Seite des Schadens nimmt. Dieser Prozess wird durch benachbarte Aminosäuren und einer Stärkung der Wasserstoffbrücken mit Wassermolekülen stabilisiert. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit zeigen, dass ET-Reaktionen in komplexen enzymatischen Systemen nicht im Kontinuumsbild von ET beschrieben werden können, da lokale Wechselwirkungen drastischen Einfluss auf die ET Reaktionen haben. / UV-light irradiation of DNA leads to the formation of photolesions that can cause cell death and cancer. This thesis aims at the characterization of the primary electron transfer (ET) reaction in the photoactivated repair process of the (6-4) lesion in Drosophila melanogaster. The catalytic repair cycle is realized by a flavoprotein called photolyase (PL). The ET from the fully reduced flavin-adenine-dinucleotide (FADH⁻) cofactor of the PL to the lesion initiates molecular rearrangements. In this thesis fluctuation properties of the enzyme environment on the excited states are considered by conducting long-time (µs) molecular dynamics simulations combined with extensive quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical simulations. Ab initio local coupled cluster simulations and density functional theory are applied to characterize the relative energetics of locally excited and charge transfer (CT) states in the (6-4) lesion repair complex. Reduction of the (6-4) lesion is found to be enabled by a CT state involving the adenine moiety of the FADH⁻ cofactor. Microscopic characterization of a Marcus-type free energy reaction coordinate reveals that it cannot be fully described by parabolic free energy curves. Specifically, rotation of the side chain of nearby charged amino acid Lys246 imposes a double-well character on the potential energy surface along the reaction coordinate of the ET. For the ET reaction triggering the catalytic (6-4) lesion repair, the findings of this thesis suggest an ET pathway to the 5’ side of the (6-4) lesion mediated by the adenine moiety. The process is stabilized by neighboring amino acids and a strengthening of hydrogen bonds with water molecules. The presented results demonstrate that ET reactions in complex enzymatic systems cannot be described within the continuum ET picture, as local interactions drastically tune the ET reaction.

[ES] Toda esta disertación ha utilizado la química computacional como herramienta fundamental para el análisis científico. Por ello, en el Capítulo 2 se explican los modelos y métodos teóricos sobre este tema. La primera parte del capítulo se centra en los fundamentos de la química cuántica y, en concreto, se explica con detalle la Teoría del Funcional de la Densidad la cual constituye la base de los métodos computacionales aplicados. En esta sección, las nociones básicas del método Hartree-Fock sirven de prólogo a la DFT. El Capítulo 3 presenta los primeros resultados de este trabajo correspondientes a la reacción de metanol a olefinas catalizada por diferentes zeolitas con cavidades de poro pequeño. Esta reacción es un proceso industrial relevante que produce olefinas de cadena corta como eteno (C2=), propeno (C3=) y buteno (C4=) a escala industrial a partir de la biomasa. El sistema catalítico comprende tanto la estructura inorgánica de la zeolita que contiene los sitios ácidos Brønsted como las especies orgánicas confinadas, que forman la "hydrocarbon pool" y producen olefinas ligeras mediante pasos sucesivos de metilación y craqueo. Hemos centrado nuestros esfuerzos en comprender la naturaleza de la "hydrocarbon pool", una molécula de benceno polimetilada, y sus mecanismos de reacción para poder discernir entre ellos e identificar los catalizadores adecuados para mejorar la producción de propeno o eteno en función de la topología de cada cavidad zeolitica. Hemos podido identificar el grado de metilación de la "hydrocarbon pool" como el factor clave para potenciar el mecanismo de la ruta "paring", donde el propeno es el producto mayoritario, o el mecanismo de la ruta "side-chain", siendo el eteno el producto predominante. Este hallazgo nos permite establecer una relación entre la estabilización de los dos intermedios clave y la selectividad experimental observada con un alto grado de correlación. En el Capitulo 4 presentamos una nueva herramienta para el estudio de reacciones competitivas catalizadas por zeolitas. Utilizando un cribado computacional rápido con "force fields" para los intermedios clave de la reacción y un detallado estudio mecanístico usando la teoría del funcional de la densidad somos capaces de reconocer y cuantificar sutiles diferencias en la estabilización de intermedios y estados de transición dentro de huecos microporosos similares, aproximándonos así al nivel de reconocimiento molecular de las enzimas. Con estas herramientas somos capaces de seleccionar como catalizador una zeolita que obstaculice el mecanismo "alkyl-transfer" reduciendo la producción de eteno no deseado y potenciando al mismo tiempo el mecanismo "diaryl-mediated pathway". También somos capaces de obstaculizar la desproporción de dietilbenceno, una ruta no deseada del mecanismo "diaryl-mediated pathway" que conduce a la producción de trietilbenceno, mientras que se favorece la transalquilación de dietilbenceno aumentando el rendimiento obtenido de etilbenceno. en la primera sección del Capítulo 5, estudiamos la afinidad energética de cationes alquilamonio comercialmente disponibles con ligeras diferencias en sus grupos alquilo, TEA, MTEA y DMDEA, para la síntesis de CHA y sus efectos sobre la calidad del material obtenido. Evaluamos las energías de interacción entre la zeolita y el catión de diferentes combinaciones de agentes directores y cationes Na+ con métodos DFT periódicos pudiendo distinguir pequeños efectos de estabilización causados por ligeras diferencias estructurales entre moléculas que repercuten en la estructura final sintetizada. Durante la segunda sección del Capítulo 5, identificamos las características estructurales de diferentes agentes directores de estructura para la síntesis de AEI que mejoran las probabilidades de dispersión del Al en posiciones tetraédricas distintas de T1 obteniendo un catalizador AEI diferente de los sintetizados clásicamente. / [CA] Tota aquesta dissertació utilitza la química computacional com eina fonamental per a l'anàlisi científica. Per això, en el Capítol 2 s'expliquen els models i mètodes teòrics sobre aquest tema. La primera part del capítol es centra en els fonaments de la química quàntica i, en concret, s'explica amb detall la Teoria del Funcional de la Densitat la qual constitueix la base dels mètodes computacionals aplicats. En aquesta secció, les nocions bàsiques del mètode Hartree-Fock serveixen de pròleg a la DFT. El Capítol 3 presenta els primers resultats d'aquest treball corresponents a la reacció de metanol a olefines catalitzada per diferents zeolites amb cavitats de porus petit. Aquesta reacció és un procés industrial rellevant que produeix olefines de cadena curta com etè (C2=), propè (C3=) i butè (C4=) a escala industrial a partir de la biomassa. El sistema catalític comprèn tant l'estructura inorgànica de la zeolita que conté els llocs àcids Brønsted com les espècies orgàniques confinades, que formen la "hydrocarbon pool" i produeixen olefines lleugeres mitjançant passos successius de metilació i craqueig. Hem centrat els nostres esforços en comprendre la naturalesa de la "hydrocarbon pool", una molècula de benzè polimetilada, i els seus mecanismes de reacció per a poder discernir entre ells i identificar els catalitzadors adequats per millorar la producció de propè o etè en funció de la topologia de cada cavitat zeolitica. Hem pogut identificar el grau de metilació de la "hydrocarbon pool" com el factor clau per a potenciar el mecanisme de la ruta "paring", on el propè és el producte majoritari, o el mecanisme de la ruta "side-chain", sent l'etè el producte predominant. Al Capítol 4 presentem una nova eina per a l'estudi de reaccions competitives catalitzades per zeolites. Utilitzant un cribratge computacional ràpid amb "force fields" per als intermedis clau de la reacció i un detallat estudi mecanístic amb la teoria del funcional de la densitat som capaços de reconèixer i quantificar subtils diferències en l'estabilització d'intermedis i estats de transició dins de buits microporosos similars, aproximant-nos així al nivell de reconeixement molecular dels enzims. en la primera secció del Capítol 5, estudiem l'afinitat energètica de cations alquilamoni comercialment disponibles amb lleugeres diferències als seus grups alquil, TEA, MTEA i DMDEA, per a la síntesi de CHA i els seus efectes sobre la qualitat del material obtingut. Avaluem les energies d'interacció entre la zeolita i el catió entre diferents combinacions d'agents directors i cations Na+ amb mètodes DFT periòdics podent distingir petits efectes d'estabilització causats per lleugeres diferències estructurals entre molècules que repercuteixen en l'estructura final sintetitzada. Durant la segona secció del Capítol 5, identifiquem les característiques estructurals de diferents agents directors d'estructura per a la síntesi d'AEI que milloren les probabilitats de propagació de l'Al a través de posicions tetrahedriques diferents de T1 obtenint un catalitzador AEI diferent dels sintetitzats clàssicament. / [EN] Computational chemistry has been used as the fundamental tool during the whole work. Therefore, the theoretical models and methods on this subject are explained in Chapter 2. The first part sketches the fundamentals of quantum chemistry and specifically explains the Density Functional Theory that constitutes the basis of the computational methods applied. In this section, basic notions of the Hartree-Fock method serve as prologue for DFT after which more practical aspects are elucidated. Chapter 3 presents the first results of this work corresponding to the methanol to olefins reaction catalysed by different small-pore cage-like zeolites. This reaction is a relevant process that produces short chain olefins such as ethene, propene and butene at industrial scale from biomass. The catalytic system comprises both the zeolite inorganic framework containing the Brønsted acid sites and the confined organic species, that form the hydrocarbon pool and produce light olefins by successive methylation and cracking steps. Our efforts are focused on understanding the nature of the hydrocarbon pool, a polymethylated benzene molecule, and its reaction mechanisms in order to be able to discern between them and identify the proper catalysts to enhance propene or ethene production based on each zeolite cavity topology. We have been able to identify the hydrocarbon pool methylation degree as the key factor to enhance paring route mechanism where propene is the predominant product, or side-chain mechanism, with ethene being the predominant product. This finding enables us to establish a relation between the stabilization of the two key intermediates and the experimental selectivity observed with a high degree of correlation. In Chapter 4 we present a new tool for the study of competing reactions catalyzed by zeolites. Using a fast computational screening with force fields for the key intermediates of the reaction and a detailed density functional theory mechanistic study we are able to recognize and quantify subtle differences in the stabilization of intermediates and transition states within similar microporous voids, thus approaching the level of molecular recognition of enzymes. With these tools we are able to select a zeolite catalyst that hinders alkyl-transfer mechanism reducing the production of non-desired ethene while enhancing the diaryl-mediated pathyways mechanism. Once we discard the non-desired mechanism, we are also able to hinder the diethylbenzene disproportionation, a non-desired route of the diaryl-mediated pathways that leads to triethylbenzene production, while favouring diethylbenzene transalkylation increasing the obtained yield of ethylbenzene. To close this chapter, the theoretical results are compared with experimental selectivities obtained for eight candidate zeolites obtaining a good correlation between theory and experiment. in the first section of Chapter 5, we study the energetic affinity of commercially available alkylammonium cations with slight differences on their alkyl chain groups, as TEA, MTEA and DMDEA, for CHA synthesis and its effects on the quality of the material obtained. We evaluate the host-guest interaction energies of different combinations of OSDAs and Na+ cations with periodic DFT methods being able to distinguish small stabilization effects caused by slight structural differences between molecules that have an impact on the final structure synthesized. On the other hand, we present a new theoretical methodology to address Al positioning prediction in SSZ-39 zeolite with the AEI framework. During the second section of Chapter 5, we identify the structural features of different OSDAs for AEI synthesis that improve the probabilities of spreading Al through different T-site positions other than T1 obtaining an AEI catalyst different from the classically synthesized. / Vull agrair al Instituto de Tecnología Química per la concessió d’un contracte predoctoral, a la Red Española de Supercomputación (RES), al Centre de Càlcul de la Universitat de València, al Flemish Supercomputer Center (VSC) de la Ghent University pels recursos computacionals i el suport tècnic, a la Unió Europea i al Gobierno de España pel finançament d’aquest projecte a traves dels programes ERC-AdG-2014- 671093 (SynCatMatch) “Severo Ochoa” (SEV-2016-0683, MINECO) i dels projectes MAT2017-82288-C2-1-P i PID2020-112590GB-C21 (AEI/FEDER, UE), i al CSIC pel finançament de la estada al CMM a través del projecte i- Link (LINKA20381). / Ferri Vicedo, P. (2023). Ab initio design of efficient zeolite catalysts for methanol and hydrocarbons conversion [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/193493

<p dir="ltr">Additive manufacturing (AM) of gun propellants is an emerging and promising field which addresses the limitations of conventional manufacturing techniques. Overall, this thesis is a body of work which serves to bridge the gap between fundamental research and application of additively manufactured gun propellants.</p>