In this review, we show improvements to the semiempirical quantum chemical method RM1 and present a wide range of its applications as reported by researchers of various areas, such as theoretical, organic, physical, analytical, and inorganic chemistry, as well as their interfaces with medicinal chemistry, biology, and materials science. Success of RM1 is seemingly due to its ability to predict structural, energetic, electronic and wave function dependent properties of the investigated systems, coupled with its low computational demand required to perform calculations when compared to ab initio and density functional methods. Moreover, RM1 is widely available in several computational chemistry softwares, such as MOPAC, GAMESS, Amber, Spartan, HyperChem, and AMPAC. This review describes various case studies that perhaps can be of interest to researchers who might need a more solid basis from which to expand the frontier of applicability of RM1 to even more complex problems on larger systems.

Cálculos semi-empíricos do tipo AM1-TDHF para a primeira hiperpolarizabilidade estática, β(0), de dezesseis compostos mesoiônicos do sistema 1,3-tiazólio-5-tiolato foram realizados. Com base nos resultados obtidos, dois novos compostos mesoiônicos, 2-(4-nitrofenil)-3-metil-4-(metilfenil)-1,3-tiazólio-5-tiolato e 2-(4-nitrofenil)-3-metil-4-(metoxifenil)-1,3-tiazólio-5-tiolato, foram sintetizados e caracterizados por métodos espectroscópicos e analíticos.

Semiempirical AM1-TDHF calculations of the static first hyperpolarizabilities, β(0), of 1,3-thiazolium-5-thiolate mesoionic derivatives were performed. Guided by these results, two new mesoionic compounds - 2-(4-nitrophenyl)-3-methyl-4-(methylphenyl)-1,3-thiazolium-5-thiolate and 2-(4-nitrophenyl)-3-methyl-4-(methoxyphenyl)-1,3-thiazolium-5-thiolate - were synthesized and characterized by analytical and spectroscopic means.

O modelo Sparkle/PM3 é parametrizado para complexos de európio (III), gadolínio (III) e térbio (III). A validação do modelo foi realizada utilizando noventa e seis complexos de Eu(III), setenta complexos de Gd(III) e quarenta e dois complexos de Tb(III); todos a partir de estruturas cristalográficas de alta qualidade, com fator R < 5%. Os erros médios absolutos, obtidos com o modelo Sparkle/PM3, considerando todas as distâncias interatômicas do tipo lantanídeo-átomo ligante, foram 0,080 Å para Eu(III), 0,063 Å para Gd(III) e 0,070 Å para Tb(III). Estes valores médios são similares aos obtidos com o modelo Sparkle/AM1 (0,082 Å, 0,061 Å, e 0,068 Å, respectivamente). Além disso, a exatidão em reproduzir o poliedro de coordenação de complexos de Eu(III), Gd(III) e Tb(III) é similar à obtida utilizando métodos ab initio com potenciais efetivos de caroço. Finalmente, com o objetivo de avaliar se as geometrias preditas com o modelo Sparkle/PM3 são confiáveis, escolhemos um dos complexos de Eu(III), BAFZEO, para o qual geramos centenas de diferentes geometrias iniciais, onde variamos de forma aleatória as distâncias e ângulos entre os ligantes e o íon Eu(III). Em seguida, todas essas geometrias iniciais foram otimizadas usando o modelo Sparkle/PM3. Como resultado, observamos uma tendência significativa onde a geometria que apresentou o menor erro médio absoluto apresentou também a energia total mais baixa, o que reforça a validade do modelo Sparkle.

The Sparkle/PM3 model is extended to europium(III), gadolinium(III), and terbium(III) complexes. The validation procedure was carried out using only high quality crystallographic structures, for a total of ninety-six Eu(III) complexes, seventy Gd(III) complexes, and forty-two Tb(III) complexes. The Sparkle/PM3 unsigned mean error, for all interatomic distances between the trivalent lanthanide ion and the ligand atoms of the first sphere of coordination, is: 0.080 Å for Eu(III); 0.063 Å for Gd(III); and 0.070 Å for Tb(III). These figures are similar to the Sparkle/AM1 ones of 0.082 Å, 0.061 Å, and 0.068 Å respectively, indicating they are all comparable parameterizations. Moreover, their accuracy is similar to what can be obtained by present-day ab initio effective core potential full geometry optimization calculations on such lanthanide complexes. Finally, we report a preliminary attempt to show that Sparkle/PM3 geometry predictions are reliable. For one of the Eu(III) complexes, BAFZEO, we created hundreds of different input geometries by randomly varying the distances and angles of the ligands to the central Eu(III) ion, which were all subsequently fully optimized. A significant trend was unveiled, indicating that more accurate local minima geometries cluster at lower total energies, thus reinforcing the validity of sparkle model calculations.

Nesse trabalho, descrevemos uma investigação semi-empírica com o objetivo de estabelecer uma equivalência em termos do valor da primeira hiperpolarizabilidade estática, beta(0), de compostos push-pull do tipo aceitador de elétrons(A)-ponte-doador de elétrons(D) formados ou por pontes poliênicas ou por pontes mesoiônicas, mantendo inalterados os grupos D e A. As geometrias do estado fundamental das moléculas foram otimizadas com o método AM1, utilizando o programa Mopac93r2. O valor de beta(0) foi calculado através do método de Hartree-Fock dependente do tempo (TDHF). Nossos resultados indicam que a ponte formada por anéis mesoiônicos pode equivaler a até mais de sete ligações duplas conjugadas, dependendo do anel, e reafirmam que anéis mesoiônicos se constituem em materiais promissores para aplicações em fotônica.

In this work we report a semiempirical investigation with the purpose of establishing an equivalence in terms of the value of the first static hyperpolarizability, beta(0), of push-pull compounds of the type electron-acceptor(A) - bridge - electron-donor(D), either formed by polyenic bridges or by mesoionic bridges, keeping unchanged both D and A groups. The ground state geometries of the molecules were optimized via AM1 using Mopac93r2 program. The value of beta(0) was calculated by time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF). Our results indicate that a bridge formed by a single mesoionic ring can be equivalent to seven or more conjugated double bonds, depending on the ring, reaffirming that mesoionic rings constitute promising materials for photonics applications.

Recentlly, we have proposed the representation of lanthanides within AM1 as sparkles for the purpose of obtaing ground state geometries of their complexes. We tested our quantum chemical sparkle model (SMLC/AM1) for the prediction of the crystallographic structure of complexes with coordination number nine, eight and seven. A technique is introduced for the theoretical prediction of eletronic spectra of the organic part of lanthanide complexes by replacing the metal ion by a point charge with the ligands held in their positions as determined by the SMLC/AM1, and by computing the theoretical spectra via the intermediate neglect of differential overlap/spectroscopic-configuration interaction (INDO/S-CI).