<div dir="ltr">Dear all,<div><br></div><div>MIT's very own Troy Van Voorhis will be kicking off this year's Theoretical Chemistry Seminar Series this Wednesday, September 10! The seminar will be held from 4-6 PM in <span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><b>56-114</b> (note the change of room from where we held this seminar series last spring). The title and abstract of the talk are below. </span></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div>
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<font style="font-size:14pt"><b>Electronic Dynamics in
Complex Environments: From Electron Transfer to Singlet Fission</b></font></p>
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<p class="" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:100%">Some
of the most basic chemical reactions are those that involve primarily
the motion of electrons with little rearrangement of the nuclei.
Prominent examples include electron transport and excitonic energy
transfer as well as more exotic phenomena such as singlet fission.
These reactions are the centerpiece of artificial photosynthetic
complexes, organic PVs and essentially all of redox chemistry. In
treating the dynamics of these reactions, it becomes clear that
knowledge of the molecular conformation alone is not sufficient to
define a reaction coordinate (since the nuclei may not more
appreciably during the course of the reaction). In this talk, we will
discuss how the “reactant” and “product” states for these
types reactions can be clearly defined using the electron density as
the fundamental variable. We will illustrate the utility of this
approach using two examples: electron transfer in solution the
simulation of singlet fission in organic photovoltaics. </p><div><br></div>-- <br>Michael Mavros<div>Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology</div>
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