1 CASSCF calculations for photoinduced processes in large molecules: choosing when to use the RASSCF, ONIOM and MMVB approximations Michael J. Bearpark*a, Francois Ogliarob, Thom Vrevenc, Martial Boggio-Pasquaa, Michael J. Frischc, Susan M. Larkina, Marc Morrisond, Michael A. Robba aDepartment of Chemistry, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK bEquipe de Chimie et Biochimie Théoriques, UMR 7565 – CNRS, Université Henri Poincaré, Nancy 1, BP 239, 54506 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy Cedex, France cGaussian, Inc., 340 Quinnipiac St Bldg 40, Wallingford, CT 06492 USA dPhysical & Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QZ, UK *
[email protected] 1. Abstract In this article, we compare and contrast the RASSCF, ONIOM and MMVB electronic structure methods for calculating relaxation paths on potential energy surfaces of the excited states of large molecules, and for locating any resulting conical intersections at which nonadiabatic decay can take place. Each method is treated here as an approximation to CASSCF, which we choose as our reference level of theory, but which becomes prohibitively expensive computationally for large molecules. Both MMVB and ONIOM are hybrid computational methods – combining different levels of theory in an energy plus derivatives calculation at a particular molecular geometry – but they differ fundamentally in that MMVB is a hybrid-atom method, whereas ONIOM is a hybrid-molecule method. We explain this distinction through four representative applications: the photostability of pyracylene (studied with CASSCF, RASSCF, MMVB); large geometry changes in the singlet excited states of triangulene (studied with MMVB); a model for interstitial nickel defects in a synthetic diamond lattice (studied with ONIOM CAS:UFF); and the photochemical [4+4] cycloaddition of cyclohexadiene to naphthalene (studied with ONIOM CAS:MMVB).