ONIOM and Its Applications to Material Chemistry and Catalyses

One of the largest challenges for quantum chemistry today is to obtain accurate results for large complex molecular systems, and a variety of approaches have been proposed recently toward this goal. We have developed the ONIOM method, an onion skin-like multi-level method, combining different levels of quantum chemical methods as well as molecular mechanics method. We have been applying the method to many different large systems, including thermochemistry, homogeneous catalysis, stereoselectivity in organic synthesis, solution chemistry, fullerenes and nanochemistry, and biomolecular systems. The method has recently been combined with the polarizable continuum model (ONIOM-PCM), and was also extended for molecular dynamics simulation of solution (ONIOM-XS). In the present article the recent progress in various applications of ONIOM and other electronic structure methods to problems of homogeneous catalyses and nanochemistry is reviewed. Topics include 1. bond energies in large molecular systems, 2. organometallic reactions and homogeneous catalysis, 3. structure, reactivity and bond energies of large organic molecules including fullerenes and nanotubes, and 4. biomolecular structure and enzymatic reaction mechanisms.