Solvent Effects on Nonadiabatic Coupling: Interfacing Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory with the Effective Fragment Potential Method

To enable the accurate prediction of solvent effects on nonadiabatic processes, time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) is combined with the effective fragment potential (EFP) method for the computation of nonadiabatic coupling matrix elements (NACME). The viability of the new TDDFT/EFP NACME method is demonstrated via comparisons to fully TDDFT NACME calculations for both the solute (methylene imine) and solvent (water or methanol). The success of the combined TDDFT/EFP method is promising for the use of the new method for accurate simulations of the nonadiabatic dynamics of solvated molecules.