This study investigates critical structure–reactivity relationships within 34 representative per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) undergoing defluorination with UV-generated hydrated electrons. While C_nF_2n+1–COO^– with variable fluoroalkyl chain lengths (n = 2 to 10) exhibited a similar rate and extent of parent compound decay and defluorination, the reactions of telomeric C_nF_2n+1–CH₂CH₂–COO^– and C_nF_2n+1–SO₃^– showed an apparent dependence on the length of the fluoroalkyl chain. Cross comparison of experimental results, including different rates of decay and defluorination of specific PFAS categories, the incomplete defluorination from most PFAS structures, and the surprising 100% defluorination from CF₃COO^–, leads to the elucidation of new mechanistic insights into PFAS degradation. Theoretical calculations on the C–F bond dissociation energies (BDEs) of all PFAS structures reveal strong relationships among (i) the rate and extent of decay and defluorination, (ii) head functional groups, (iii) fluoroalkyl chain length, and (iv) the position and number of C–F bonds with low BDEs. These relationships are further supported by the spontaneous cleavage of specific bonds during calculated geometry optimization of PFAS structures bearing one extra electron, and by the product analyses with high-resolution mass spectrometry. Multiple reaction pathways, including H/F exchange, dissociation of terminal functional groups, and decarboxylation-triggered HF elimination and hydrolysis, result in the formation of variable defluorination products. The selectivity and ease of C–F bond cleavage highly depends on molecular structures. These findings provide critical information for developing PFAS treatment processes and technologies to destruct a wide scope of PFAS pollutants and for designing fluorochemical formulations to avoid releasing recalcitrant PFASs into the environment.

The optoelectronic and excitonic properties in a series of linear acenes (naphthalene up to heptacene) are investigated using range-separated methods within time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT). In these rather simple systems, it is well-known that TDDFT methods using conventional hybrid functionals surprisingly fail in describing the low-lying L_a and L_b valence states, resulting in large, growing errors for the L_a state and an incorrect energetic ordering as a function of molecular size. In this work, we demonstrate that the range-separated formalism largely eliminates both of these errors and also provides a consistent description of excitonic properties in these systems. We further demonstrate that reoptimizing the percentage of Hartree−Fock exchange in conventional hybrids to match wave function-based benchmark calculations still yields serious errors, and a full 100% Hartree−Fock range separation is essential for simultaneously describing both of the L_a and L_b transitions. From an analysis of electron−hole transition density matrices, we finally show that conventional hybrid functionals over-delocalize excitons and underestimate quasiparticle energy gaps in the acene systems. The results of our present study emphasize the importance of both a range-separated and asymptotically correct contribution of exchange in TDDFT for investigating optoelectronic and excitonic properties, even for these simple valence excitations.

Using a nonempirically tuned range-separated DFT approach, we study both the quasiparticle properties (HOMO–LUMO fundamental gaps) and excitation energies of DNA and RNA nucleobases (adenine, thymine, cytosine, guanine, and uracil). Our calculations demonstrate that a physically motivated, first-principles tuned DFT approach accurately reproduces results from both experimental benchmarks and more computationally intensive techniques such as many-body GW theory. Furthermore, in the same set of nucleobases, we show that the nonempirical range-separated procedure also leads to significantly improved results for excitation energies compared to conventional DFT methods. The present results emphasize the importance of a nonempirically tuned range-separation approach for accurately predicting both fundamental and excitation gaps in DNA and RNA nucleobases.