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Preventing Premature Convergence in Evolutionary Structure Determination of Complex Molecular Systems: Demonstration
Gentoku Takasao1, Toru Wada1,2, Hiroki Chikuma1
1Graduate School of Advanced Science and Technology, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 1-1 Asahidai, Nomi, Ishikawa 923-1292, Japan.
Abstract:
The combination of genetic algorithm-based global search and local geometry optimization enables nonempirical structure determination for complex materials such as practical solid catalysts. However, premature convergence in the genetic algorithm hinders the determination of the global minimum for complicated molecular systems. Here, we implemented a distributed genetic algorithm based on the migration from a structure database for avoiding the premature convergence, and thus we realized the structure determination for TiCl4-capped MgCl2 nanoplates with experimentally consistent sizes. The obtained molecular models are featured with a realistic size and nonideal surfaces, representing actual primary particles of catalysts.
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