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Recently, we proposed a very simple quantum chemical model to simulate the effect of external forces acting on a single molecule [Mol. Phys. 107, 2403 (2009)]. It is based on optimizing the geometry of a molecule with an external force applied to selected pairs of nuclei. In this study we extend this model by considering interactions of external forces not only with the nuclei but also with their electrons, in particular their core electrons, which can be viewed as 'rigidly' connected to a nucleus. In the proposed revised model an external force acts on an object which consists of the nucleus of an atom and its 1s core electrons. It is shown in this study that such a model predicts the same conformational (structural) changes in a molecule as our simpler model where the external forces interact with the nuclei only. However, the magnitude of the forces required to cause these changes is now lower and within the range of forces used in real AFM experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A very simple quantum chemical model is proposed to simulate the effect of external forces acting on a single molecule. It involves optimising the geometry of a molecule with an external force applied to selected nuclei. This approach is used to investigate conformational transitions of the pyranose ring, which have been the subject of several atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments, and to generate a number of previously unknown isomers of azobenzene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dual basis set approach has proven to be very successful for accurately estimating total energies with large basis sets. This study extends the applications of this technique to the calculation of molecular properties, including energy derivatives with respect to nuclear positions and to an external electric field. All energy derivatives have been calculated numerically via finite-differences. Molecular gradients and Hessians as well as dipole moments and polarizabilites have been calculated at the HF and MP2 levels using two alternative versions of the dual basis set method. The accuracy of these approaches is discussed in the context of quality of basis sets used in calculations. It is shown that even quite poor results obtained with the 6-311G basis set are significantly improved in dual basis set calculations with the 6-311G(d,p) and 6-311G(3df,3dp) basis sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an efficient, parallel implementation for the calculation of Hartree-Fock and density functional theory analytical Hessian (force constant, nuclear second derivative) matrices. These are important for the determination of harmonic vibrational frequencies, and to classify stationary points on potential energy surfaces. Our program is designed for modest parallelism (4-16 CPUs) as exemplified by our standard eight-processor QuantumCube™. We can routinely handle systems with up to 100+ atoms and 1000+ basis functions using under 0.5 GB of RAM memory per CPU. Timings are presented for several systems, ranging in size from aspirin (C 9 H 8 O 4 ) to nickel octaethylporphyrin (C 36 H 44 N 4 Ni). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GIAO calculations of the 1H NMR chemical shifts for ethanol at the SCF and DFT levels of theory are presented. The importance of molecular geometry and basis set is discussed. Vibrational correction to the hydroxyl proton chemical shift is also considered in calculations for the monomer of ethanol. The final theoretical results for the monomer obtained at the optimized DFT/B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) geometry with the 6-311G++ (d,p) basis set for NMR are in very good agreement with gas phase experimental data. For the liquid phase ethanol the hydrogen bonding effects are taken into account by performing calculations on various clusters of ethanol. It is shown that inaccuracy due to molecular geometry and basis set in the monomer of ethanol is magnified significantly in calculations for its clusters. In this context the structure of liquid ethanol as predicted recently by quantum cluster equilibrium (QCE) theory is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]