Search

Duality of roaming mechanism in H 2 CO The phenomenon of roaming in chemical reactions (that is, bypassing the minimum energy pathway from unlikely geometries) has attracted a great deal of attention in the chemical reaction dynamics community over the past decade and still demonstrates unexpected results. Using velocity-map imaging of state-selected H 2 products of H 2 CO photodissociation, Quinn et al. discovered the bimodal structure of rotational distribution of the other product fragment, CO. Quasiclassical trajectories showed that this bimodality originates from two distinctive reaction pathways that proceed by the trans or cis configuration of O–C–H⋯H, leading to high or low rotational excitations of CO, respectively. Whether such a mechanism is present in the many other chemical reactions for which roaming reaction pathways have been reported is yet to be determined. Science , this issue p. 1592

Calculation of the gas phase proton affinity of CH4, PA(CH4), involves characterisation of the CH5+ ion whose fluxional nature requires reevaluation of some assumptions routinely made for more normal molecules. Here we determine the PA(CH4; 0 K) using quantum diffusion Monte Carlo (QDMC) simulations on a previously developed CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ potential energy surface for CH5+. We obtain a value of 542.4 kJ/mol in reasonable agreement with the most recent measurements. The results obtained from standard thermochemical methods, and the limitations of these methods, are also discussed.

Finite temperature quantum and anharmonic effects are studied in H2-Li(+)-benzene, a model hydrogen storage material, using path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) simulations on an interpolated potential energy surface refined over the eight intermolecular degrees of freedom based upon M05-2X/6-311+G(2df,p) density functional theory calculations. Rigid-body PIMC simulations are performed at temperatures ranging from 77 K to 150 K, producing both quantum and classical probability density histograms describing the adsorbed H2. Quantum effects broaden the histograms with respect to their classical analogues and increase the expectation values of the radial and angular polar coordinates describing the location of the center-of-mass of the H2 molecule. The rigid-body PIMC simulations also provide estimates of the change in internal energy, ΔUads, and enthalpy, ΔHads, for H2 adsorption onto Li(+)-benzene, as a function of temperature. These estimates indicate that quantum effects are important even at room temperature and classical results should be interpreted with caution. Our results also show that anharmonicity is more important in the calculation of U and H than coupling-coupling between the intermolecular degrees of freedom becomes less important as temperature increases whereas anharmonicity becomes more important. The most anharmonic motions in H2-Li(+)-benzene are the "helicopter" and "ferris wheel" H2 rotations. Treating these motions as one-dimensional free and hindered rotors, respectively, provides simple corrections to standard harmonic oscillator, rigid rotor thermochemical expressions for internal energy and enthalpy that encapsulate the majority of the anharmonicity. At 150 K, our best rigid-body PIMC estimates for ΔUads and ΔHads are -13.3 ± 0.1 and -14.5 ± 0.1 kJ mol(-1), respectively.

A new approach for preventing zero-point energy (ZPE) violation in quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) simulations is presented and applied to H2CO “roaming” reactions. Zero-point energy may be problematic in roaming reactions because they occur at or near bond dissociation thresholds and these channels may be incorrectly open or closed depending on if, or how, ZPE has been treated. Here we run QCT simulations on a “ZPE-corrected” potential energy surface defined as the sum of the molecular potential energy surface (PES) and the global harmonic ZPE surface. Five different harmonic ZPE estimates are examined with four, on average, giving values within 4 kJ/mol—chemical accuracy—for H2CO. The local harmonic ZPE, at arbitrary molecular configurations, is subsequently defined in terms of “projected” Cartesian coordinates and a global ZPE “surface” is constructed using Shepard interpolation. This, combined with a second-order modified Shepard interpolated PES, V, allows us to construct a proof-of-concept ZPE-corrected PES for H2CO, Veff, at no additional computational cost to the PES itself. Both V and Veff are used to model product state distributions from the H + HCO ! H2 + CO abstraction reaction, which are shown to reproduce the literature roaming product state distributions. Our ZPE-corrected PES allows all trajectories to be analysed, whereas, in previous simulations, a significant proportion was discarded because of ZPE violation. We find ZPE has little effect on product rotational distributions, validating previous QCT simulations. Running trajectories on V, however, shifts the product kinetic energy release to higher energy than on Veff and classical simulations of kinetic energy release should therefore be viewed with caution.

Zhang acknowledges partial support from the Academic Research Grant No. RP3991603, The National University of Singapore.

We present a method for expressing a potential energy surface (PES) for polyatomic molecules as an interpolation of local Taylor expansions in internal coordinates. This approach extends and replaces an earlier method which was only directly applicable to molecules of no more than four atoms. In general, the local Taylor expansions are derived from ab initio quantum calculations. Here, the methodology is evaluated by comparison with an analytic surface for the reactions H+CH4⇌H2+CH3. Approximately 1000–1300 data points are required for an accurate 12-dimensional surface which describes both forward and backward reactions, at the energy studied.

We present a new method for expressing a molecular potential energy surface (PES) as an interpolation of local Taylor expansions. By using only Cartesian coordinates for the atomic positions, this method avoids redundancy problems associated with the use of internal coordinates. The correct translation, rotation, inversion, and permutation invariance are incorporated in the PES via the interpolation method itself. The method is most readily employed for bound molecules or clusters and is demonstrated by application to the vibrational motion of acetylene.

Ab initio calculations have been carried out to investigate the structure and infrared spectrum of BrH:NH3, and to resolve the discrepancies found between its computed harmonic and experimental spectrum. MP2/6-31+ G(d,p) and MP2/aug'-cc-pVDZ potential surfaces have been constructed, and a model two-dimensional nuclear vibrational problem has been solved to obtain the fundamental dimer stretching and proton stretching frequencies. These vibrational modes are strongly coupled anharmonic modes. The anharmonic proton stretching frequencies are lower than the harmonic by 1100 and 900 cm-1 respectively at the two levels of theory and are in better agreement with the experimental frequency. The argon matrix alters the potential energy surface by preferentially stabilizing the more polar proton-shared structure over the structure with a traditional hydrogen bond.

A simple model potential energy surface is constructed and used in both quasiclassical trajectory calculations and quantum vibrational close-coupling, infinite order sudden approximation calculations of collision-induced vibrational energy transfer from four vibrational states of S1 p-difluorobenzene. Classical and quantum state-to-state cross sections are compared for excitation of the two lowest energy vibrational states and collision with He or Ar. Qualitatively, the same trends are seen in both sets of results. Classical cross sections, however, are significantly larger at very low collision energies as a consequence of the binning procedures used to determine classical final states and, in the case of the Ar collider, as a result of the possible breakdown of the sudden approximation. Rotational excitation of the p-difluorobenzene molecule is also investigated and found to have only small effects on the dominant energy transfer channels. The theoretical results are compared with recent experimental results of Mudjijono and Lawrance [J. Chem. Phys. 104, 7444 (1996)]. The classical results, for the He, Ne, Ar, and Kr collision partners, show good agreement with experiment, reproducing the major energy transfer channels and the experimental collision partner dependence. Quantum results agree well with experiment for the He collider and are also used to assign experimentally ambiguous product states and to investigate vibrational energy transfer channels that are not experimentally observable. The propensity toward the transfer of multiple quanta of vibrational energy is analyzed and, in general, found to increase with the intermolecular well depth and with the mass of the collision partner. The He collision partner, however, behaves anomalously. © 1997 American Institute of Physics.

The photodissociation dynamics of H2CO molecules at energies bracketing the triple fragmentation threshold were investigated using velocity map ion imaging of the H-atom fragments. An algorithm was developed to model the experimental results as a two-step process: initially barrierless C-H bond fission on the S0 potential energy surface to form H + HCO, followed by secondary fragmentation of those HCO radicals with sufficient internal energy to overcome the small exit channel barrier on the HCO surface to form H + CO. Our model treats the first step using phase space theory (PST) and the second using a combined PST-impulsive model, with a tunneling correction. Experimentally, triple fragmentation reaches 25% of the radical (H + HCO) channel photochemical yield at energies about 1500 cm(-1) above the barrier for breaking the second bond. In addition, the triplet (T1) channel appears to reduce in importance after the barrier on the T1 surface is exceeded, slowly decreasing to10% of the total radical yield at higher energy. The double PST-impulsive model provides a good fit to the experimental H-atom speed and energy distributions for H2CO dissociation on S0 spanning7000 cm(-1) of available energy.

In this paper we demonstrate, at the UHF/6‐311++G(d,p) level of theory, the practical feasibility of using ab initio quantum chemical calculations to generate a molecular potential energy surface (PES) for the OH+H2→H2O+H reaction using our previously suggested interpolation and iteration schemes. The successful, and almost completely automated, merger of the PES algorithm and quantum chemical calculations involves a number of significant practical problems, the solutions of which are presented in detail. The convergence of the interpolated potential surface was monitored in terms of reaction probability and we find that the surface converges once the energy, gradient and Hessian have been calculated at approximately 350 geometries. We also find that, although the initial geometries used consisted only of points along a reaction path for the OH+H2→H2O+H reaction, the potential energy surface iteration process rapidly adds information about other, energetically accessible, reaction channels.

In this paper we evaluate the use of higher order derivatives in the construction of an interpolated potential energy surface for the OH+H2→H2O+H reaction. The surface construction involves interpolating between local Taylor expansions about a set of known data points. We examine the use of first, second, third, and fourth order Taylor expansions in the interpolation scheme. The convergence of the various interpolated surfaces is evaluated in terms of the probability of reaction. We conclude that first order Taylor expansions (and by implication zeroth order expansions) are not suitable for constructing potential energy surfaces for reactive systems. We also conclude that it is inefficient to use fourth order derivatives. The factors differentiating between second and third order Taylor expansions are less clear. Although third order surfaces require substantially fewer data points to converge than second order surfaces, this faster convergence does not offset the large cost incurred in calculating numeri...

We investigate the quantum dynamical nature of hydrogen bonding in 1,2-ethanediol and monohydrated 1,2-ethanediol using different levels of ab initio theory. Global full-dimensional potential energy surfaces were constructed from PW91/cc-pVDZ, B3LYP/cc-pVDZ, and MP2/cc-pVDZ ab initio data for gas-phase and monohydrated 1,2-ethanediol, using a modified Shepard interpolation scheme. Zero-point energies and nuclear vibrational wave functions were calculated on these surfaces using the quantum diffusion Monte Carlo algorithm. The nature of intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonding in these molecules was investigated by considering a ground-state nuclear vibrational wavefunction with reduced complete nuclear permutation and inversion (CNPI) symmetry. Separate wavefunction histograms were determined from the ground-state nuclear vibrational wavefunction by projection into bondlength coordinates. The O-H and O-O wavefunction histograms and vibrationally averaged distances were then used to probe the extent of intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonding. From these data, we conclude that gas-phase ethanediol may possess a weak hydrogen bond, with a relatively short O-O distance but no detectable proton delocalization. Monohydrated ethanediol was found to exhibit no intramolecular hydrogen bonding but instead possessed two intermolecular hydrogen bonds, indicated by both shortening of the O-O distance and significant proton delocalization. The degree of proton delocalization and shortening of the vibrationally averaged O-O distance was found to be dependent on the ab initio method used to generate the potential energy surface (PES) data set.

The nuclear vibrational wave function and zero-point vibrational energy of CH5(+) are calculated using quantum diffusion Monte Carlo techniques on an interpolated potential energy surface constructed from CCSD(T)/aug'-cc-pVTZ ab initio data. From this multidimensional wave function, the vibrationally averaged rotational constants and radial distribution functions for atom-atom distances within the molecule are constructed. It is found that the distributions of all 10 H-H distances are bimodal and identical. The radial distribution functions obtained for the five C-H distances are also identical, but unimodal. The three rotational constants were found to be 3.78, 3.80, and 3.83 cm(-1). These values indicate that the ground state of CH5(+) is significantly more symmetric than its global minimum energy structure. We conclude that the zero-point motion of CH5(+) renders all five protons equivalent in the ground state and precludes the assignment of a unique structure to the molecule.

A global potential energy surface for the water dimer is constructed using the modified Shepard interpolation scheme of Collins et al. According to this interpolation scheme, the energy at an arbitrary geometry is expressed as a weighted sum of Taylor series expansions from neighboring data points, where the energy and derivative data required are obtained from ab initio calculations. For some ab initio methods, errors are introduced into the second derivative matrix, either by numerical differencing of ab initio energies or numerical integration during the ab initio calculation. Therefore, we test the accuracy required of the second derivative data by truncation of the exact second derivatives to a series of approximate second derivatives, and assess the effect on the results of a quantum diffusion Monte Carlo (QDMC) simulation. Our results show that the calculated zero-point energy and wave function histograms converge to within the numerical uncertainty of the QDMC simulation by inclusion of either three significant figures or three decimal places in the second derivatives.