A converged calculation of the energy barrier to internal rotation in the ethylene–sulfur dioxide dimer

Abstract

Geometrical parameters for the equilibrium (MIN) and lowest saddle-point (TS) geometries of the C2H4⋯SO2 dimer, and the corresponding binding energies, were calculated using the Hartree–Fock and correlated levels of ab initio theory, in basis sets ranging from the D95(d,p) double-zeta basis set to the aug-cc-pVQZ correlation consistent basis set. An assessment of the effect of the basis set superposition error (BSSE) on these results was made. The dissociation energy from the lowest vibrational state was estimated to be 705±100 cm−1 at the basis set limit, which is well within the range expected from experiment. The barrier to internal rotation was found to be 53±5 cm−1, slightly higher than the (revised) experimental result of 43 cm−1, probably due to zero-point vibrational effects. Our results clearly show that, in direct contrast with recent ideas, the BSSE correction affects differentially the MIN and TS binding energies and so has to be included in the calculation of small energy barriers such as that in the C2H4⋯SO2 dimer. Previous reports of positive MP2 frozen-core binding energies for this complex in basis D95(d,p) are confirmed. The anomalies are shown to be an artifact arising from an incorrect removal of virtual orbitals by the default frozen-core option in the GAUSSIAN program.