Ab initio study of fast small-amplitude vibrations as functions of slow large-amplitude motions in CD3OH and comparison to CH3OH

Abstract

Ab initio quantum chemical calculations generating a two-dimensional map of the energy surface and vibrational frequencies have been carried out for CD3OH and CH3OH over ranges of the torsional angle γ and the OH bend angle ρ. We have explored the frequency variation of the fast small-amplitude asymmetric ν2 and ν9 CD and CH stretching modes of E parentage as functions of the slow large-amplitude γ and ρ coordinates associated with the torsional and OH-bending modes that would form a degenerate e pair in the ρ=0° limit of COH linearity. The Gaussian09 program package was employed to calculate minimized energies, structures and Hessians on a grid of points with γ varying from 120° to 180° from the top to the bottom of the torsional potential barrier and ρ varying from 0° at linearity up to a 100° bend. The energies, average frequencies and frequency differences for each species have been fitted to a model combining Fourier expansions in the torsional angle with power-series in the OH-bend angle (Thapaliya et al., 2015) and the expansion constants are presented and compared for the two isotopologues. The conical intersection points of degeneracy between the ν2 and ν9 frequencies have been located for CD3OH, close to those known for CH3OH (Dawadi and Perry, 2014). For CD3OH, CD stretching frequencies calculated along the IRC torsional path from top to bottom of the barrier have been fitted to a high-order local mode model for comparison with earlier results for CH3OH (Xu, 2000), and A-E torsional splittings have been predicted for the three CD stretches.