Effect of Long-Range Corrections on Intermolecular Interactions and Vibrational Assignments of Ethylene Oxide Dimer. A Combined DFT and SQFF Study

Abstract

Theoretical structural and vibrational study for the ethylene oxide dimer have been performed by using the experimental structure determined by X-ray diffraction, the vibrational spectra and, the functional hybrids B3LYP/6-311++G** and WB97XD/6-311++G** methods. Here, the effects of dispersion on intermolecular interactions and on complete assignments of infrared and Raman spectra of dimer have been performed combining the Pulay´s scaled quantum mechanical force field (SQMFF) methodology with those two levels of calculations in order to fit the theoretical wavenumbers values to the experimental ones. Calculations including long-range corrections have revealed similar optimized energy, volume and frequencies to calculated with the B3LYP/6-31G* method, lower correlations in the geometrical parameters, higher stabilization energy, higher values in the topological parameters and higher scaled force constants than the obtained at B3LYP/6-311++G** level. Natural bond order (NBO) and atoms in molecules theory (AIM) studies with both methods reveal two types of intermolecular interactions (C-O···H and C-O···O) in the ethylene oxide dimer in accordance with the bands observed in the experimental Raman spectrum at low temperatures and with the experimental structure determined at 100 K. The nature of those interactions and their topological properties were studied by using NBO and AIM calculations. The studied properties for the ethylene oxide dimer were analyzed and compared with those obtained for the monomer. Similar assignments of the vibrational modes for dimer were obtained using the three different methods.