Experimental and Theoretical Determination of Dissociation Energies of Dispersion-Dominated Aromatic Molecular Complexes

Abstract

The dissociation energy (D0) of an isolated and cold molecular complex in the gas-phase is a fundamental measure of the strength of the intermolecular interactions between its constituent moieties. Accurate D0 values are important for the understanding of intermolecular bonding, for benchmarking high-level theoretical calculations, and for the parametrization of force-field models used in fields ranging from crystallography to biochemistry. We review experimental and theoretical methods for determining gas-phase D0 values of M·S complexes, where M is a (hetero)aromatic molecule and S is a closed-shell "solvent" atom or molecule. The experimental methods discussed involve M-centered (S0 → S1) electronic excitation, which is often followed by ionization to the M(+)·S ion. The D0 is measured by depositing a defined amount of vibrational energy in the neutral ground state, giving M(‡)·S, the neutral S1 excited state, giving M*·S, or the M(+)·S ion ground state. The experimental methods and their relative advantages and disadvantages are discussed. Based on the electronic structure of M and S, we classify the M·S complexes as Type I, II, or III, and discuss characteristic properties of their respective potential energy surfaces that affect or hinder the determination of D0. Current theoretical approaches are reviewed, which comprise methods based on a Kohn-Sham reference determinant as well as wave function-based methods based on coupled-cluster theory.