Rovibrational energy and spectroscopic constant calculations of CH4⋯CH4, CH4⋯H2O, CH4⋯CHF3, and H2O⋯CHF3 dimers.

Abstract

In this work, we performed a thorough investigation of potential energy curves, rovibrational spectra, and spectroscopic constants for dimers whose interactions are mediated by hydrogen bonds and other hydrogen interactions. Particularly, we deal with CH4⋯CH4, CH4⋯H2O, CH4⋯CHF3, and H2O⋯CHF 3 dimers by employing accurate electronic energy calculations with two different basis sets at the MP2 level of theory. Following this, the discrete variable representation method was applied to solve the nuclear Schrödinger equation, thus obtaining spectroscopic constants and rovibrational spectra. The harmonic constant, ω e , presents a direct relation to the strength of dimer interactions. As a general rule, it was found that a decrease of interatomic distances is followed by the increase of D e for all dimers. This behavior suggests that the interaction of CH4⋯CH4 is the weakest among all dimers, followed by CH4⋯CHF3, CH4⋯H2O and the strongest interaction given by the H2O⋯CHF 3 dimer.