Complex Potential Energy Surface Research Articles

Resonant Auger decay of core-excited CO molecules in intense x-ray laser pulses: the O(1s → π*) excitation

The dynamics of the resonant Auger (RA) decay of the core-excited CO*(1s−1π*) molecule in intense x-ray laser pulses is studied theoretically. The present approach includes the impact of the analogue of conical intersections of the complex potential energy surfaces of the ground and ‘dressed’ resonant states induced by intense x-ray pulses. It also takes into account the decay of the resonance and the direct photoionization of the ground state, both populating the same final ionic states coherently, as well as the direct photoionization of the resonance state itself. The individual impacts of these physical processes on the total ion yield, the CO+(A 2Π) electron spectrum and the ro-vibrational distributions of the neutral molecules remaining in the ground electronic state after the laser pulse has expired are analysed and compared to those reported previously for the C*O resonance. It is also demonstrated that the RA effect of molecules by strong laser pulses of resonant carrier frequency is an efficient process to produce two-site double-core-hole–one-particle states of CO*.

Structures, energies, and bonding in the water heptamer

In this paper we report the geometries and properties of 38 distinct geometrical motifs located on the B3LYP/6-31+G(d), MP2/6-311++G(d, p) potential energy surfaces of the water heptamer. Binding energies of up to 45 kcal/mol are calculated. All motifs fall within 10 kcal/mol of the most stable conformation, with at least 13 structural patterns located no more than 3 kcal/mol above, leading to a very complex potential energy surface, populated by a multitude of motifs each one allowing large numbers of conformations. Cluster stability does not seem to be correlated with the number of hydrogen bonds. Compact structures are energetically favored by electronic energies with zero-point energy corrections, while more open structures are preferred when temperature and entropy are accounted for. The molecular interactions holding the clusters as discrete units lead to large binding energies but are not strong enough to cause significant changes in the geometries of the interacting monomers. Our results indicate that bonding in the water heptamers can be considered as largely non-shared interactions with contributions from intermediate character of increasing covalency.

Theoretical Study on the Gas Phase Reaction of Allyl Alcohol with Hydroxyl Radical

The complex potential energy surface of allyl alcohol (CH2CHCH2OH) with hydroxyl radical (OH) has been investigated at the G3(MP2)//MP2/6-311++G(d,p) level. On the surface, two kinds of pathways are revealed, namely, direct hydrogen abstraction and addition/elimination. Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus theory and transition state theory are carried out to calculate the total and individual rate constants over a wide temperature and pressure region with tunneling correction. It is predicted that CH2CHOHCH2OH (IM1) formed by collisional stabilization is dominate in the temperature range (200-440 K) at atmospheric pressure with N2 (200-315 K at 10 Torr Ar and 100 Torr He). The production of CH2CHCHOH + H2O via direct hydrogen abstraction becomes dominate at higher temperature. The kinetic isotope effect (KIE) has also been calculated for the title reaction. Moreover, the calculated rate constants and KIE are in good agreement with the experimental data.

Mass Spectrometry Study and Infrared Spectroscopy of the Complex Between Camphor and the Two Enantiomers of Protonated Alanine: The Role of Higher‐Energy Conformers in the Enantioselectivity of the Dissociation Rate Constants

The properties of the protonated complexes built from S camphor and R or S alanine were studied in a Paul ion trap at room temperature by collision-induced dissociation (CID) and infrared multiple-photon dissociation spectroscopy (IRMPD), as well as molecular dynamics and ab initio calculations. While the two diastereomer complexes display very similar vibrational spectra in the fingerprint region, in line with similar structures, and almost identical calculated binding energies, their collision-induced dissociation rates are different. Comparison of the IRMPD results to computed spectra shows that the SS and SR complexes both contain protonated alanine strongly hydrogen-bonded to the keto group of camphor. The floppiness of this structure around the NH⁺...O=C hydrogen bond results in a complex potential energy surface showing multiple minima. Calculating the dissociation rate constant within the frame of the transition state theory shows that the fragmentation rate larger for the heterochiral SR complex than the homochiral SS complex can be explained in terms of two almost isoenergetic low-energy conformers in the latter that are not present for the former.

A Density Functional with Spherical Atom Dispersion Terms.

A new hybrid density functional, APF, is introduced, which avoids the spurious long-range attractive or repulsive interactions that are found in most density functional theory (DFT) models. It therefore provides a sound baseline for the addition of an empirical dispersion correction term, which is developed from a spherical atom model (SAM). The APF-D empirical dispersion model contains nine adjustable parameters that were selected based on a very small training set (15 noble gas dimers and 4 small hydrocarbon dimers), along with two computed atomic properties (ionization potential and effective atomic polarizability) for each element. APF-D accurately describes a large portion of the potential energy surfaces of complexes of noble gas atoms with various diatomic molecules involving a wide range of elements and of dimers of small hydrocarbons, and it reproduces the relative conformational energies of organic molecules. The accuracy for these weak interactions is comparable to that of CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ calculations. The accuracy in predicting the geometry of hydrogen bond complexes is competitive with other models involving DFT and empirical dispersion.

An electronic structure theory investigation of the physical chemistry of the intermolecular complexes of cyclopropenylidene with hydrogen halides

The proton accepting and donating abilities of cyclopropenylidene (c-C(3)H(2)) on its complexation with hydrogen halides H-X (X = F, Cl, Br) are analyzed using density-functional theory with three functionals (PBE0, B3LYP, and B3LYP-D) and benchmarked against second-order Møller-Plesset (MP2) theory. Standard signatures including, inter alia, dipole moment enhancement, charge transfer from the carbenic lone pair to the antibonding σ*(H-X) orbital, and H-X bond elongation are examined to ascertain the presence of hydrogen bonding in these complexes. The latter property is found to be accompanied with a pronounced red shift in the bond stretching frequency and with a substantial increase in the infrared intensity of the band on complex formation. The MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ c-C(3)H(2)···H-F complex potential energy surface turns out to be an asymmetric deep single well, while asymmetric double wells are found for the c-C(3)H(2)···H-Cl and c-C(3)H(2)···H-Br complexes, with an energy barrier of 4.1 kcal mol(-1) for proton transfer along the hydrogen bond in the latter complex. Hydrogen-bond energy decomposition, with the reduced variational space self-consistent field approach, indicates that there are large polarization and charge-transfer interactions between the interacting partners in c-C(3)H(2)···H-Br compared to the other two complexes. The C···H bonds are found to be predominantly ionic with partial covalent character, unveiled by the quantum theory of atoms in molecules. The present results reveal that the c-C(3)H(2) carbene divalent carbon can act as a proton acceptor and is responsible for the formation of hydrogen bonds in the complexes investigated.

Size-Extensive Wave Functions for Quantum Monte Carlo: A Linear Scaling Generalized Valence Bond Approach.

We propose a new class of multideterminantal Jastrow-Slater wave functions constructed with localized orbitals and designed to describe complex potential energy surfaces of molecular systems for use in quantum Monte Carlo (QMC). Inspired by the generalized valence bond formalism, we elaborate a coupling scheme between electron pairs which progressively includes new classes of excitations in the determinantal component of the wave function. In this scheme, we exploit the local nature of the orbitals to construct wave functions which have increasing complexity but scale linearly. The resulting wave functions are compact, can correlate all valence electrons, and are size extensive. We assess the performance of our wave functions in QMC calculations of the homolytic fragmentation of N-N, N-O, C-O, and C-N bonds, very common in molecules of biological interest. We find excellent agreement with experiments, and, even with the simplest forms of our wave functions, we satisfy chemical accuracy and obtain dissociation energies of equivalent quality to the CCSD(T) results computed with the large cc-pV5Z basis set.

Resonance energies, lifetimes and complex energy potential curves from standard wave-packet calculations

We show here for a simple model system that the wavepacket dynamics in the interaction region can be described by a superposition of the non-Hermitian exponential divergent eigenfunctions of the physical Hamiltonian. We demonstrate how it is possible to obtain the complex eigenvalues and also the corresponding resonance eigenfunctions from the propagation of the wavepacket within the framework of the standard formalism of quantum mechanics. The general results demonstrated here for a simple model can lead to two different types of computational applications: (i) for systems where one can obtain the resonance energies and lifetimes as well as their corresponding eigenfunctions it is possible to study the evolution of the physical properties solely based on the initially populated resonance states without the need to propagate the wavepacket; (ii) for molecular systems where it is quite difficult to solve the non-Hermitian time-independent Schrödinger equation and obtain molecular resonance energies and functions. For this type of problem, the methods presented here enable one to evaluate the topology of complex potential energy surfaces from the wavepacket propagation and facilitate the study of the nuclear dynamics of ionizing molecular systems.

Radical/π-Bond Addition between o-Benzyne and Cyclic C5 Hydrocarbons

Recent theoretical investigations of the radical/π-bond addition between single-ring aromatic hydrocarbons highlight the importance of this category of reactions for the formation of PAH intermediates and soot. The present investigation extends the theory of the radical/π-bond addition reactions to the o-benzyne + cyclic C(5) hydrocarbons systems. The calculations, performed using the uB3LYP/6-311+G(d,p) method, have addressed the possible role of the reaction between o-benzyne and cyclopentadiene in the formation of indene through the fragmentation of the bicyclo intermediate benzonorbornadiene. The complex potential energy surface for the reaction between o-benzyne and cyclopentadienyl radical was also investigated. In this case, the formation of the bicyclo benzonorbornadienyl radical and its subsequent fragmentation to indenyl radical and acetylene is not the main reaction pathway, although it could be relevant at relatively high temperatures. At lower temperatures, the isomerization reactions, which lead to the formation of a variety of multiring compounds, are dominant.

Ab-initio complex molecular potential energy surfaces by the back-rotation transformation method

The imaginary part of the complex potential energy surface (CPES) provides the autoionization, Auger and ICD (Intermolecular Coulombic Decay) ionization decay rates as functions of the variations in the molecular electronic structure and geometry. We introduce here a novel approach which enables the calculations the molecular complex potential energy surfaces by the standard computational algorithms which were originally developed for calculating real PES of stable molecules. As an illustrative numerical example we have calculated the CPES for the molecular autoionization of hydrogen molecule, H2[1Σg+] where the two electrons are doubly excited.

Theoretical study on the mechanism for the reaction of F with CH 2CHCH 2Cl

The complex potential energy surfaces for the reaction of atomic radical F with CH 2CHCH 2Cl (3-chloropropene) are explored at the CCSD(T)/cc-pVTZ//MP2(full)/6-311++G(d,p) level. There are various possible reaction pathways including the addition–elimination and H-abstraction reaction. Among them, the most feasible pathway should be to produce P1 (CH 2CHCH 2F + Cl), which is in good agreement with the experiment. Among the H-abstraction reactions, the most competitive pathway is the atomic radical F abstracting hydrogen atom from allylic group. Because all of the transition states and intermediates involved in the title reaction lie below the reactants, the F + CH 2CHCH 2Cl reaction is expected to be rapid. The present results could lead us to deeply understand the mechanism of the title reaction and may provide some useful information for future experimental investigation of the title reaction.

Thin Film Growth on Quasicrystalline Surfaces

AbstractThe surfaces of quasicrystals have proved to be a very interesting playground for thin film growth. They offer a complex potential energy surface where heterogeneous nucleation of islands at specific quasilattice sites is frequently observed. These islands tend to locally adopt the symmetry of the quasicrystalline substrate. For some specific adsorbates, a complete 2‐dimensional quasiperiodic metal overlayer is even formed. Other interesting phenomena are also observed in the multilayer regime. This includes the formation of novel structures, like 1‐dimensional quasiperiodic Cu films or Bi allotropes, the formation of nanoscale crystalline domains with 5‐fold rotational epitaxy, or the occurrence of quantum size effects influencing the film morphology. This article presents a short review of some of the achievements in thin film growth on quasicrystalline surfaces that the discovery of quasicrystals by Dan Shechtman has enabled.

Dissociative electron attachment and vibrational excitation of CF3Cl: Effect of two vibrational modes revisited

We present a study of dissociative electron attachment and vibrational excitation processes in electron collisions with the ${\mathrm{CF}}_{3}\mathrm{Cl}$ molecule. The calculations are based on the two-dimensional nuclear dynamics including the C-Cl symmetric stretch coordinate and the ${\mathrm{CF}}_{3}$ symmetric deformation (umbrella) coordinate. The complex potential energy surfaces are calculated using the ab initio $R$-matrix method. The results for dissociative attachment and vibrational excitation of the umbrella mode agree quite well with experiment whereas the cross section for excitation of the C-Cl symmetric stretch vibrations is about a factor-of-three too low in comparison with experimental data.

A Theoretical Study of the 3d‐M(smif)2Complexes: Structure, Magnetism, and Oxidation States

We carry out a theoretical investigation of the recently reported M(smif)(2) series1,2 and find a number of interesting phenomena. These include complex potential energy surfaces with near-degenerate stationary points, low-lying states, non-trivial electron configurations, as well as non-innocent ligand behavior. The M(smif)(2) exhibit a delicate balance between geometry and electronic structure, which has implications not only for their reactivity but also for controlling their properties through ligand design. We address methodological issues and show how conceptual quantities such as oxidation states and electronic configurations can be extracted through a simple analysis of the electron and spin densities-without a complicated examination of the underlying orbitals.

Resonant Auger decay of the core-excited C*O molecule in intense x-ray laser fields

The dynamics of the resonant Auger (RA) process of the core-excited C$^\ast$O(1s$^{-1}\pi^\ast,v_r=0$) molecule in an intense X-ray laser field is studied theoretically. The theoretical approach includes the analogue of the conical intersections of the complex potential energy surfaces of the ground and `dressed' resonant states due to intense X-ray pulses, taking into account the decay of the resonance and the direct photoionization of the ground state, both populating the same final ionic states coherently, as well as the direct photoionization of the resonance state itself. The light-induced non-adiabatic effect of the analogue of the conical intersections of the resulting complex potential energy surfaces gives rise to strong coupling between the electronic, vibrational and rotational degrees of freedom of the diatomic CO molecule. The interplay of the direct photoionization of the ground state and of the decay of the resonance increases dramatically with the field intensity. The coherent population of a final ionic state via both the direct photoionization and the resonant Auger decay channels induces strong interference effects with distinct patterns in the RA electron spectra. The individual impact of these physical processes on the total electron yield and on the CO$^+(A^2\Pi)$ electron spectrum are demonstrated.

Dissociative Electron Attachment to HCN, HCCH and HCCCN

Studies of polyatomic molecules show that more than one degree of freedom comes into play in the dissociative process of certain molecules upon low-energy electron collision. In many of these cases, bond breaking may only proceed if the initial symmetry of the target molecule is distorted. We have performed a multi-dimensional computational treatment of the dissociative electron attachment (DEA) to three polyatomic systems, HCN, HCCH, and HCCCN below 10 eV and compared their nuclear motion and dissociation cross section. We further investigated the isotope effect in the case of HCN and HCCH. We have adopted the same computational approach in the study of these systems. This approach consists of time-dependent wavepacket propagation where the Hamiltonian operator involves the multi-dimensional complex potential energy surfaces (PESs) of the resonant anion.

Influence of Modal Coupling on the Nonlinear Dynamics of Augusti’s Model

The nonlinear behavior and stability under static and dynamic loads of an inverted spatial pendulum with rotational springs in two perpendicular planes, called Augusti’s model, is analyzed in this paper. This 2DOF lumped-parameter system is an archetypal model of modal interaction in stability theory representing a large class of structural problems. When the system displays coincident buckling loads, several post-buckling paths emerge from the bifurcation point (critical load) along the fundamental path. This leads to a complex potential energy surface. Herein, we aim to investigate the influence of nonlinear modal interactions on the dynamic behavior of Augusti’s model. Coupled/uncoupled dynamic responses, bifurcations, escape from the pre-buckling potential well, stability, and space-time-varying displacements; attractor-manifold-basin phase portraits are numerically evaluated with the aim of enlightening the system complex response. The investigation of basins evolution due to variation of system parameters leads to the determination of erosion profiles and integrity measures which enlighten the loss of safety of the structure due to penetration of eroding fractal tongues into the safe basin.

Overcoming barriers in trajectory space: Mechanism and kinetics of rare events via Wang–Landau enhanced transition path sampling

Within the framework of transition path sampling (TPS), activation energies can be computed as path ensemble averages without a priori information about the reaction mechanism [C. Dellago and P. G. Bolhuis, Mol. Simul. 30, 795 (2004)]. Activation energies computed for different conditions can then be used to determine by numerical integration the rate constant for a system of interest from the rate constant known for a reference system. However, in systems with complex potential energy surfaces, multiple reaction pathways may exist making ergodic sampling of trajectory space difficult. Here, we present a combination of TPS with the Wang-Landau (WL) flat-histogram algorithm for an efficient sampling of the transition path ensemble. This method, denoted by WL-TPS, has the advantage that from one single simulation, activation energies at different temperatures can be determined even for systems with multiple reaction mechanisms. The proposed methodology for rate constant calculations does not require the knowledge of the reaction coordinate and is generally applicable to Arrhenius and non-Arrhenius processes. We illustrate the applicability of this technique by studying a two-dimensional toy system consisting of a triatomic molecule immersed in a fluid of repulsive soft disks. We also provide an expression for the calculation of activation volumes from path averages such that the pressure dependence of the rate constant can be obtained by numerical integration.

Gas Phase Reaction of Nitric Acid with Hydroxyl Radical without and with Water. A Theoretical Investigation

The gas phase reaction between nitric acid and hydroxyl radical, without and with a single water molecule, has been investigated theoretically using the DFT-B3LYP, MP2, QCISD, and CCSD(T) theoretical approaches with the 6-311+G(2df,2p) and aug-cc-pVTZ basis sets. The reaction without water begins with the formation of a prereactive hydrogen-bonded complex and has several elementary reactions processes. They include proton coupled electron transfer, hydrogen atom transfer, and proton transfer mechanisms, and our kinetic study shows a quite good agreement of the behavior of the rate constant with respect to the temperature and to the pressure with the experimental results from the literature. The addition of a single water molecule results in a much more complex potential energy surface although the different elementary reactions found have the same electronic features that the naked reaction. Two transition states are stabilized by the effect of a hydrogen bond interaction originated by the water molecule, and in the prereactive hydrogen bond region there is a geometrical rearrangement necessary to prepare the HO and HNO(3) moieties to react to each other. This step contributes the reaction to be slower than the reaction without water and explains the experimental finding, pointing out that there is no dependence for the HNO(3) + HO reaction on water vapor.

Structural Studies of the Water Hexamer

In this paper we report the geometries and properties of 24 structural isomers located on the MP2/6-311++g** potential energy surface of the water hexamer. At least 15 structural patterns are located within 3 kcal/mol of the most stable conformation, leading to a very complex potential energy surface, several isomers having significant contributions. A quadratic correlation between the distance from the proton to the center of the hydrogen bond with the distance between oxygen atoms for all clusters is reported. MP2/6-311++g** and CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pvdz//MP2/6-311++g** predict different stabilization orderings but are in good agreement for binding energies. Compact structures are energetically favored by electronic energies with zero point energy corrections, while noncompact cyclic structures are preferred when temperature and entropy are accounted for.