Origin of attraction and directionality of the pi/pi interaction: model chemistry calculations of benzene dimer interaction.

A model chemistry for the evaluation of intermolecular interaction between aromatic molecules (AIMI Model) has been developed. The CCSD(T) interaction energy at the basis set limit has been estimated from the MP2 interaction energy near the basis set limit and the CCSD(T) correction term obtained by using a medium size basis set. The calculated interaction energies of the parallel, T-shaped,and slipped-parallel benzene dimers are -1.48, -2.46, and -2.48 kcal/mol, respectively. The substantial attractive interaction in benzene dimer, even where the molecules are well separated, shows that the major source of attraction is not short-range interactions such as charge-transfer but long-range interactions such as electrostatic and dispersion. The inclusion of electron correlation increases attraction significantly. The dispersion interaction is found to be the major source of attraction in the benzene dimer. The orientation dependence of the dimer interaction is mainly controlled by long-range interactions. Although electrostatic interaction is considerably weaker than dispersion interaction, it is highly orientation dependent. Dispersion and electrostatic interactions are both important for the directionality of the benzene dimer interaction.     

Benzene–kaolinite interaction properties

In this work, we present a theoretical study of interaction of benzene with kaolinite and an analysis of the vibrational spectra, electrostatic potential maps, and self consistent field (SCF) orbitals. B3LYP and MP2 benzene–kaolinite results indicate a preferential interaction of benzene on kaolinite octahedral surface. Population analysis indicates that the atoms modified their charges when the monoaromatic molecule and clay mineral are close to tetrahedral and octahedral surface of kaolinite, which suggests that the adsorbed molecule becomes slightly positive. Infrared vibrational data show the reduction in the band frequencies related to the kaolinite external hydroxyls, indicating a weak interaction of benzene with clay mineral. It also was verified, from the potential electrostatic maps, a change in electron density in both benzene and kaolinite. Electron localization function analysis was also carried out for this interaction. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The intricacies of the stacking interaction in a pyrrole–pyrrole system

Extensive calculations of potential energy surfaces for parallel-displaced configurations of pyrrole–pyrrole systems have been carried out by the use of a dispersion-corrected density functional. System geometries associated with the energy minima have been found. The minimum interaction energy has been calculated as ?5.38 kcal/mol. However, bonding boundaries appeared to be relatively broad, and stacking interactions can be binding even for ring centroid distances larger than 6 Å. Though the contribution of the correlation energy to intermolecular interaction in pyrrole dimers appeared to be relatively small (around 1.6 smaller than it is in a benzene–benzene system), this system’s minimum interaction energy is lower than those calculated for benzene–benzene, benzene–pyridine and even pyridine–pyridine configurations. The calculation of the charges and energy decomposition analysis revealed that the specific charge distribution in a pyrrole molecule and its relatively high polarization are the significant source of the intermolecular interaction in pyrrole dimer systems.     

A density functional theory study of the benzene-water complex

The intermolecular interaction of the benzene-water complex is calculated using real-space pseudopotential density functional theory utilizing a van der Waals density functional. Our results for the intermolecular potential energy surface clearly show a stable configuration with the water molecule standing above or below the benzene with one or both of the H atoms pointing toward the benzene plane, as predicted by previous studies. However, when the water molecule is pulled outside the perimeter of the ring, the configuration of the complex becomes unstable, with the water molecule attaching in a saddle point configuration to the rim of the benzene with its O atom adjacent to a benzene H. We find that this structural change is connected to a change in interaction from H (water)/pi cloud (benzene) to O (water)/H (benzene). We compare our results for the ground-state structure with results from experiments and quantum-chemical calculations.     

苯中硫在Ni/ZnO催化剂上加氢吸附脱除的研究

比较了浸渍法与共沉淀法制备的Ni/ZnO催化剂对芳烃原料的深度脱硫活性和选择性,并采用H₂-TPR、XRD和BET等手段对催化剂进行了表征。结果表明,NiO与载体ZnO之间的相互作用程度对催化剂的性能有很大影响。与ZnO相互作用较弱的游离态NiO还原后生成的Ni⁰,导致苯加氢生成环己烷;与ZnO相互作用较强的NiO还原后生成的Ni⁰具有脱硫能力但不是苯加氢活性中心。共沉淀法制备的催化剂由于NiO与载体相互作用较强,游离态NiO较少,且比表面积相对较大,因而具有较高的活性和选择性。同时发现,还原温度对催化剂的性能具有很大影响,在400℃还原时开始出现Ni_xZn_y合金,且随着还原温度的升高,晶粒长大,比表面积降低,导致催化剂活性降低。Sn助剂的加入能增加NiO与载体的相互作用,抑制游离态的NiO生成,从而减少苯的损失。     

Lewis acidity/basicity of pi-electron systems: theoretical study of a molecular interaction between a pi system and a Lewis acid/base

Molecular interactions between pi systems having different pi-electron character (benzene, hexafluorobenzene, and borazine), and a Lewis acid/base (borane and ammonia) were theoretically studied. An attractive interaction between benzene, the electron-rich pi system, and borane was observed. On the other hand, repulsive interactions between benzene and ammonia was observed when the lone pair of nitrogen points toward the benzene ring. In contrast, an attractive interaction between hexafluorobenzene, an electron-deficient pi system, and ammonia was observed. Unexpectedly, a weak attractive interaction between hexafluorobenzene and borane was also observed. Borazine shows an interaction both to borane and ammonia. The attraction between the nitrogen atom of borazine and borane was larger than that between the boron atom of borazine and ammonia.     

Substituent effects in the benzene dimer are due to direct interactions of the substituents with the unsubstituted benzene

The prevailing views of substituent effects in the sandwich configuration of the benzene dimer are flawed. For example, in the polar/pi model of Cozzi and co-workers (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1992, 114, 5729), electron-withdrawing substituents enhance binding in the benzene dimer by withdrawing electron density from the pi-cloud of the substituted ring, reducing the repulsive electrostatic interaction with the nonsubstituted benzene. Conversely, electron-donating substituents donate excess electrons into the pi-system and diminish the pi-stacking interaction. We present computed interaction energies for the sandwich configuration of the benzene dimer and 24 substituted dimers, as well as sandwich complexes of substituted benzenes with perfluorobenzene. While the computed interaction energies correlate well with sigmam values for the substituents, interaction energies for related model systems demonstrate that this trend is independent of the substituted ring. Instead, the observed trends are consistent with direct electrostatic and dispersive interactions of the substituents with the unsubstituted ring.     

Determination of Hamaker constants for asphaltenes in a mixture of pentane and benzene

Asphaltene deposition during oil production may lead to expensive and frequent clean-up operations. Knowledge of the interaction between asphaltene particles and deposition is vital in order to predict the magnitude of this problem.Surface energies for asphaltenes precipitated at field conditions are determined from measurements of contact angles of several probe liquids. Using the surface tension component model, the energies are found to be dispersive. Hamaker constants of a simple mixture of pentane and benzene are estimated from the application of Lifshitz theory.The effective Hamaker constants of asphaltenes in a pentane/benzene mixture are calculated. It is shown that increasing amounts of benzene lowers the attractive interaction between asphaltenes. This result is consistent with the definition that asphaltenes are soluble in benzene.     

Proton spin-lattice relaxation study of polymer solutions

Proton spin-lattice relaxation times of solvent molecules were measured on ternary mixtures of a polymer and two solvents by the adiabatic rapid-passage method. The selective adsorption of a good solvent was verified by this experimental technique for the systems benzene—cyclohexane—polystyrene(PS), benzene—carbon tetrachloride—poly(methyl methacrylate)(PMMA), and chloroform—carbon tetrachloride—PMMA. The number of molecules of adsorbed benzene per monomeric unit of PS was estimated to be about four, which is almost identical with that determined previously by thermodynamic measurements. The number of molecules of benzene and chloroform adsorbed on PMMA were also determined to be about five and four, respectively. It was found that the interaction between chloroform and PMMA has the greatest effect on the molecular motion of the solvent, whereas the benzene—PS interaction is weak.     

Influence of intermolecular interaction with the eluent on the retention and selectivity in liquid chromatography

Summary The influence of substance — eluent (water-isopropanol mixture) intermolecular interaction on the retention and selectivity of separation in liquid chromatography on silica gel with silanized surface has been investigated for benzene and toluene derivatives. The interaction greatly depends on the nature of the polar functional groups, their position in the benzene ring and the existence of intramolecular interaction.     

卤代苯与水分子间作用的从头算

污染是科学家关注的热点问题,化学污染物是造成水污染的重要因素［１］．在水环境中,卤代苯是一类优先污染物（ｐｒｉｏｒｉｔｙｐｏｌｕｔａｎｔｓ）［２］．这类污染物毒性大,在环境中的半衰期长,美国环保局（ＥＰＡ）已经把它们列入优先污染物之列．Ｖｅｒｓｃｈｎ...     

Searching of potential energy curves for the benzene dimer using dispersion-corrected density functional theory

The present work aims to establish the utility of dispersion-corrected density functional theory for potential energy curves of the benzene dimer, a problem that has received significant attention for a long time. The interaction energies of parallel-stacked, T-shaped and parallel-displaced benzene dimer configurations have been evaluated using both dispersion- and normal gradient-corrected Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof functionals along with Dunning's augmented correlation-consistent polarized valence triple-zeta (aug-cc-pVTZ) basis functions and compared with explicit correlation methods. The potential energy curves for the parallel-stacked and parallel-displaced benzene dimers are in excellent agreement with highly accurate coupled cluster (CCSD(T)) results, while for the T-shaped benzene dimer the dispersion-corrected results show a distinct deviation, being closer in that case to the MP2 level of results. The overestimation of interaction energy in the T-shaped dimer may be attributed to the presence of a permanent dipole moment in this configuration and indicates a structural dependence of the dispersion-corrected density functional method.     

Intermolecular interaction between hexafluorobenzene and benzene: Ab initio calculations including CCSD(T) level electron correlation correction

The intermolecular interaction energy of hexafluorobenzene-benzene has been calculated with the ARS-E model (a model chemistry for the evaluation of the intermolecular interaction energy between aromatic systems using extrapolation), which was formerly called the AIMI model. The CCSD(T) interaction energy at the basis-set limit has been estimated from the MP2 interaction energy at the basis-set limit and the CCSD(T) correction term obtained using a medium-sized basis set. The slipped-parallel (Cs) complex has the largest (most negative) interaction energy (-5.38 kcal/mol). The sandwich (C6v) complex is slightly less stable (-5.07 kcal/mol). The interaction energies of two T-shaped (C2v) complexes are very small (-1.74 and -0.88 kcal/mol). The calculated interaction energy of the slipped-parallel complex is about twice as large as that of the benzene dimer. The dispersion interaction is found to be the major source of attraction in the complex, although electrostatic interaction also contributes to the attraction. The dispersion interaction increases the relative stability of the slipped-parallel benzene dimer and the hexafluorobenzene-benzene complex compared to T-shaped ones. The electrostatic interaction is repulsive in the slipped-parallel benzene dimer, whereas it stabilizes the slipped-parallel hexafluorobenzene-benzene complex. Both electrostatic and dispersion interactions stabilize the slipped-parallel hexafluorobenzene-benzene complex, which is the cause of the preference of the slipped-parallel orientation and the larger interaction energy of the complex compared to the benzene dimer.     

Nature of "hydrogen bond" in the diborane-benzene complex: covalent, electrostatic, or dispersive?

Motivated by the recent discovery of unusual "hydrogen bonding"-like interaction between a borane system and benzene molecules in a molecular crystal, we carried out quantum mechanical calculations on a model complex, diborane-benzene cluster. The aim is to understand the nature of this unique interaction, which is expected to play an essential role in this novel class of molecular crystals. As analyzed in the present study, the interaction between diborane and benzene is special in the following aspects: (1) this interaction is mostly dispersive; (2) the observed pseudodirectionality with one of the diborane bridge hydrogen directed toward the benzene centroid minimizes the van der Waals contact; and (3) in the "hydrogen bond" map, this interaction is located in a unique region, which is presently populated by a few known molecular complexes with very different chemical characteristics. It is anticipated that the results from the present analysis will provide meaningful guidance for molecular engineering with diborane-benzene as a building block and for stabilization of this and possible other hydrogen bonds by dispersive contributions.     

Infrared spectrum of benzene in bromine and carbon tetrachloride solutions

The benzene—bromine complex at room temperature has been re-studied by infrared with bromine in excess of benzene. Solutions of 0.225 M benzene in bromine—carbon tetrachloride mixtures were studied. Under this condition, the spectral changes of measurable benzene absorption bands were observed more clearly than previously. The out-of-plane vibrations of benzene were observed to shift to higher frequencies. The equilibrium constant was found to be 0.11 ? mole^?1. The accord with the equilibrium constant derived from benzene rich systems supports the concept of a specific interaction. A C_6V symmetry is favoured for the geometry of the complex.     

Orientation of a benzene molecule inside a carbon nanotube

Benzene molecules confined in carbon nanotubes of varying radii are employed as semiconductors in electronic nanodevices, and their orientation determines the electrical properties of the system. In this paper, we investigate the interaction energy of all the possible configurations of a benzene molecule inside various carbon nanotubes and then we determine the equilibrium configuration. We adopt the continuous approach together with the semi-empirical Lennard-Jones potential function to model van der Waals interaction between a benzene molecule and a carbon nanotube. This approach results in an analytical expression, which accurately approximates the interaction energy and can be readily used to generate numerical data. We find that horizontal, tilted and perpendicular configurations on the axis of the carbon nanotube are all possible equilibrium configurations of the benzene molecule when the radius of the carbon nanotube is less than 5.580 Å. However, when the radius of the carbon nanotube is larger than 5.580 Å an offset horizontal orientation is the only possible equilibrium configuration of the benzene molecule. In the limiting case, the orientation of a benzene molecule on a graphene sheet can be derived simply by letting the radius of the carbon nanotube tend to infinity.     

A solute vapor pressure study of complexes between benzene and caffeine in aqueous solutions

Highly precise vapor pressure-solubility measurements have been obtained for aqueous solutions of caffeine at temperatures in the range 15 to 45°C. Values of the fugacity of benzene at known total concentrations of benzene and caffeine have been calculated and used to derive equilibrium constants for the interaction of benzene molecules with monomers and aggregates of caffeine. Data are quite precisely represented by a mass action model in which benzene attaches to associated caffeine species with a binding constant that increases in direct proportion to the molecular weight of the caffeine aggregate. An equilibrium constant for the reaction benzene monomer+caffeine monomer-benzene·caffeine is reported at each temperature. The role of hydrophobic association effects in stabilizing the various complexes is considered.     

How does ammonium dynamically interact with benzene in aqueous media? A first principle study using the Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics method

The Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics (CPMD) method was used to study the dynamic characteristics of the cation-pi interaction between ammonium and benzene in gaseous and aqueous media. The results obtained from the CPMD calculation on the cation-pi complex in the gaseous state were very similar to those calculated from the Gaussian98 program with DFT and MP2 algorithms, demonstrating that CPMD is a valid approach for studying this system. Unlike the interaction in the gaseous state, our 12-ps CPMD simulation showed that the geometry of the complex in aqueous solution changes frequently in terms of the interaction angles and distances. Furthermore, the simulation revealed that the ammonium is constantly oscillating above the benzene plane in an aqueous environment and interacts with benzene mostly through three of its hydrogen atoms. In contrast, the interaction of the cation with the aromatic molecule in the gaseous state involves two hydrogen atoms. In addition, the free energy profile in aqueous solution was studied using constrained CPMD simulations, resulting in a calculated binding free energy of -5.75 kcal/mol at an optimum interaction distance of approximately 3.25 A, indicating that the cation-pi interaction between ammonium and benzene is stable even in aqueous solution. Thus, this CPMD study suggested that the cation-pi interaction between an ammonium (group) and an aromatic structure could take place even on surfaces of protein or nucleic acids in solution.     

Effect of intrinsic properties of metals on the adsorption behavior of molecules: benzene adsorption on Pt group metals

Investigation of benzene adsorption on different metal surfaces closer to a practical system appears to be a very important intermediate stage to utilize the conclusion obtained on single-crystal surfaces. In this paper, we studied the electrochemical adsorption behaviors of benzene on roughened Pt group electrodes using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The effects of potential, surface roughness, and benzene concentration were investigated. Significant difference in surface Raman spectra of benzene on Ru, Rh, Pd, and Pt surfaces were found. On Pt surfaces, the parallel-chemisorbed benzene, the vertical dissociated chemisorbed benzene, and the physisorbed benzene were observed, evidenced by the ring vibration mode appearing at 872, 1012, and 991 cm(-1), respectively. On Pd, only parallel-chemisorbed benzene and physisorbed benzene were found. On Rh and Ru, the SERS signals were mainly from the parallel-chemisorbed benzene, with an extremely weak signal from the physisorbed benzene. The potential dependent study reveals that the parallel-chemisorbed species interacts strongest with the substrate, while the physisorbed species can be easily removed at positive potentials. The models for the adsorbed benzene were given to account for the different types of benzene on these Pt group metals. The difference in the atomization heat of the four metals was used to interpret the different interaction strength of benzene with Pt group metals.     

Origin of attraction, magnitude, and directionality of interactions in benzene complexes with pyridinium cations

Geometries and interaction energies of benzene complexes with pyridine, pyridinium, N-methylpyridinium were studied by ab initio molecular orbital calculations. Estimated CCSD(T) interaction energies of the complexes at the basis set limit were -3.04, -14.77, and -9.36 kcal/mol, respectively. The interactions in the pyridinium and N-methylpyridinium complexes should be categorized into a cation/pi interaction, because the electrostatic and induction interactions greatly contribute to the attraction. On the other hand, the interaction in the pyridine complex is a pi/pi interaction. The dispersion interaction is mainly responsible for the attraction in the benzene-pyridine complex. Short-range interactions including charge-transfer interactions are not important for the attraction in the three complexes. The most stable pyridinium complex has a T-shaped structure, in which the N-H bond points toward the benzene, while the N-methylpyridinium complex prefers a slipped-parallel structure. The benzene-pyridine complex has two nearly isoenergetic (Slipped-parallel and T-shaped) structures.