Quasiclassical trajectory study of the Cl+CH4 reaction dynamics on a quadratic configuration interaction with single and double excitation interpolated potential energy surface

An ab initio interpolated potential energy surface (PES) for the Cl+CH(4) reactive system has been constructed using the interpolation method of Collins and co-workers [J. Chem. Phys. 102, 5647 (1995); 108, 8302 (1998); 111, 816 (1999); Theor. Chem. Acc. 108, 313 (2002)]. The ab initio calculations have been performed using quadratic configuration interaction with single and double excitation theory to build the PES. A simple scaling all correlation technique has been used to obtain a PES which yields a barrier height and reaction energy in good agreement with high level ab initio calculations and experimental measurements. Using these interpolated PESs, a detailed quasiclassical trajectory study of integral and differential cross sections, product rovibrational populations, and internal energy distributions has been carried out for the Cl+CH(4) and Cl+CD(4) reactions, and the theoretical results have been compared with the available experimental data. It has been shown that the calculated total reaction cross sections versus collision energy for the Cl+CH(4) and Cl+CD(4) reactions is very sensitive to the barrier height. Besides, due to the zero-point energy (ZPE) leakage of the CH(4) molecule to the reaction coordinate in the quasiclassical trajectory (QCT) calculations, the reaction threshold falls below the barrier height of the PES. The ZPE leakage leads to CH(3) and HCl coproducts with internal energy below its corresponding ZPEs. We have shown that a Gaussian binning (GB) analysis of the trajectories yields excitation functions in somehow better agreement with the experimental determinations. The HCl(v'=0) and DCl(v'=0) rotational distributions are as well very sensitive to the ZPE problem. The GB correction narrows and shifts the rotational distributions to lower values of the rotational quantum numbers. However, the present QCT rotational distributions are still hotter than the experimental distributions. In both reactions the angular distributions shift from backward peaked to sideways peaked as collision energy increases, as seen in the experiments and other theoretical calculations.     

Ab initio potential energy surface, variational transition state theory, and quasiclassical trajectory studies of the F+CH4-->HF+CH3 reaction

In this work we present a study of the F+CH(4)-->HF+CH(3) reaction (DeltaHdegrees(298 K)=-32.0 kcal mol(-1)) using different methods of the chemical reaction theory. The ground potential energy surface (PES) is characterized using several ab initio methods. Full-dimensional rate constants have been calculated employing the variational transition state theory and using directly ab initio data. A triatomic analytical representation of the ground PES was derived from ab initio points calculated at the second- and fourth-order M?ller-Plesset levels with the 6-311+G(2df,2pd) basis set, assuming the CH(3) fragment to be a 15 a.m.u. pseudoatom in the fitting process. This is suggested from experiments that indicate that the methyl group is uncoupled to the reaction coordinate. A dynamics study by means of the quasiclassical trajectory (QCT) method and employing this analytical surface was also carried out. The experimental data available on the HF internal states distributions are reproduced by the QCT results. Very recent experimental information about the reaction stereodynamics is also borne out by our QCT calculations. Comparisons with the benchmark F+H(2) and analogous Cl+CH(4) reactions are established throughout.     

Probing the structure of CH5+ by dissociative charge exchange

Dissociative charge exchange of CH5+ with Cs, coupled with quasiclassical trajectory calculations on an ab initio PES for CH5, has been used to probe the structure of the CH5+ cation. Product kinetic energy release distributions and branching ratios for CH5 --> CH4 + H and CH5 --> CH3 + H2 have been compared. The agreement of the product branching ratios provides evidence for the fluxional nature of CH5+.     

用神经网络方法拟合的反应体系H＋CH4←→H2＋CH3的一个全域势能面

利用神经网络力法,基于47783个高精度从头算能量点构建了反应体系H＋CH4←→H2＋CH3的一个全域势能面．通过大最的准经典轨线以及量子散射计算测试了势能面的收敛性质．这个势能面对于拟合过程以及从头算点的数目都已经完全收敛,拟合误差很小县比Shepard插值的势能面计算速度更快,代表了此标志性多原子反应体系最好的势能面．     

Dynamics of the O(3P) + CH4 → OH + CH3 reaction is similar to that of a triatomic reaction

The O((3)P) + CH(4) reaction has been investigated using the quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) method and an ab initio pseudotriatomic potential energy surface (PES). This has been mainly motivated by very recent experiments which support the reliability of the triatomic modeling even at high collision energy ( = 64 kcal mol(-1)). The QCT results agree rather well with the experiments (translational and angular distributions of products); i.e., the ab initio pseudotriatomic modeling "captures" the essence of the reaction dynamics, although the PES was not optimized for high E(col). Furthermore, similar experiments on the O((3)P) + CD(4) reaction at moderate E(col) (12.49 kcal mol(-1)) have also been of a large interest here and, under these softer reaction conditions, the QCT method leads to results which are almost in quantitative agreement with experiments. The utility of the ab initio pseudotriatomic modeling has also been recognized for other analogous systems (X + CH(4)) but with very different PESs.     

High-dimensional ab initio potential energy surfaces for reaction dynamics calculations

There has been great progress in the development of potential energy surfaces (PESs) for reaction dynamics that are fits to ab initio energies. The fitting techniques described here explicitly represent the invariance of the PES with respect to all permutations of like atoms. A review of a subset of dynamics calculations using such PESs (currently 16 such PESs exist) is then given. Bimolecular reactions of current interest to the community, namely, H + CH(4) and F + CH(4), are focused on. Unimolecular reactions are then reviewed, with a focus on the photodissociation dynamics of H(2)CO and CH(3)CHO, where so-called "roaming" pathways have been discovered. The challenges for electronically non-adiabatic reactions, and associated PESs, are presented with a focus on the OH* + H(2) reaction. Finally, some thoughts on future directions and challenges are given.     

An ab initio based global potential energy surface describing CH5+ --> CH3+ + H2

A full-dimensional, ab initio based potential energy surface (PES) for CH(5)(+), which can describe dissociation is reported. The PES is a precise fit to 36173 coupled-cluster [CCSD(T)] calculations of electronic energies done using an aug-cc-pVTZ basis. The fit uses a polynomial basis that is invariant with respect to permutation of the five H atoms, and thus describes all 120 equivalent minima. The rms fitting error is 78.1 cm(-1) for the entire data set of energies up to 30,000 cm(-1) and a normal-mode analysis of CH(5)(+) also verifies the accuracy of the fit. Two saddle points have been located on the surface as well and compared with previous theoretical work. The PES dissociates correctly to the fragments CH(3)(+) + H(2) and the equilibrium geometry and normal-mode analyses of these fragments are also presented. Diffusion Monte Carlo calculations are done for the zero-point energies of CH(5)(+) (and some isotopologs) as well as for the separated fragments of CH(5)(+), CH(3)(+) + H(2) and those of CH(4)D(+), CH(3)(+) + HD and CH(2)D(+) + H(2). Values of D(0) are reported for these dissociations. A molecular dynamics calculation of CH(4)D(+) dissociation at one total energy is also performed to both validate the applicability of the PES for dynamics studies as well as to test a simple classical statistical prediction of the branching ratio of the dissociation products.     

An ab initio spin-orbit-corrected potential energy surface and dynamics for the F + CH4 and F + CHD3 reactions

We report an analytical ab initio three degrees of freedom (3D) spin-orbit-correction surface for the entrance channel of the F + methane reaction obtained by fitting the differences between the spin-orbit (SO) and non-relativistic electronic ground state energies computed at the MRCI+Q/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory. The 3D model surface is given in terms of the distance, R(C-F), and relative orientation, Euler angles ? and θ, of the reactants treating CH(4) as a rigid rotor. The full-dimensional (12D) "hybrid" SO-corrected potential energy surface (PES) is obtained from the 3D SO-correction surface and a 12D non-SO PES. The SO interaction has a significant effect in the entrance-channel van der Waals region, whereas the effect on the energy at the early saddle point is only ～5% of that at the reactant asymptote; thus, the SO correction increases the barrier height by ～122 cm(-1). The 12D quasiclassical trajectory calculations for the F + CH(4) and F + CHD(3) reactions show that the SO effects decrease the cross sections by a factor of 2-4 at low collision energies and the effects are less significant as the collision energy increases. The inclusion of the SO correction in the PES does not change the product state distributions.     

Ab initio global potential-energy surface for H5(+) --> H3(+) + H2

An accurate global potential-energy surface (PES) is reported for H5(+) based on more than 100,000 CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ ab initio energies. This PES has full permutational symmetry with respect to interchange of H atoms and dissociates to H3(+) and H2. Ten known stationary points of H5(+) are characterized and compared to previous ab initio calculations. Quantum diffusion Monte Carlo calculations are performed on the PES to obtain the zero-point energy of H5(+) and the anharmonic dissociation energy (D0) of H5(+) --> H3(+) + H2. The rigorous zero-point state of H4D+ is also calculated and discussed within the context of a strictly classical approach to obtain the branching ratio of the reaction H4D+ --> H3(+) + HD and H2D+ + H2. Such an approach is taken using the PES and critiqued based on the properties of the quantum zero-point state. Finally, a simple procedure for adding the long range-interaction energy is described.     

Accurate ab initio potential energy surface, thermochemistry, and dynamics of the Cl(2P, 2P(3/2) + CH4 → HCl + CH3 and H + CH3Cl reactions

We report a high-quality, ab initio, full-dimensional global potential energy surface (PES) for the Cl((2)P, (2)P(3/2)) + CH(4) reaction, which describes both the abstraction (HCl + CH(3)) and substitution (H + CH(3)Cl) channels. The analytical PES is a least-squares fit, using a basis of permutationally invariant polynomials, to roughly 16,000 ab initio energy points, obtained by an efficient composite method, including counterpoise and spin-orbit corrections for the entrance channel. This composite method is shown to provide accuracy almost equal to all-electron CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pCVQZ results, but at much lower computational cost. Details of the PES, as well as additional high-level benchmark characterization of structures and energetics are reported. The PES has classical barrier heights of 2650 and 15,060 cm(-1) (relative to Cl((2)P(3/2)) + CH(4)(eq)), respectively, for the abstraction and substitution reactions, in good agreement with the corresponding new computed benchmark values, 2670 and 14,720 cm(-1). The PES also accurately describes the potential wells in the entrance and exit channels for the abstraction reaction. Quasiclassical trajectory calculations using the PES show that (a) the inclusion of the spin-orbit corrections in the PES decreases the cross sections by a factor of 1.5-2.5 at low collision energies (E(coll)); (b) at E(coll) ≈ 13,000 cm(-1) the substitution channel opens and the H/HCl ratio increases rapidly with E(coll); (c) the maximum impact parameter (b(max)) for the abstraction reaction is ~6 bohr; whereas b(max) is only ~2 bohr for the substitution; (d) the HCl and CH(3) products are mainly in the vibrational ground state even at very high E(coll); and (e) the HCl rotational distributions are cold, in excellent agreement with experiment at E(coll) = 1280 cm(-1).     

Experimental and theoretical differential cross sections for the N(2D) + H2 reaction

In this paper, we report a combined experimental and theoretical study on the dynamics of the N(2D) + H2 insertion reaction at a collision energy of 15.9 kJ mol(-1). Product angular and velocity distributions have been obtained in crossed beam experiments and simulated by using the results of quantum mechanical (QM) scattering calculations on the accurate ab initio potential energy surface (PES) of Pederson et al. (J. Chem. Phys. 1999, 110, 9091). Since the QM calculations indicate that there is a significant coupling between the product angular and translational energy distributions, such a coupling has been explicitly included in the simulation of the experimental results. The very good agreement between experiment and QM calculations sustains the accuracy of the NH2 ab initio ground state PES. We also take the opportunity to compare the accurate QM differential cross sections with those obtained by two approximate methods, namely, the widely used quasiclassical trajectory calculations and a rigorous statistical method based on the coupled-channel theory.     

Potential energy surface and second virial coefficient of methane-water from ab initio calculations

Six-dimensional intermolecular potential energy surfaces (PESs) for the interaction of CH4 with H2O are presented, obtained from ab initio calculations using symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) at two different levels of intramonomer correlation and the supermolecular approach at three different levels of electron correlation. Both CH4 and H2O are assumed to be rigid molecules with interatomic distances and angles fixed at the average values in the ground-state vibration. A physically motivated analytical expression for each PES has been developed as a sum of site-site functions. The PES of the CH4-H2O dimer has only two symmetry-distinct minima. From the SAPT calculations, the global minimum has an energy of -1.03 kcal/mol at a geometry where H2O is the proton donor, HO-H...CH4, with the O-H-C angle of 165 degrees, while the secondary minimum, with an energy of -0.72 kcal/mol, has CH4 in the role of the proton donor (H3C-H...OH2). We estimated the complete basis set limit of the SAPT interaction energy at the global minimum to be -1.06 kcal/mol. The classical cross second virial coefficient B12(T) has been calculated for the temperature range 298-653 K. Our best results agree well with some experiments, allowing an evaluation of the quality of experimental results.     

Direct versus resonances mediated F+OH collisions on a new 3A" potential energy surface

A theoretical study of the F(2P) + OH(2Pi) --> HF(1Sigma+) + O(3P) reactive collisions is carried out on a new global potential energy surface (PES) of the ground 3A" adiabatic electronic state. The ab initio calculations are based on multireference configuration interaction calculations, using the aug-cc-pVTZ extended basis sets of Dunning et al. A functional representation of the PES shows no nominal barrier to reaction, contrary to previous results by others. Wave packet and quasiclassical trajectory calculations have been performed for this PES to study the F + OH(v = 0,j) reactive collision. The comparison was performed at fixed and constant values of the total angular momentum from 0 to 110 and relative translational energy up to 0.8 eV. The reaction presents a dynamical barrier, essentially due to the zero-point energy for the bending vibration near the saddle point. This determines two different reaction mechanisms. At energies higher than approximately 0.125 eV the reaction is direct, while below that value it is indirect and mediated by heavy-light-heavy resonances. Such resonances, also found in the simulations of the photodetachment spectrum of the triatomic anion, manifest themselves in the quasiclassical simulations, too, where they are associated to periodic orbits.     

Interpolating moving least-squares methods for fitting potential energy surfaces: an application to the H2CN unimolecular reaction

Classical trajectories have been used to compute rates for the unimolecular reaction H2CN-->H+HCN on a fitted ab initio potential energy surface (PES). The ab initio energies were obtained from CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pvtz electronic structure calculations. The ab initio energies were fitted by the interpolating moving least-squares (IMLS) method. This work continues the development of the IMLS method for producing ab initio PESs for use in molecular dynamics simulations of many-atom systems. A dual-level scheme was used in which the preliminary selection of data points was done using a low-level theory and the points used for fitting the final PES were obtained at the desired higher level of theory. Classical trajectories were used on various low-level IMLS fits to tune the fit to the unimolecular reaction under study. Procedures for efficiently picking data points, selecting basis functions, and defining cutoff limits to exclude distant points were investigated. The accuracy of the fitted PES was assessed by comparing interpolated values of quantities to the corresponding ab initio values. With as little as 330 ab initio points classical trajectory rate constants were converged to 5%-10% and the rms error over the six-dimensional region sampled by the trajectories was a few tenths of a kcal/mol.     

Ab initio studies of electron acceptor-donor interactions with blue- and red-shifted hydrogen bonds.

The features of blue- and red-shifted electron acceptor-donor (ACH/B) hydrogen bonds have been compared by using quantum chemical calculations. The geometry, the interaction energy and the vibrational frequencies of both blue- (ACH=F3CH, Cl3CH with B=FCD3) and red-shifted (ACH=F3CH, Cl3CH with B=NH3 and ACH=CH3CCH with B=FCD3, NH3) complexes were obtained by using ab initio MP2(Full)/6-31+G(d,p) calculations with the a priori basis-set superposition error (BSSE) correction method. One-dimensional potential energy and dipole moment functions of the dimensionless normal coordinate Q1, corresponding to the CH stretching mode of ACH, have been compared for both types of complexes. Contributions of separate components of the interaction energy to the frequency shift and the effect of electron charge transfer were examined for a set of intermolecular distances by using the symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) approach and natural bond orbitals (NBO) population analysis.     

Theoretical Studies of the Reaction Mechanisms of CH3S＋NO2

The potential energy surface for the CH3S NO2 reaction has been studied using the ab initio G3(MP2) method. A variety of possible complexes and saddle points along the minimum energy reaction paths have been characterized at UMP2 (full)/6-31G(d) level. The calculations reveal dominating reaction mechanisms of the title reaction: CH3S NO2 firstly produce intermediate CH3SONO,then break up into CH3SO NO. The results are valuable to understand the atmospheric sulfur compounds oxidation mechanism.     

Vibrational energy levels for CH4 from an ab initio potential

Many areas of astronomy and astrophysics require an accurate high temperature spectrum of methane (CH4). The goal of the present research is to determine an accurate ab initio potential energy surface (PES) for CH4. As a first step towards this goal, we have determined a PES including up to octic terms. We compare our results with experiment and to a PES based on a quartic expansion. Our octic PES gives good agreement with experiment for all levels, while the quartic PES only for the lower levels.     

Collision cross sections, pressure-broadening coefficients and second virial coefficients for the acetylene-argon complex: experiments and calculations on a new potential energy surface

Integral cross sections and pressure-broadening coefficients have been measured by molecular beam scattering and by high-resolution infrared spectroscopy, respectively, for the acetylene-argon system. A new potential energy surface (PES) is proposed to describe structure and dynamical properties of this prototypical weakly bound complex. The PES has been parametrized exploiting a novel atom-bond pairwise additive scheme and has been fitted to the experimental data. Calculations of the scattering cross sections (both differential and integral), pressure-broadening, and second virial coefficients have been performed using both the present and also the most recent ab initio PES available in the literature. Analysis of the new experimental data indicates that the anisotropy of the interaction in the well region should be larger than that obtained in ab initio calculations. This is also in line with previous spectroscopic results.     

Theoretical study of the dynamics of the H+CH4 and H+C2H6 reactions using a specific-reaction-parameter semiempirical Hamiltonian

We present a theoretical study of the reactions of hydrogen atoms with methane and ethane molecules and isotopomers. High-accuracy electronic-structure calculations have been carried out to characterize representative regions of the potential-energy surface (PES) of various reaction pathways, including H abstraction and H exchange. These ab initio calculations have been subsequently employed to derive an improved set of parameters for the modified symmetrically-orthogonalized intermediate neglect of differential overlap (MSINDO) semiempirical Hamiltonian, which are specific to the H+alkane family of reactions. The specific-reaction-parameter (SRP) Hamiltonian has then been used to perform a quasiclassical-trajectory study of both the H+CH4 and H+C2H6 reactions. The calculated values of dynamics properties of the H+CH4-->H2+CH3 reaction and isotopologues, including alkyl product speed distributions, diatomic product internal-state distributions, and cross sections, are generally in good agreement with experiment and with the results provided by the ZBB3 PES [Z. Xie et al., J. Chem. Phys. 125, 133120 (2006)]. The results of trajectories propagated with the SRP Hamiltonian for the H+C2H6-->H2+C2H5 reaction also agree with experiment. The level of agreement between the results calculated with the SRP Hamiltonian and experiment in both the H+methane and H+ethane reactions indicates that semiempirical Hamiltonians can be improved for not only a specific reaction but also a family of reactions.     

The anharmonic potential energy surface of methyl fluoride

A large experimental spectroscopic data set sensitive to the cubic anharmonic potential energy surface (PES) of methyl fluoride has been compiled from the literature for six symmetric and asymmetric top isotopomers of methyl fluoride: 12CH3F, 13CH3FF, 12CD3F, 13CD3F, 12CHD2F and 12CH2DF. This empirical data set has been used to critically assess the best available literature ab initio cubic force field and various 'improved' theoretical force fields. A perturbation-resonance approach to the calculation of the observables from the force constants has been utilized and existing PESs were found to reproduce the data poorly. The careful treatment required for the correct theoretical reproduction of empirical spectroscopic constants arising from highly correlated least-squares fits to the original data is discussed. A new fit to the data has been performed (optimising 19 of the 38 cubic force constants) resulting in a much improved PES. The latter has been used to predict currently unknown spectroscopic constants for the least well-characterised isotopomer 12CH2DF. The prospects for a future empirical determination of the complete cubic force field of methyl fluoride are discussed and new data most likely to yield new information on the PES identified.