Ab initio MRD-CI calculations for breaking a chemical bond in a molecule in a crystal or other solid environment. III. Me2N?NO2 decomposition of dimethylnitramine in a large crystalline environment

Recently we extended our strategy for MRD-CI (multireference double excitation-configuration interaction) calculations, based on localized/local orbitals and an “effective” CI Hamiltonian, for molecular decompositions of large molecules to breaking a chemical bond in a molecule in a crystalline or other solid environment. Our technique begins with an explicit quantum chemical SCF calculation for a reference molecule surrounded by a number of other molecules in the multipole environment of more distant neighbors. The resulting canonical molecular orbitals are then localized, and the localized occupied and virtual orbitals in the region of interest are included explicitly in the MRD-CI with the remainder of the occupied localized orbitals being folded into an “effective” CI Hamiltonian. The MRD-CI calculations are then carried out for breaking a bond in the reference molecule. This method is completely general in that the space treated explicitly, as well as the surrounding space, may contain voids, defects, deformations, dislocations, impurities, dopants, edges and surfaces, boundaries, etc. Dimethylnitramine is the smallest prototype of the energetic R₂N—NO₂ nitramines, such as the 6-member ring RDX or the 8-member ring HMX. Decomposition of energetic compounds is initiated in the solid by a breaking of the target bond. Thus, it is crucial to know the difference in energy between breaking a bond in an isolated energetic molecule versus in the molecule in a solid. In the present study, we have carried out MRD-CI calculations for the Me₂N—NO₂ dissociation of dimethylnitramine in a dimethylnitramine crystal. The cases we investigated were one dimethylnitramine molecule (surrounded by 53 and 685 neighboring dimethylnitramine molecules represented by multipoles), three dimethylnitramine molecules, and three dimethylnitramine molecules (surrounded by 683 neighbors). All multipoles were cumulative atomic multipoles up through quadrupoles. The MRD-CI calculations on dimethylnitramine required large numbers of reference configurations from which were allowed all single and double excitations.     

A theory of molecules in molecules IV. Application to the Hydrogen Bonding Interaction in NH3 · H2O

The theory of molecules in molecules introduced in previous articles is applied to study the hydrogen bonding interaction between an ammonia molecule as proton acceptor and a water molecule as proton donor. The localized orbitals which are assumed to be least affected by the formation of the hydrogen bond are transferred unaltered from calculations on the fragments NH₃ and H₂O, the remaining orbitals are recalculated. A projection operator is used to obtain orthogonality to the transferred orbitals. Additional approximations have been introduced in order to be able to save computational time. These approximations can be justified and are seen to lead to binding energies and bond lengths which are in satisfactory agreement with the SCF values. The point charge approximation for the calculation of the interaction energy between the two sets of transferred localized orbitals is, however, not applicable in this case. An energy analysis of the effect of the hydrogen bond on the localized orbitals of the two fragments is given.     

On a definition of bond energies based on localized molecular orbitals

A theoretical model is presented for defining bond energies based on localized molecular Orbitals. These bond energies are obtained by rearranging the total SCF energy including the nuclear repulsion term to a sum over orbital and orbital interaction terms and then to total orbital terms, which can be interpreted as the energies of localized orbitals in a molecule. A scaling procedure is used to obtain a direct connection with experimental bond dissociation energies. Two scale parameters are employed, the C-C and the C-H bond dissociation energy in C₂H₆ for A-B and C-H type bonds, respectively. The implications of this scaling procedure are discussed. Numerical applications to a number of organic molecules containing no conjugated bonds gives in general a very satisfactory agreement between experimental and theoretical bond energies.     

Mass spectrum of nitromethane

The mass spectrum of nitromethane points to rupture of the CH₃? NO₂ bond as the dominant primary reaction, as also observed in pyrolysis, photolysis and radiolysis. Isomerization of the molecular ion to the nitrite configuration seems to contribute little in the mass spectrum of nitromethane, in contrast to those of nitrobenzene and other nitroarenes. The nitrite ion is probably the immediate precursor of [NO]⁺ at its appearance potential, but most of the [NO]+ yield seems to stem from secondary decomposition of excited [NO₂]⁺.     

Photoelectron spectra,penning ionization electron spectra,and character of canonical molecular orbitals

When canonical molecular orbitals are expanded in terms of a set of localized molecular orbital building blocks, called bond orbitals, the character of the canonical molecular orbitals can be characterized according to the component bond orbitals resembling the core, lone pair, and localized bond building blocks in an intuitive Lewis structure. Weinhold's natural bond orbital method can produce a unique Lewis structure with total occupancy of its occupied bond orbitals exceeding 99.9% of the total electron density for simple molecules. Two useful indices, Lewis bond order and weight of lone pair orbitals, can be defined according to the weights of the bonding and lone pair components of this unique Lewis structure. Calculation results for molecules N₂, CO, CS, NO, HCN, C₂H₂, H₂O, and H₂S show that the former index can account for the vibrational structures of photoelectron spectroscopy, whereas the latter index can account for the band intensity enhancement of Penning ionization electron spectroscopy. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 19: 882–892, 1998     

Localized molecular orbital studies in momentum space. I. compton profiles of 1s core electrons and hydrocarbons

The calculations of momentum space properties for the polyatomic molecules CH₄, C₂H₄ and C₂H₆ using localized molecular orbitals of double zeta quality basis sets are presented. The LMO analysis shows that localized and canonical core electrons have different momentum space properties, and that in agreement with the experimental data of Eisenberger and Marra one can distinguish the momentum properties of the CC single and double bonds. The effect of environment on a bond is seen by comparing the CH bond in these three molecules.The concept of electron pair size is introduced as a quantitative guide for interpreting momentun space properties.     

A theory of molecules in molecules

SCF wave functions have been calculated using a minimal atomic basis set of Gaussian lobe functions for the para-, meta-, and ortho-forms of the molecules C₆H₄XY, where X, Y can be either of CN, OH, or F. It is found that in all cases the total energies increase in the sequence meta-, para-, ortho-compound. For the molecules containing the CN group the energy differences are extremely small (0.1–1 kcal/mole) for the other molecules they are one to two orders of magnitude larger. The reliability of these results is discussed. The theory of molecules in molecules is applied to these cases. The wave function of C₆H₄XY is constructed from the fragments C₆H₅X and HY by transferring some of the localized orbitals of the wave functions of the fragments and recalculating the orbitals in the region of interaction. For the molecules containing the CN group the energy differences are too small so that they are not correctly reproduced except by the most exact calculations, which involve no approximations other than the transfer of localized orbitals. For the other molecules satisfactory results are obtained.     

MRD-CI studies of vertical excitation energies of unsaturated hydrocarbon molecules

Systematic MRD-CI calculations using the AM1 Hamiltonian have been carried out for two polyenes and eight aromatic hydrocarbons ranging from benzene to ovalene (C₃₂H₁₄). Twenty singlet–singlet excitation energies in these compounds were calculated and compared with experimental data and ab initio STO-3G results. On an absolute scale, the AM1/MRD-CI approach underestimates the excitation energies to states with dominant covalent character by an average of 1.1 eV, whereas the errors for ionic states are between ?1.0 and 1.0 eV. The STO-3G calculated data are much too high by ≈ 1 eV and ≈ 5 eV, respectively. The inclusion of σπ-correlation effects through second-order Epstein–Nesbet perturbation theory combined with the use of localized orbitals leads to a significant improvement of the ab initio calculated state energies. In an analogous AM1 treatment, negligible corrections for the σπ correlations are found, which is attributed to the implicit account in the parameters and approximation of the semiempirical Hamiltonian. The possible error sources of the calculational methods are discussed. © 1994 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Theoretical calculation of bond dissociation energies and heats of formation for nitromethane and polynitromethanes with density functional theory

The C? NO₂ bond dissociation energies (BDEs) and the heats of formation (HOFs) of nitromethane and polynitromethanes (dinitromethane, trinitromethane, and tetranitromethane) system in gas phase at 298.15 K were calculated theoretically. Density functional theory (DFT) B3LYP, B3P86, B3PW91, and PBE0 methods in combination with different basis sets were employed. It was found that the C? NO₂ bond BDEs can be improved from B3LYP to B3PW91 to B3P86 or PBE0 functional. Levels of theory employing B3P86 and PBE0 functionals were found to be sufficiently reliable without the presence of diffusion functions. As the number of NO₂ groups on the same C atom increases, the PBE0 functional performs better than the B3P86 functional. Regarding the calculated HOFs, all four functionals can yield satisfactory results with deviations of <2 kcal mol^?1 from experimental ones for CH₂(NO₂)₂ and CH(NO₂)₃, when the diffusion functions are not augmented. For the C(NO₂)₄ molecule, the large basis sets augmented with polarization functions and diffusion functions are required to yield a good result. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2007     

Relation of the force constant of a bond to the electric field at a nucleus

The change in the electric field at a nucleus in a molecule due to bond stretch is related to the force constant of the stretched bond. The validity of this relationship using approximate wave functions at the SCF and MP2 levels of theory is tested for the diatomic molecules H₂, HF, CO, and N₂. The effect of basis set variation on H₂ is also investigated. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 18 : 1664–1667, 1997     

Application of many-body perturbation theory in the localized representation for the all-trans conjugated polyenes

Ab initio self-consistent field (SCF ) calculations are performed with the standard 6-31G* basis set for all-trans conjugated oligomers C_2n+2H_2n+4. The canonical occupied and virtual molecular orbitals (MO s) are separately localized by unitary transformations. Due to the localization, the perturbation operator is partitioned into two-particle and into single-particle terms; the MBPT is, therefore, a double-perturbation expansion in this case. By using the localized representation of the MBPT , the correlation energy contributions can be partitioned into local and nonlocal effects. It can be shown that the local effects are very important and well transferable, which makes possible the calculation of the correlation energy of larger molecules if the localized molecular orbitals (occupied and virtual) of smaller related molecules are known. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Picosecond UV photolysis and laser-induced fluorescence probing of gas-phase nitromethane

Ground-state NO₂ radicals are formed in <5 ps with a quantum yield of ≈ 70% in 264 nm photolysis of low pressure nitromethane, as revealed by laser-induced fluorescence probing. Raman shifted photolyzing pulses indicate the NO₂ yield varies little with wavelength, although a small yield of excited state NO^*₂ produced at 264 nm increases significantly at 238 nm.     

The fragments-in-molecules method. II. Fim method for σ-bonded systems

A semiempirical SCF MO method has been developed in which the wave function of a composite molecule is written as a linear combination of localized fragment orbitals and which is formulated such that strictly transferable empirical data for the fragments may be introduced into the calculation. Results of FIM calculations in the CNDO /2 approximation for a number of R? X molecules with R = alkyl and X = F, OH, NH₂, and CH₃ are presented and used to illustrate the possibilities and limitations of the method.     

Interactions between hydrogenated diamond surface and adsorbates with different concentration of NO2 molecules: A first‐principles study

To elucidate the effects of NO₂ and H₂O molecules on the surface conductivity of hydrogenated diamond film, models of various adsorbates containing different molecular ratio of NO₂ and H₂O on hydrogenated diamond (100) surfaces were constructed. The adsorption energies, equilibrium geometries of adsorbates, density of states, and atomic Mulliken populations were studied by using first‐principles method. The results showed that H₂O molecule in the adsorbate could weaken the interactions between the adsorbates and hydrogenated diamond surface significantly. Compared with H₂O molecule, NO₂ molecule relaxes more dramatically when adsorbed on hydrogenated diamond surface. In addition, density of states for C(100):H–2NO₂, C(100):H–NO₂, and C(100):H–NO₂ + H₂O systems are very similar to each other, which indicates an obvious peak at valence band maximum level for all the three samples. It can be attributed to mainly single occupied molecule orbital of NO₂ molecule and slightly C–H bond of C(100):H substrate. When the adsorbates contain one NO₂ and two H₂O molecules, the peak shifts slightly into valence band, but its intensity increases significantly. All the samples exhibit p‐type surface conductivity when adsorbed with pure NO₂ molecules, and the surface conductivity remains as H₂O molecules added into the NO₂ adsorbate layer. However, for oxygenated diamond surface, very week interactions generate between diamond surface and various adsorbates. All the oxygenated diamond (100) surfaces with various adsorbates containing different NO₂ and H₂O molecules on it exhibit an insulating property.     

A theory of molecules in molecules

A theory of molecules in molecules is presented, which permits the computation of the wave function of a molecule from the wave functions of fragment molecules by transferring some of the localized molecular orbitals of the fragments and recalculating the orbitals in the region of interaction. A projection operator is used to obtain orthogonality of the orbitals to be determined to the transferred and fixed orbitals. Additional approximations allow the reduction of the dimension of the matrices to be diagonalized and the neglect of a part of the basic integrals, which can lead to a considerable saving in the computation time. The justification of these approximations will be investigated for the case of the molecules Be-Be, Li₂-Li₂, and for the calculation of the rotational barrier in C₂H₆.     

Interpreting the electronic structure of the hydrogen-bridge bond in B2H6 through a hypothetical reaction

In order to elucidate the electronic structure of the hydrogen-bridge bond in B₂H₆ molecule, the formation process of B₂H₆ had been created by a hypothetical reaction of “B₂H₄ ²⁻ + 2H⁺”, and the symmetry principles for reaction are applied in the process of creating new molecular orbitals through linear combination of the old orbitals. The orbital components of the hydrogen-bridge bond in B₂H₆ are obtained, and the electronic structure of the hydrogen-bridge bond is explained qualitatively. In addition, the idea that explains the structure of a molecule by creating a hypothetical reaction is proposed, which might make more application in other cases.     

An ab initio study of the p,π interaction: III. Interaction of an ether oxygen atom with a double bond

RHF/6-311G(d) calculations were performed for the H₂C=CHOCH₃ and H₂C=CClOCH₃ molecules with full geometry optimization and at varied angles of rotation of the methoxy group about the C-O bond, with all the other geometric parameters optimized. The first molecule has one energy minimum and one transition state, and the second molecule, two minima. Changes in the populations of the p _y orbitals of the olefinic carbon and oxygen atoms (orbitals whose symmetry axes are perpendicular to the molecular plane) and in the fractional charges on these carbon atoms, occurring upon rotation of the methoxy groups about the C-O bonds, cannot be attributed to changes in the extent of the p,π conjugation between the lone electron pairs of the oxygen atoms and π electrons of the C=C bonds.     

15N isotope-selective infrared multiphoton dissociation of nitromethane by a free electron laser

Successful experiments on the isotope-selective infrared multiphoton dissociation (IR MPD) of nitromethane molecules in the region of stretching vibrations of the NO₂ group have been performed for the first time under IR free electron laser (FEL) irradiation in a mixture with the natural content of the¹⁵N isotope of 0.4%. The content of the¹⁵N isotope in the products of NO dissociation varies within 0.1–1.6% as a function of the laser radiation frequency. Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 4, pp. 739–742, April, 1998.     

SCF Wave functions for (CuO2)n lamella in crystal field of T′–Nd2CuO4

An SCF analysis has been carried for ensembles that simulate the CuO₂ conduction layer in the tetragonal layer crystal T′—Nd₂CuO₄ (Fig. 1). In this work, the CuO₂ layer is described by a planar macromolecule, (CuO₂)_n, subject to the crystal field produced by the point charges in the ionic layers of D_4h symmetry The computations were carried out using the KGNMOL, HONDO, and KGNGRAF codes in MOTECC -91. The computations were carried out with different oxygen and copper basis sets and energy convergence to less than 10^?8 Hartrees. The purpose of the SCF computation was to estimate the cohesive energy of the ensembles, the electron density for the individual molecular orbitals, and the excess correlation energy, to ascertain the nature of the Cu? O bond in the conduction layer. The results indicate the following: (1) The cohesive energy of the ensembles (measured by the SCF energy plus the correlation energy, above the atomic values): ΔU_c ≡ ΔE_SCF + ΔE_C = ?4.35 to ?4.17 Hartrees per CuO bond as n increases from 4 to 9. Further insight was obtained by considering the electrostatic energy contributions to ΔU_c; E_{electrostatic} (ensemble) → E_Modeling (infinite lattice) were evaluated by replacing the oxygen and copper atoms by point charges determined by a Mullion population analysis. The larger oxygen basis set (13, 8/5,3) gave consistent results for the different ensembles of ΔE_covalent ≡ ΔU_c ? E_{electrostatic} = ?1.1 Hartrees per CuO bond. (ii) The electron density indicates that covalent bonds are formed and that the oxygen atoms play an important role in the structure stability. The covalent bonds formed indicate that nominal ionic valences do not apply. Mulliken population analyses gave valences of the order of one at the copper and oxygen atoms. The CuO bond orders are 0.47 between neighboring atoms and 0.048 for those separated by two atoms. (iv) The covalent nature of the CuO bonds in (CuO₂)_n was compared to that for the H₂ molecule using as a measure the electron density and the excess correlation energy. The excess correlation energy per CuO bond above the atomic values is one order of magnitude lower that that for the H₂ molecule and that for the C?C bond in alternant hydrocarbons. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The boron trifluoride nitromethane adduct

The separation of the boron isotopes using boron trifluoride·organic-donor, Lewis acid·base adducts is an essential first step in preparing ¹⁰B enriched and depleted crystalline solids so vital to nuclear studies and reactor applications such as enriched MgB₂, boron carbide, ZrB₂, HfB₂, aluminum boron alloys, and depleted silicon circuits for radiation hardening and neutron diffraction crystal structure studies. The appearance of this new adduct with such superior properties demands attention in the continuing search for more effective and efficient means of separation. An evaluation of the boron trifluoride nitromethane adduct, its thermodynamic and physical properties related to large-scale isotopic separation is presented. Its remarkably high separation factor was confirmed to be higher than the expected theoretical value. However, the reportedly high acid/donor ratio was proven to be an order of magnitude lower. On-going research is determining the crystal structure of deuterated and ¹¹B enriched ¹¹BF₃·CD₃NO₂ by X-ray and neutron diffraction.