Microsolvation of hydrogen sulfide: exploration of H2S.(H2O)n and SH-.H3O+.(H2O)n-1 (n = 5-7) cluster structures on ab initio potential energy surfaces by the scaled hypersphere search method

The scaled hypersphere search method was applied to ab initio potential energy surfaces of the H2S.(H2O)n/SH-.H3O+.(H2O)n-1 system with n = 5-7. Local minima databases including 121, 326, and 553 structures for n = 5-7, respectively, were obtained based on calculations at the MP2/6-311++G(3df,2p)//B3LYP/6-31+G** level. In these small cluster sizes, the SH-.H3O+.(H2O)n-1 type is still unstable relative to the H2S.(H2O)n type, and the global minima for H2S.(H2O)n are very similar to those of pure water clusters of (H2O)n+1. Thermodynamic simulations based on the present databases showed a structure transition from the well-mixed (H2O)n+1-like global minimum at low temperatures to unmixed complexes between H2S and (H2O)n at high temperatures.     

Global mapping of equilibrium and transition structures on potential energy surfaces by the scaled hypersphere search method: applications to ab initio surfaces of formaldehyde and propyne molecules

Technical details of a new global mapping technique for finding equilibrium (EQ) and transition structures (TS) on potential energy surfaces (PES), the scaled hypersphere search (SHS) method (Ohno, K.; Maeda, S. Chem. Phys. Lett. 2004, 384, 277), are presented. On the basis of a simple principle that reaction pathways are found as anharmonic downward distortions of PES around an EQ point, the reaction pathways can be obtained as energy minima on the scaled hypersphere surface, which would have a constant energy when the potentials are harmonic. Connections of SHS paths between each EQ are very similar to corresponding intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC) connections. The energy maximum along the SHS path reaches a region in close proximity to the TS of the reaction pathway, and the subsequent geometry optimization from the SHS maximum structure easily converges to the TS. The SHS method, using the one-after-another algorithm connecting EQ and TS, considerably reduces the multidimensional space to be searched to certain limited regions around the pathways connecting each EQ with the neighboring TS. Applications of the SHS method have been made to ab initio surfaces of formaldehyde and propyne molecules to obtain systematically five EQ and nine TS for formaldehyde and seven EQ and 32 TS for propyne.     

Insight into global reaction mechanism of [C2, H4, O] system from ab initio calculations by the scaled hypersphere search method

A detailed computational study is performed on the singlet potential energy surface (PES) for possible isomerization and dissociation reactions of CH(3)CHO at the DFT (B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p)) and CCSD(T)/cc-pVTZ//B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) levels. The pathways around the equilibrium structures can be discovered by the scaled hypersphere search (SHS) method, which enables us to make a global analysis of the PES for a given chemical composition. Fourteen isomers inclusive of 11 single-molecules and three "non-stabilized" oxygen-based ylides, 5 energetically favored complexes, and 79 interconversion transition states have been found on the singlet PES. Four lowest lying isomers with thermodynamic stability are also kinetically stable with respect to metastable intermediates. It was revealed that vinyl alcohols, which could be generated by the tautomerization of acetaldehyde, could undergo dissociation to form acetylene and water. In addition, recombination channels between some fragments, such as H(2)CO + (1)CH(2) and (1)CHOH + (1)CH(2), are energetically accessible via collision complex or oxygen-based ylides. Most of available unimolecular decompositions are found to be responsible for favorable hydrogen abstraction processes.     

Quantum chemistry study of H+(H2O)8: a global search for its isomers by the scaled hypersphere search method, and its thermal behavior

The structures of the protonated water cluster H+(H2O)8 have been globally explored by the scaled hypersphere search method. On the Hartree-Fock potential energy surface 174 isomers were found, among which 168 were computed to be minima at the B3LYP/6-31+G** level, and their energies were further refined at the level of MP2/6-311++G(3df,2p). The global minimum on the potential energy surface computed at the B3LYP/6-31+G** level shows a cagelike structure with the "Eigen" motif, while the lowest-free-energy isomer has a five-membered-ring structure at 170 K and a chain form at 273 K. The present results are well in line with previous experimental findings. In addition, the ADMP (atom-centered density matrix propagation) simulation indicates that the extra proton in the lowest-free-energy isomer (170 K), which has a five-membered ring and the "Zundel" feature, is often in an asymmetrical hydrogen bond.     

Ab initio potential energy and dipole moment surfaces of (H2O)2

A full-dimensional ab initio potential energy surface (PES) and dipole moment surface (DMS) are reported for the water dimer, (H2O)2. The CCSD(T)-PES is a very precise fit to 19,805 ab initio energies obtained with the coupled-cluster (CCSD(T)) method, using an aug-cc-pVTZ basis. The standard counterpoise correction was applied to approximately eliminate basis set superposition errors. The fit is based on an approach that incorporates the permutational symmetry of identical atoms [Huang, X.; Braams, B.; Bowman, J. M. J. Chem.Phys. 2005, 122, 044308]. The DMS is a fit to the dipole moment obtained with M?ller-Plesset (MP2) theory, using an aug-cc-pVTZ basis. The PES has an RMS fitting error of 31 cm(-1) for energies below 20,000 cm(-1), relative to the global minimum. This surface can describe various internal floppy motions, including various monomer inversions, and isomerization pathways. Ten characteristic stationary points have been located on the surface, four of which are transition structures and the rest are higher order saddle points. Their geometrical and vibrational properties are presented and compared with available previous theoretical work. The CCSD(T)-PES and MP2-DMS dissociate correctly (and symmetrically) to two H2O monomers, with D(e) = 1665.7 cm(-1) (19.93 kJ/mol). Accurate quantum calculations of the zero-point energy of the dimer (using diffusion Monte Carlo) and the monomers (using a vibrational configuration interaction approach) are reported, and these together with D(e) give a value of D0 of 1042 cm(-1) (12.44 kJ/mol). A best estimated value is 1130 cm(-1) (13.5 kJ/mol).     

High-level ab initio potential energy surfaces and vibrational energies of H2CS

Six-dimensional (6D) potential energy surfaces (PESs) of H(2)CS have been generated ab initio using the recently proposed explicitly correlated (F12) singles and doubles coupled cluster method including a perturbational estimate of connected triple excitations, CCSD(T)-F12b [T. B. Adler, G. Knizia, and H.-J. Werner, J. Chem. Phys. 127, 221106 (2007)] in conjunction with F12-optimized correlation consistent basis sets. Core-electron correlation, high-order correlation, scalar relativistic, and diagonal Born-Oppenheimer terms were included as additive high-level (HL) corrections. The resulting 6D PESs were represented by analytical functions which were used in variational calculations of the vibrational term values below 5000 cm(-1). The best PESs obtained with and without the HL corrections, VQZ-F12(*HL) and VQZ-F12?, reproduce the fundamental vibrational wavenumbers with mean absolute deviations of 1.13 and 1.22 cm(-1), respectively. A detailed analysis of the effects of the HL corrections shows how the VQZ-F12 results benefit from error cancellation. The present purely ab initio PESs will be useful as starting points for empirical refinements towards an accurate "spectroscopic" PES of H(2)CS.     

Global investigation on the potential energy surface of CH3CN: application of the scaled hypersphere search method

An extensive quantum chemical study of the potential energy surface (PES) for all possible isomerization and dissociation reactions of CH3CN is reported at the DFT (B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p)) and CCSD(T)/ cc-pVTZ//B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) levels of theory. The pathways around the equilibrium structures can be discovered by the scaled hypersphere search (SHS) method, which enables us to make a global analysis of the potential energy surface for a given chemical composition in combination with a downhill-walk algorithm. Seventeen equilibrium structures and 59 interconversion transition states have been found on the singlet PES. The four lowest lying isomers with thermodynamic stability are also kinetically stable with the lowest conversion barriers of 49.69-101.53 kcal/mol at the CCSD(T)/cc-pVTZ//B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level, whereas three-membered-ring isomers c-CH2NCH, c-CH2CNH, and c-CHNHCH can be considered as metastable intermediates which can further convert into the low-lying chain-like isomers and higher lying acyclic isomers with the lowest conversion energies of 21.70-59.99 kcal/mol. Thirteen available dissociation channels depending on the different initial isomers have been identified. A prediction can be made for the possible mechanism explaining the migration of a hydrogen atom in competition with the CC bond dissociation. Several new energetically accessible pathways are found to be responsible for the migration of the hydrogen atom. The present results demonstrate that the SHS method is an efficient and powerful technique for global mapping of reaction pathways on PESs.     

New ab initio potential energy surface and the vibration-rotation-tunneling levels of (H2O)2 and (D2O)2

We report a new full-dimensional potential energy surface (PES) for the water dimer, based on fitting energies at roughly 30,000 configurations obtained with the coupled-cluster single and double, and perturbative treatment of triple excitations method using an augmented, correlation consistent, polarized triple zeta basis set. A global dipole moment surface based on Moller-Plesset perturbation theory results at these configurations is also reported. The PES is used in rigorous quantum calculations of intermolecular vibrational frequencies, tunneling splittings, and rotational constants for (H2O)2 and (D2O)2, using the rigid monomer approximation. Agreement with experiment is excellent and is at the highest level reported to date. The validity of this approximation is examined by comparing tunneling barriers within that model with those from fully relaxed calculations.     

CVRQD ab initio ground-state adiabatic potential energy surfaces for the water molecule

The high accuracy ab initio adiabatic potential energy surfaces (PESs) of the ground electronic state of the water molecule, determined originally by Polyansky et al. [Science 299, 539 (2003)] and called CVRQD, are extended and carefully characterized and analyzed. The CVRQD potential energy surfaces are obtained from extrapolation to the complete basis set of nearly full configuration interaction valence-only electronic structure computations, augmented by core, relativistic, quantum electrodynamics, and diagonal Born-Oppenheimer corrections. We also report ab initio calculations of several quantities characterizing the CVRQD PESs, including equilibrium and vibrationally averaged (0 K) structures, harmonic and anharmonic force fields, harmonic vibrational frequencies, vibrational fundamentals, and zero-point energies. They can be considered as the best ab initio estimates of these quantities available today. Results of first-principles computations on the rovibrational energy levels of several isotopologues of the water molecule are also presented, based on the CVRQD PESs and the use of variational nuclear motion calculations employing an exact kinetic energy operator given in orthogonal internal coordinates. The variational nuclear motion calculations also include a simplified treatment of nonadiabatic effects. This sophisticated procedure to compute rovibrational energy levels reproduces all the known rovibrational levels of the water isotopologues considered, H(2) (16)O, H(2) (17)O, H(2) (18)O, and D(2) (16)O, to better than 1 cm(-1) on average. Finally, prospects for further improvement of the ground-state adiabatic ab initio PESs of water are discussed.     

Ab initio potential energy surfaces and nonadiabatic collision dynamics in H(+)+O(2) system

The adiabatic potential energy surfaces for the lowest five electronic states of (3)A" symmetry for the H(+)+O(2) collision system have been obtained at the multireference configuration interaction level of accuracy using Dunning's correlation consistent polarized valence triple zeta basis set. The radial nonadiabatic coupling terms and the mixing angle between the lowest two electronic states (1 (3)A" and 2 (3)A"), which adiabatically correlate in the asymptotic limit to H((2)S)+O(2) (+)(X (2)Pi(g)) and H(+)+O(2)(X (3)Sigma(g)(-)), respectively, have been computed using ab initio procedures at the same level of accuracy to yield the corresponding quasidiabatic potential energy matrix. The computed strengths of the vibrational coupling matrix elements reflect the trend observed for inelastic vibrational excitations of O(2) in the experiments at collision energy of 9.5 eV. The quantum dynamics has been preformed on the newly obtained coupled quasidiabatic potential energy surfaces under the vibrational close-coupling rotational infinite-order sudden framework at the experimental collision energy of 9.5 eV. The present theoretical results for vibrational elastic/inelastic excitations of O(2) are in overall good agreement with the available experimental data obtained from the proton energy-loss spectra in molecular beam experiments [F. A. Gianturco et al., J. Phys. B 14, 667 (1981)]. The results for the complementary charge transfer processes are also presented at this collision energy.     

Finding minimum energy reaction paths on ab initio potential energy surfaces using the fast marching method

The fast marching method (FMM) for determining minimum-cost paths has been extended to compute the minimum-energy reaction coordinates in chemical reactions. This was accomplished by building an interface between FMM and the Gaussian program. We demonstrate the new method using an S _N 2 reaction, the isomerization of HSCN to HNCS, and a gas-phase rearrangement reaction of relevance in mass spectrometry.     

Automated exploration of adsorption structures of an organic molecule on RuH2-BINAP by the ONIOM method and the scaled hypersphere search method

Automated exploration of adsorption structures of a molecule (CH3COCH2COOCH3) on an organometallic complex of (R)-RuH2-BINAP (BINAP=2,2'-bis(diphenylphosphino)-1,1'-binaphthyl) has been performed by a combination of the ONIOM method and the scaled hypersphere search (SHS) method. As many as 135 potential minima have been obtained as candidates of adsorption structures. The most stable structure among the 135 is a precursor of the (R)-type product, which is about 30 kJ/mol more stable than the most stable structure among precursors of the (S)-type product. This unbiased search is theoretically showing the power of BINAP to distinguish (R)-type and (S)-type at the adsorption state. This result is in line with very high optical yield of the (R)-type product in the corresponding experiment.     

Ab initio potential energy surfaces of the ion-molecule reaction: C2H2 + O+

High level ab initio calculations using complete active space self-consistent field and multi reference single and double excitation configuration interaction methods with cc-pVDZ (correlation consistent polarized valence double zeta) and cc-pVTZ (triple zeta) basis sets have been performed to elucidate the reaction mechanism of the ion-molecule reaction, C2H2(1Sigmag+) + O+(4S), for which collision experiment has been performed by Chiu et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 109, 5300 (1998)]. The minor low-energy process leading to the weak spin-forbidden product C2H2+ (2Piu) + O(1D) has been studied previously and will not be discussed here. The major pathways to form charge-transfer (CT) products, C2H2+ (2Piu) + O(3P) (CT1) and C2H2+ (4A2) + O(3P) (CT2), and the covalently bound intermediates are investigated. The approach of the oxygen atom cation to acetylene goes over an energy barrier TS1 of 29 kcal/mol (relative to the reactant) and adiabatically leads the CT2 product or a weakly bound intermediate Int1 between CT2 products. This transition state TS1 is caused by the avoided crossing between the reactant and CT2 electronic states. As the C-O distance becomes shorter beyond the above intermediate, the C1 reaction pathway is energetically more favorable than the Cs pathway and goes over the second transition state TS2 of a relative energy of 39 kcal/mol. Although this TS connects diabatically to the covalent intermediate Int2, there are many states that interact adiabatically with this diabatic state and these lead to the other charge-transfer product CT1 via either of several nonadiabatic transitions. These findings are consistent with the experiment, in which charge transfer and chemical reaction products are detected above 35 and 39 kcal/mol collision energies, respectively.     

Ab initio potential energy and dipole moment surfaces for H5O2 +

Full-dimensional ab initio potential energy surface (PES) and dipole moment surface (DMS) are reported for H(5)O(2) (+). Tens of thousands of coupled-cluster [CCSD(T)] and second-order Moller-Plesset (MP2) calculations of electronic energies, using aug-cc-pVTZ basis, were done. The energies were fit very precisely in terms of all the internuclear distances, using standard least-square procedures, however, with a fitting basis that satisfies permutational symmetry with respect to like atoms. The H(5)O(2) (+) PES is a fit to 48 189 CCSD(T) energies, containing 7962 polynomial coefficients. The PES has a rms fitting error of 34.9 cm(-1) for the entire data set up to 110 000 cm(-1). This surface can describe various internal floppy motions, including the H atom exchanges, monomer inversions, and monomer torsions. First- and higher-order saddle points have been located on the surface and compared with available previous theoretical work. In addition, the PES dissociates correctly (and symmetrically) to H(2)O+H(3)O(+), with D(e)=11 923.8 cm(-1). Geometrical and vibrational properties of the monomer fragments are presented. The corresponding global DMS fit (MP2 based) involves 3844 polynomial coefficients and also dissociates correctly.     

Torsional eigenvalues of the water trimer on several ab initio potential surfaces

Eigenvalues corresponding to the three torsional degrees of freedom were calculated for the water trimer and its deuterated isotopomer in four sets of calculations involving different potential energy surfaces. The four potential surfaces were developed in this work by reparametrization of the CKL function against four sets of ab initio energies calculated with and without counterpoise correction. Transition frequencies corresponding to the low-frequency torsional motions of the trimer were calculated and then compared with those found from experiment to assess the accuracy of each potential energy surface. Although reparametrization of the CKL function to a set of counterpoise-corrected energies yielded transition energies that are in qualitative agreement with those from experiment, reparametrization to another set of counterpoise-corrected energies resulted in highly inaccurate values of the transition energy. As a consequence, our results demonstrate that caution must be exercised in the implementation of the counterpoise method as it does not always lead to more accurate ab initio calculations. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quant Chem 68: 233–252, 1998     

Full-dimensional vibrational calculations for H5O2+ using an ab initio potential energy surface

We report quantum diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) and variational calculations in full dimensionality for selected vibrational states of H(5)O(2) (+) using a new ab initio potential energy surface [X. Huang, B. Braams, and J. M. Bowman, J. Chem. Phys. 122, 044308 (2005)]. The energy and properties of the zero-point state are focused on in the rigorous DMC calculations. OH-stretch fundamentals are also calculated using "fixed-node" DMC calculations and variationally using two versions of the code MULTIMODE. These results are compared with infrared multiphoton dissociation measurements of Yeh et al. [L. I. Yeh, M. Okumura, J. D. Myers, J. M. Price, and Y. T. Lee, J. Chem. Phys. 91, 7319 (1989)]. Some preliminary results for the energies of several modes of the shared hydrogen are also reported.     

An ab initio correlated study of the potential energy surface for the HOBr.H2O complex

The potential energy surface (PES) for the HOBr.H(2)O complex has been investigated using second- and fourth-order M?ller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2, MP4) and coupled cluster theory with single and doubles excitations (CCSD), and a perturbative approximation of triple excitations (CCSD-T), correlated ab initio levels of theory employing basis sets of triple zeta quality with polarization and diffuse functions up to the 6-311++G(3dp,3df ) standard Pople's basis set. Six stationary points being three minima, two first-order transition state (TS) structures and one second-order TS were located on the PES. The global minimum syn and the anti equilibrium structure are virtually degenerated [DeltaE(ele-nuc) approximately 0.3 kcal mol(-1), CCSD-T/6-311++G(3df,3pd) value], with the third minima being approximately 4 kcal mol(-1) away. IRC analysis was performed to confirm the correct connectivity of the two first-order TS structures. The CCSD-T/6-311++G(3df,3pd)//MP2/6-311G(d,p) barrier for the syn<-->anti interconversion is 0.3 kcal mol(-1), indicating that a mixture of the syn and anti forms of the HOBr.H(2)O complex is likely to exist.     

Quantum dynamics of the H + O2 --> O + OH reaction on an accurate ab initio potential energy surface

We report exact time-dependent and time-independent quantum mechanical studies of the title reaction on an accurate ab initio potential energy surface of Xu et al. (J. Chem. Phys. 2005, 122, 24305). The J = 0 reaction probabilities for several reactant states show sharp resonance structures superimposed on relatively low backgrounds, and they are remarkably different from existing quantum results on an earlier potential energy surface (DMBE-IV). The new findings reported here suggest that our current understanding of this important reaction might require significant revision.     

An ab initio intermolecular potential energy surface for the F(2) dimer

Two analytical representations for the potential energy surface of the F(2) dimer were constructed on the basis of ab initio calculations up to the fourth-order of M?ller-Plesset (MP) perturbation theory. The best estimate of the complete basis set limit of interaction energy was derived for analysis of basis set incompleteness errors. At the MP4/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory, the most stable structure of the dimer was obtained at R = 6.82 au, theta(a) = 12.9 degrees , theta(b) = 76.0 degrees , and phi = 180 degrees , with a well depth of 716 microE(h). Two other minima were found for canted and X-shaped configurations with potential energies around -596 and -629 microE(h), respectively. Hexadecapole moments of monomers play an important role in the anisotropy of interaction energy that is highly R-dependent at intermediate intermolecular distances. The quality of potentials was tested by computing values of the second virial coefficient. The fitted MP4 potential has a more reasonable agreement with experimental values.