Quasi-classical trajectory studies of the stereodynamics of the reaction O + HCl → ClO + H

The stereodynamics of the O + HCl → ClO + H reaction are investigated by quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) method. The calculations are carried out on the ground 1 ¹ A′ potential energy surface (PES). The orientation and alignments of the product rotational angular momentum for the title reaction are reported. The influence of collision energy on the product vector properties is also studied in the present work. Four (2π/σ)(dσ₀₀/dω _t ), (2π/σ)(dσ₂₀/dω _t ), (2π/σ)(dσ₂₂₊/dω _t ), and (2π / σ)(dσ₂₁₋/dω _t ), and have been calculated in the center of mass frame.     

Quantum-mechanical study of the parallel molecule-surface reaction HCl + S → HS + Cl

Quantum-mechanical transition probabilities are presented for the molecule HCl(υ_i) reacting with a solid surface S, i.e. HCl(υ_i)+S → HS+Cl; υ_i = 0,…,4. The calculations were done for a fixed parallel approach (γ = π/2) of the molecule. Results are shown as a function of total energy E_tot for the energy range 1.95 ⩽ E_tot ⩽ 3.3 eV.     

Quantum dynamics calculation of reaction probability for H + Cl2 → HCl + Cl

We present in this paper a time-dependent quantum wave packet calculation of the initial state selected reaction probability for H + Cl₂ based on the GHNS potential energy surface with total angular momentumJ = 0. The effects of the translational, vibrational and rotational excitation of Cl₂ on the reaction probability have been investigated. In a broad region of the translational energy, the rotational excitation enhances the reaction probability while the vibrational excitation depresses the reaction probability. The theoretical results agree well with the fact that it is an early down-hill reaction.     

Quasi-classical trajectory approach to the stereo-dynamics of the reaction F+HO→HF+O

Quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) calculations are employed for the reaction F + HO(0,0)→HF + O based on the adiabatic potential energy surface (PES) of the ground 3A″triplet state. The average rotational alignment factor P2(j′·k) as a function of collision energy and the four polarization dependent generalized differential cross sections have been calculated in the center-of-mass (CM) frame, separately. The distribution P(θr) of the angle between k and j′, the distribution P(θr) of dihedral angle denoting k-k′-j′ correlation, and the angular distribution P(θr, Φr) of product rotational vectors in the form of polar plots are calculated as well. The effect of Heavy-Light-Heavy (HLH) mass combination and atom F's relatively strong absorbability to charges on the alignment and the orientation of product molecule HF rotational angular momentum vectors j′ is revealed.     

Quasi-classical trajectory study of the S + OH → SO + H reaction: from reaction probability to thermal rate constant

First quasi-classical trajectory calculations have been carried out for the S((3)P) + OH(X?(2)Π) → SO(X?(3)Σ(-)) + H((2)S) reaction on an ab initio global potential energy surface for the ground electronic state, X?(2)A', of HSO. Cross sections, computed for collision energies up to 1 eV, show no energy threshold and decrease with the increasing collision energy. Rate constants have been calculated in the 5-500 K temperature range. The thermal rate constant is in good agreement with approximate quantum results, while a disagreement is found at 298 K with the experimental data. Product energy distributions have also been reported at four collision energies from 0.001 to 0.5 eV. The shapes of the rovibrational and angular distributions suggest the formation of an intermediate complex that is more and more long-lived as the collision energy increases.     

RISM-SCF study of the free-energy profile of the Menshutkin-type reaction NH3+CH3Cl→NH3CH3++Cl− in aqueous solution

The free-energy profile for the Menshutkin-type reaction NH₃ + CH₃Cl → NH₃CH₃ ⁺ + Cl⁻ in aqueous solution is studied using the RISM-SCF method. The effect of electron correlation on the free-energy profile is estimated by the RISM-MP2 method at the HF optimized geometries along the reaction coordinate. Solvation was found to have a large influence on the vibrational frequencies at the reactant, transition state and product; these vibrational frequencies are utilized to calculate the zero-point energy correction of the free-energy profile. The computed barrier height and reaction exothermicity are in reasonable agreement with those of experiment and previous calculations. The change of solvation structure along the reaction path is represented by radial distribution functions between solute-solvent atomic sites. The mechanisms of the reaction are discussed from the view points of solute electronic and solvation structures. Received: 26 June 1998/Accepted: 28 August 1998 / Published online: 2 November 1998     

Reduced dimensionality spin-orbit dynamics of CH3 + HCl ⇌ CH4 + Cl on ab initio surfaces

A reduced dimensionality quantum scattering method is extended to the study of spin-orbit nonadiabatic transitions in the CH(3) + HCl ? CH(4) + Cl((2)P(J)) reaction. Three two-dimensional potential energy surfaces are developed by fitting a 29 parameter double-Morse function to CCSD(T)/IB//MP2/cc-pV(T+d)Z-dk ab initio data; interaction between surfaces is described by geometry-dependent spin-orbit coupling functions fit to MCSCF/cc-pV(T+d)Z-dk ab initio data. Spectator modes are treated adiabatically via inclusion of curvilinear projected frequencies. The total scattering wave function is expanded in a vibronic basis set and close-coupled equations are solved via R-matrix propagation. Ground state thermal rate constants for forward and reverse reactions agree well with experiment. Multi-surface reaction probabilities, integral cross sections, and initial-state selected branching ratios all highlight the importance of vibrational energy in mediating nonadiabatic transition. Electronically excited state dynamics are seen to play a small but significant role as consistent with experimental conclusions.     

Potential energy surface and reaction mechanism for the ion-molecule reaction: CH4 + CH4+ → CH3 + CH5+

The potential energy surface for the CH₄+CH₄⁺ reaction system has been calculated with the ab initio method. A stable complex, responsible for the complex mechanism, has been found but is hard to reach. Each of the two direct mechanisms, hydrogen transfer and proton transfer, has been shown to consist of a combination of electron transfer and hydrogen atom transfer processes.     

Quasiclassical trajectory study of the reaction O(3P) + HI → OH + I

Three-dimensional quasiclassical trajectory calculations were carried out for the reaction of oxygen atoms O(³P) with hydrogen iodide molecules (HI and DI) for the temperature range 200–550 K, using a LEPS potential-energy surface. The calculated results include reaction cross sections, rate constants, kinetic isotope effects, the influence of vibrational and rotational excitation of the reactants on the dynamics, and the product energy partitioning and angular distribution. The calculated results are in good agreement with the available experimental results. The dynamics of the O + HI reaction is discussed in view of the associated mass combination H + LH′ (H and H′ are heavy atoms and L is a light atom), and in relation to earlier trajectory results for the reactions O + HCl and O + HBr.     

Quasi-classical trajectory study of the Ne + H2(+) → NeH(+) + H reaction based on global potential energy surface

Using the multireference configuration interaction method with a Davidson correction and a large orbital basis set (aug-cc-pVQZ), we obtain an energy grid that includes 32 038 points for the construction of a new analytical potential energy surface (APES) for the Ne + H(2)(+) → NeH(+) + H reaction. The APES is represented as a many-body expansion containing 142 parameters, which are fitted from 31?000 ab initio energies using an adaptive nonlinear least-squares algorithm. The geometric characteristics of the reported APES and the one presented here are also compared. On the basis of the APES we obtained, reaction cross sections are computed by means of quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) calculations and compared with the experimental and theoretical data in the literature.     

Quasi-classical trajectory study of the H + CO2 → HO + CO reaction on a new ab initio based potential energy surface

A detailed quasi-classical trajectory study of the H + CO(2) → HO + CO reaction is reported on an accurate potential energy surface based on ab initio data. The influence of the vibrational and rotational excitations of CO(2) was investigated up to the collision energy of 2.35 eV. It was found that the total reaction integral cross section increases monotonically with the collision energy, consistent with experimental results. The excitation of the CO(2) bending vibration enhances the reaction, while the excitation in its asymmetric stretching vibration inhibits the reaction. The calculated thermal rate constants are in excellent agreement with experiment. At the state-to-state level, the rotational state distributions of the HO product are in good agreement with experimental results, while those for the CO product are much hotter than measurements. The calculated differential cross sections are dominated by forward scattering, suggesting that the lifetime of the HOCO intermediate may not be sufficiently long to render the reaction completely statistical.     

Quantum dynamics calculation of reaction probability for H + Cl2 → HCl + Cl

We present in this paper a time-dependent quantum wave packet calculation of the initial state selected reaction probability for H + Cl₂ based on the GHNS potential energy surface with total angular momentumJ = 0. The effects of the translational, vibrational and rotational excitation of Cl₂ on the reaction probability have been investigated. In a broad region of the translational energy, the rotational excitation enhances the reaction probability while the vibrational excitation depresses the reaction probability. The theoretical results agree well with the fact that it is an early down-hill reaction.     

Quasi-classical trajectory study of the HO + CO → H + CO2 reaction on a new ab initio based potential energy surface

We report extensive quasi-classical trajectory calculations of the HO + CO → H + CO(2) reaction on a newly developed potential energy surface based on a large number of UCCSD(T)-F12/AVTZ calculations. This complex-forming reaction is known for its unusual kinetics and dynamics because of its unique potential energy surface, which is dominated by the HOCO wells flanked by an entrance channel bottleneck and a transition state leading to the H + CO(2) products. It was found that the thermal rate coefficients are in reasonably good agreement with known experimental data in both low and high pressure limits. Excitation of the OH vibration is shown to enhance reactivity, due apparently to its promoting effect over the transition state between the HOCO intermediate and the H + CO(2) product. On the other hand, neither CO vibrational excitation nor rotational excitation in either CO or OH has a significant effect on reactivity, in agreement with experiment. However, significant discrepancies have been found between theory and the available molecular beam experiments. For example, the calculated translational energy distribution of the products substantially underestimates the experiment. In addition, the forward bias in the differential cross section observed in the experiment was not reproduced theoretically. While the origin of the discrepancies is still not clear, it is argued that a quantum mechanical treatment of the dynamics might be needed.     

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).     

Ab initio potential energy surface and quantum dynamics for the H + CH4 → H2 + CH3 reaction

A new full-dimensional potential energy surface for the title reaction has been constructed using the modified Shepard interpolation scheme. Energies and derivatives were calculated using the UCCSD(T) method with aug-cc-pVTZ and 6-311++G(3df,2pd) basis sets, respectively. A total number of 30,000 data points were selected from a huge number of molecular configurations sampled by trajectory method. Quantum dynamical calculations showed that the potential energy surface is well converged for the number of data points for collision energy up to 2.5 eV. Total reaction probabilities and integral cross sections were calculated on the present surface, as well as on the ZBB3 and EG-2008 surfaces for the title reaction. Satisfactory agreements were achieved between the present and the ZBB3 potential energy surfaces, indicating we are approaching the final stage to obtain a global potential energy surface of quantitative accuracy for this benchmark polyatomic system. Our calculations also showed that the EG-2008 surface is less accurate than the present and ZBB3 surfaces, particularly in high energy region.     

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.     

Crossed-beams studies of the dynamics of the H-atom abstraction reaction, O(3P) + CH4 → OH + CH3, at hyperthermal collision energies

The H-atom abstraction reaction, O((3)P) + CH(4) → OH + CH(3), has been studied at a hyperthermal collision energy of 64 kcal mol(-1) by two crossed-molecular-beams techniques. The OH products were detected with a rotatable mass spectrometer employing electron-impact ionization, and the CH(3) products were detected with the combination of resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) and time-sliced ion velocity-map imaging. The OH products are mainly formed through a stripping mechanism, in which the reagent O atom approaches the CH(4) molecule at large impact parameters and the OH product is scattered in the forward direction: roughly the same direction as the reagent O atoms. Most of the available energy is partitioned into product translation. The dominance of the stripping mechanism is a unique feature of such H-atom abstraction reactions at hyperthermal collision energies. In the hyperthermal reaction of O((3)P) with CH(4), the H-atom abstraction reaction pathway accounts for 70% of the reactive collisions, while the H-atom elimination pathway to produce OCH(3) + H accounts for the other 30%.     

Kinetics and dynamics study of the H + CCl4?��?HCl(v��, j��)?+?CCl3 reaction

Based on a previous potential energy surface describing the H?+?CCl₄ reaction, a new analytical surface named PES-2010 was developed modifying both the functional form to give it more flexibility, and the calibration process in which exclusively theoretical information was used. Thus, the surface is completely symmetric with respect to the permutation of the four methane chlorine atoms, and no experimental information is used in the process. For the kinetics, the thermal rate constants were calculated using variational transition-state theory with semiclassical transmission coefficients over a wide temperature range, 300?C2,500?K. The theoretical results reproduce the experimental variation with temperature. The influence of the tunneling factor is small, since the abstraction reaction involves the motion of a heavy particle (a chlorine atom) that cannot easily tunnel through the reaction barrier. The coupling between the reaction coordinate and the vibrational modes shows qualitatively that the HCl stretching mode in the products appears vibrationally excited. The dynamics study was performed using quasi-classical trajectory calculations, including corrections to avoid the zero-point energy problem. First, we found that the HCl(????, j??) product mostly appears with small rotational energy and vibrational population inversion. Second, the state-specific scattering distributions show backward scattering, which becomes more noticeable as the HCl(????) vibrational state increases. Unfortunately, no experimental dynamics data are available for the title reaction, but the comparison with the kinematically similar and well-studied H?+?Cl₂ reaction shows good agreement, indicative of similar mechanisms. These kinetics and dynamics results seem to indicate that the potential energy surface is adequate to describe this reaction, and the reasonable agreement with experiment lends further confidence to this new surface.     

Theoretical studies on the reaction path and dynamics of the reaction CH_3+H_2O→CH_4+OH

The reaction path, the dynamical properties along the reaction path and CVT rate constants are computed by the ab initio MO method, the reaction path Hamiltonian theory and the variational transition state theory. The results show that the effect of the electron correlation energy on activation barrier is large, the recrossing and tunneling effects exist in the reaction.