Ab initio investigation of benzene clusters: molecular tailoring approach

An exhaustive study on the clusters of benzene (Bz)(n), n = 2-8, at MP2/6-31++G(??) level of theory is reported. The relative strengths of CH-π and π-π interactions in these aggregates are examined, which eventually govern the pattern of cluster formation. A linear scaling method, viz., molecular tailoring approach (MTA), is efficiently employed for studying the energetics and growth patterns of benzene clusters consisting up to eight benzene (Bz) units. Accuracy of MTA-based calculations is appraised by performing the corresponding standard calculations wherever possible, i.e., up to tetramers. For benzene tetramers, the error introduced in energy is of the order of 0.1 mH (～0.06 kcal/mol). Although for higher clusters the error may build up, further corrections based on many-body interaction energy analysis substantially reduce the error in the MTA-estimate. This is demonstrated for a prototypical case of benzene hexamer. A systematic way of building up a cluster of n monomers (n-mer) which employs molecular electrostatic potential of an (n-1)-mer is illustrated. The trends obtained using MTA method are essentially identical to those of the standard methods in terms of structure and energy. In summary, this study clearly brings out the possibility of effecting such large calculations, which are not possible conventionally, by the use of MTA without a significant loss of accuracy.     

WebMTA: a web-interface for ab initio geometry optimization of large molecules using molecular tailoring approach

A web-interface for geometry optimization of large molecules using a linear scaling method, i.e., cardinality guided molecular tailoring approach (CG-MTA), is presented. CG-MTA is a cut-and-stitch, fragmentation-based method developed in our laboratory, for linear scaling of conventional ab initio techniques. This interface provides limited access to CG-MTA-enabled GAMESS. It can be used to obtain fragmentation schemes for a given spatially extended molecule depending on the maximum allowed fragment size and minimum cut radius values provided by the user. Currently, we support submission of single point or geometry optimization jobs at Hartree-Fock and density functional theory levels of theory for systems containing between 80 to 200 first row atoms and comprising up to 1000 basis functions. The graphical user interface is built using HTML and Python at the back end. The back end farms out the jobs on an in-house Linux-based cluster running on Pentium-4 Class or higher machines using an @Home-based parallelization scheme (http://chem.unipune.ernet.in/ approximately tcg/mtaweb/).     

Ab initio calculations on large molecules using molecular fragments First order electronic properties for hydrocarbons

A number of first order electronic properties for the hydrocarbons C₂H₆, C₃H₈, C₂H₄, C₆H₆, and C₁₀H₈ are investigated. The wavefunctions employed here result from SCF calculations, using basis orbitals that have been optimized in molecular fragment studies. Comparisons are made with experimental values as well as with other calculated values, and the suitability of various molecular fragment bases is discussed.     

Ab initio molecular dynamics approach to tunneling splitting in polyatomic molecules

An ab initio molecular dynamics approach is combined with the semiclassical tunneling method of Makri and Miller, which is applied to estimations of tunneling splitting in the umbrella inversion of ammonia and the intramolecular hydrogen transfer in malonaldehyde. In the application to malonaldehyde, effects of multidimensionality are examined by assigning quantum zero-point energies only to significant vibrational modes and changing the amount of energy given to other degrees of freedom. The calculated tunneling splitting values are in good agreement with the corresponding experimental values for both molecules.     

Ab initio quality properties for macromolecules using the ADMA approach

We describe new developments of an earlier linear scaling algorithm for ab initio quality macromolecular property calculations based on the adjustable density matrix assembler (ADMA) approach. In this approach, a large molecule is divided into fuzzy fragments, for which quantum chemical calculations can easily be done using moderate-size "parent molecules" that contain all the local interactions within a selected distance. If greater accuracy is required, a larger distance is chosen. With the present extension of this approximation, properties of the large molecules, like the electron density, the electrostatic potential, dipole moments, partial charges, and the Hartree-Fock energy are calculated. The accuracy of the method is demonstrated with test cases of medium size by comparing the ADMA results with direct quantum chemical calculations.     

Ab initio calculation of molecular chiroptical properties

This review describes the first-principles calculation of chiroptical properties such as optical rotation, electronic and vibrational circular dichroism, and Raman optical activity. Recent years have witnessed a flurry of activity in this area, especially in the advancement of density-functional and coupled cluster methods, with two ultimate goals: the elucidation of the fundamental relationship between chiroptical properties and detailed molecular structure, and the development of a suite of computational tools for the assignment of the absolute configurations of chiral molecules. The underlying theory and the basic principles of such calculations are given for each property, and a number of representative applications are discussed.     

Ab initio calculations on large molecules: The multiplicative integral approximation

In the multiplicative integral approximation (MIA), two-electron integrals are evaluated using an expansion of a product of two Gaussians in terms of auxiliary functions. An estimator of the error introduced by the approximation is incorporated in the self-consistent field (SCF) calculations and the integrals for which the error estimate is larger than a preset value are systematically corrected. In this way the results of a MIA-assisted calculation have the same accuracy as a conventional calculation. The full exploitation of the expansion technique while constructing the Fock-matrix allows important time savings. Results are presented for a number of test cases.     

Ab initio calculations on large molecules using molecular fragments. Preliminary investigation of ethyl chlorophyllide a and related molecules

Ab initio SCF calculations using the molecular fragment method are reported for four molecules related to chlorophyll a, i.e., free-base porphine, magnesium porphine, magnesium chlorin, and ethyl chlorophyllide a. Molecular orbital structure, the “four-orbital model”, reactivity sites, and Mg···N interactions are discussed.     

Ab initio calculations on large molecules using molecular fragments. Characterization of the zwitterion of glycine

The ab initio molecular fragment approach is applied to a characterization study of the ground state of the zwitterion of glycine. Included among the properties studied are the — conformational energy surface, the electronic structure, and the magnitude and direction of the dipole moment. The results of the present study are compared to the results of other theoretical and experimental studies.This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation, the University of Kansas, and the Upjohn Company, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49001.NSF Trainee (1969-1972).Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow (1971–1973).     

WebProp: Web interface for ab initio calculation of molecular one-electron properties

This note describes the features and implementation issues of WebProp, a web-based interface for evaluating ab initio quality one-electron properties. The interface code is written in HTML and Python, while the backend is handled using Python and our indigenously developed code INDPROP for property evaluation. A novel feature of this setup is that it provides a simple interface for computing first principle one-electron properties of small to medium sized molecules. To facilitate computation of otherwise expensive calculations on large molecular systems, we employ the Molecular Tailoring Approach (MTA) developed in our laboratory to obtain the density matrix (DM). This DM is then employed for computing the one-electron properties of these systems. The backend transparently handles jobs submitted by the user and runs them either on a single machine or over a grid of compute nodes. The results of the calculations, which include the summary and the files necessary for visualization of one-electron properties, are e-mailed to the user. The user can either directly use the data or visualize it using visualization tools such as UNIVIS-2000 or Drishti.     

Ab initio calculations on large molecules using molecular fragments. Initial studies on open shell systems

An ab initio procedure, designed for investigation of large molecules and based upon studies of molecular fragments, is extended to open shell systems using the unrestricted Hartree-Fock method. Investigated initially are the ethyl and vinyl radicals, and the ethylene triplet state.     

Ab initio properties of Li-group-II molecules for ultracold matter studies

We perform a systematic investigation of the electronic properties of the (2)Σ(+) ground state of Li-alkaline-earth dimers. These molecules are proposed as possible candidates for quantum simulation of lattice-spin models. We apply powerful quantum chemistry coupled-cluster method and large basis sets to calculate potential energies and permanent dipole moments for the LiBe, LiMg, LiCa, LiSr, and LiYb molecules. Agreement of calculated molecular constants with existing experimental data is better than or equal to 8%. Our results reveal a surprising irregularity in the dissociation energy and bond length with an increase in the reduced mass of the molecule. At the same time, the permanent dipole moment at the equilibrium separation has the smallest value between 0.01 a.u. and 0.1 a.u. for the heaviest (LiSr and LiYb) molecules and increases to 1.4 a.u. for the lightest (LiBe), where 1 a.u. is one atomic unit of dipole moment. We consider our study of the (2)Σ(+) molecules a first step towards a comprehensive analysis of their interactions in an optical trap.     

Ab initio molecular orbital analysis of acetaldehyde dimers.: Thermodynamic properties

The surface of the acetaldehyde dimer was studied by MP2/6-31+G^* ab initio calculations and some of the minima thus located were used in subsequent optimizations and single-point calculations at the B3-LYP/6-311+G(2d,p), MP2/6-311+G(2d,p), MP2/aug-cc-pDVZ and MP2/aug-cc-pTVZ levels. An overall of six minima in two distinct groups were detected, one group consisting of planar configurations and the other of more stable, non-planar (spatial) configurations of the two monomers. Some of the dimer thermodynamic properties were calculated from its harmonic frequencies and a comparison between the experimental values for the thermodynamic properties and the calculated values is discussed.     

Ab initio electronic structure study of one-electron reduction of polychlorinated ethylenes

Polychlorethylene radicals, anions, and radical anions are potential intermediates in the reduction of polychlorinated ethylenes (C(2)Cl(4), C(2)HCl(3), trans-C(2)H(2)Cl(2), cis-C(2)H(2)Cl(2), 1,1-C(2)H(2)Cl(2), C(2)H(3)Cl). Ab initio electronic structure methods were used to calculate the thermochemical properties, (298.15 K), S degrees (298.15 K,1 bar), and DeltaG(S)(298.15 K, 1 bar) of 37 different polychloroethylenyl radicals, anions, and radical anion complexes, C(2)H(y)Cl(3)(-)(y)(*), C(2)H(y)Cl(3)(-)(y)(-), and C(2)H(y))Cl(4)(-)(y)(*)(-) for y = 0-3, for the purpose of characterizing reduction mechanisms of polychlorinated ethylenes. In this study, 8 radicals, 7 anions, and 22 radical anions were found to have stable structures, i.e., minima on the potential energy surfaces. This multitude of isomers for C(2)H(y)Cl(4)(-)(y)(*)(-) radical anion complexes are pi*, sigma*, and -H...Cl(-) structures. Several stable pi* radical anionic structures were obtained for the first time through the use of restricted open-shell theories. On the basis of the calculated thermochemical estimates, the overall reaction energetics (in the gas phase and aqueous phase) for several mechanisms of the first electron reduction of the polychlorinated ethylenes were determined. In almost all of the gas-phase reactions, the thermodynamically most favorable pathways involve -H...Cl(-) complexes of the C(2)H(y)Cl(4)(-)(y)(*)(-) radical anion, in which a chloride ion is loosely bound to a hydrogen of a C(2)H(x)Cl(2)(-)(x))(*) radical. The exception is for C(2)Cl(4), in which the most favorable anionic structure is a loose sigma* radical anion complex, with a nearly iso-energetic pi* radical anion. Solvation significantly changes the product energetics with the thermodynamically most favorable pathway leading to C(2)H(y)Cl(3)(-)(y)(*) + Cl(-). The results suggest that a higher degree of chlorination favors reduction, and that reduction pathways involving the C(2)H(y)Cl(3)(-)(y)(-) anions are high energy pathways.     

Ab initio crystal orbital calculations on three-dimensional crystals of large bioorganic molecules and polymers

Ab initio crystal orbital calculations on three-dimensional crystals of tetrathiafulvalene-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TTF-TCNQ), diprotonated deoxycytidine-5′-monophosphate monohydrate (5′-dCMP*2H*1Water), disodium deoxyguanosine-5′-monophosphate tetrahydrate (5′-dGMP*2Na*4Water), disodium uridine-3′-monophosphate tetrahydrate (3′-UMP*2Na*4Water), monosodium monoprotonated deoxyadenosine-5′-monophosphate hexahydrate (5′-dAMP*1H*1Na*6Water), disodium deoxycytidine-5′-monophosphate heptahydrate (5′-dCMP*2Na*7Water), cis-polyacetylene (cis-PA), and polythiophene (PTP) were carried out using the CRYSTAL92 routine package. A suitable basis set has been found that enables one to carry out the above calculations at the STO -3G level of accuracy using SILICON GRAPHICS workstations. However, to obtain reasonable results for three-dimensional crystals of polymers, one has to use much more extended basis sets. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Molecular tailoring approach for geometry optimization of large molecules: energy evaluation and parallelization strategies

A linear-scaling scheme for estimating the electronic energy, gradients, and Hessian of a large molecule at ab initio level of theory based on fragment set cardinality is presented. With this proposition, a general, cardinality-guided molecular tailoring approach (CG-MTA) for ab initio geometry optimization of large molecules is implemented. The method employs energy gradients extracted from fragment wave functions, enabling computations otherwise impractical on PC hardware. Further, the method is readily amenable to large scale coarse-grain parallelization with minimal communication among nodes, resulting in a near-linear speedup. CG-MTA is applied for density-functional-theory-based geometry optimization of a variety of molecules including alpha-tocopherol, taxol, gamma-cyclodextrin, and two conformations of polyglycine. In the tests performed, energy and gradient estimates obtained from CG-MTA during optimization runs show an excellent agreement with those obtained from actual computation. Accuracy of the Hessian obtained employing CG-MTA provides good hope for the application of Hessian-based geometry optimization to large molecules.