Accurate ab initio predictions of ionization energies of hydrocarbon radicals: CH2, CH3, C2H, C2H3, C2H5, C3H3, and C3H5

The ionization energies for methylene (CH2), methyl (CH3), ethynyl (C2H), vinyl (C2H3), ethyl (C2H5), propargyl (C3H3), and allyl (C3H5) radicals have been calculated by the wave-function-based ab initio CCSD(T)/CBS approach, which involves the approximation to the complete basis set (CBS) limit at the coupled-cluster level with single and double excitations plus a quasiperturbative triple excitation [CCSD(T)]. When it is appropriate, the zero-point vibrational energy correction, the core-valence electronic correction, the scalar relativistic effect correction, the diagonal Born-Oppenheimer correction, and the high-order correlation correction have also been made in these calculations. The comparison between the computed ionization energy (IE) values and the highly precise experimental IE values determined in previous pulsed field ionization-photoelectron (PFI-PE) studies indicates that the CCSD(T)/CBS method is capable of providing accurate IE predictions for these hydrocarbon radicals achieving error limits well within +/-10 meV. The benchmarking of the CCSD(T)/CBS IE predictions by the PFI-PE experimental results also lends strong support for the conclusion that the CCSD(T)/CBS approach with high-level energy corrections can serve as a valuable alternative for reliable IE determination of radicals, particularly for those radicals with very unfavorable Franck-Condon factors for photoionization transitions near their ionization thresholds.     

Flexible, ab initio potential, and dipole moment surfaces for water. I. Tests and applications for clusters up to the 22-mer

We report full-dimensional, ab initio potential energy and dipole moment surfaces, denoted PES and DMS, respectively, for arbitrary numbers of water monomers. The PES is a sum of 1-, 2-, and 3-body potentials which can also be augmented by semiempirical long-range higher-body interactions. The 1-body potential is a spectroscopically accurate monomer potential, and the 2- and 3-body potentials are permutationally invariant fits to tens of thousands of CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ and MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ electronic energies, respectively. The DMS is a sum of 1- and 2-body DMS, which are covariant fits to tens of thousands MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ dipole moment data. We present the details of these new 2- and 3-body potentials and then extensive applications and tests of this PES are made to the structures, classical binding energies, and harmonic frequencies of water clusters up to the 22-mer. In addition, we report the dipole moment for these clusters at various minima and compare the results against available and new ab initio calculations.     

A theoretical and computational study of the anion, neutral, and cation Cu(H(2)O) complexes

An ab initio investigation of the potential energy surfaces and vibrational energies and wave functions of the anion, neutral, and cation Cu(H(2)O) complexes is presented. The equilibrium geometries and harmonic frequencies of the three charge states of Cu(H(2)O) are calculated at the MP2 level of theory. CCSD(T) calculations predict a vertical electron detachment energy for the anion complex of 1.65 eV and a vertical ionization potential for the neutral complex of 6.27 eV. Potential energy surfaces are calculated for the three charge states of the copper-water complexes. These potential energy surfaces are used in variational calculations of the vibrational wave functions and energies and from these, the dissociation energies D(0) of the anion, neutral, and cation charge states of Cu(H(2)O) are predicted to be 0.39, 0.16, and 1.74 eV, respectively. In addition, the vertical excitation energies, that correspond to the 4 (2)P<--4 (2)S transition of the copper atom, and ionization potentials of the neutral Cu(H(2)O) are calculated over a range of Cu(H(2)O) configurations. In hydrogen-bonded, Cu-HOH configurations, the vertical excitation and ionization energies are blueshifted with respect to the corresponding values for atomic copper, and in Cu-OH(2) configurations where the copper atom is located near the oxygen end of water, both quantities are redshifted.     

Ab initio study of substituent effects in the interactions of dimethyl ether with aromatic rings

Ab initio calculations have been used to investigate the interaction energies of dimers of dimethyl ether with benzene, hexafluorobenzene, and several monosubstituted benzenes. The potential energy curves were explored at the MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ level for two basic configurations of the dimers, one in which the oxygen atom of the dimethyl ether was pointed towards the aromatic ring and the other in which the oxygen atom was pointed away from the aromatic ring. Once the optimum intermolecular distances between the dimethyl and the aromatic ring had been determined for each of the dimers in both configurations at the MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ level, single point energy calculations were performed at the MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ level. A CCSD(T) correction term to the energy was determined and this was combined with the MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ energies to estimate the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ interaction energies of the dimers. The estimated CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ interaction energies are predicted to be attractive for all of the dimers in both configurations and dispersion interactions are found to be a large component of the stabilization of the dimers. For the dimers with the dimethyl ether oxygen pointing towards the aromatic ring, the strengths of interaction energies are found to increase as the aromatic ring becomes more electron deficient, while for the dimers with the dimethyl ether oxygen pointing away from the aromatic ring, they increase as the aromatic ring becomes more electron rich. In both cases, the trends can be explained in terms of the electrostatic potentials of the dimethyl ether and the aromatic rings.     

A quantum chemistry study of the Cl atom reaction with formaldehyde

The elementary vapor-phase reaction between Cl atoms and HCHO has been studied by ab initio methods. Calculations at the MP2, MP3, MP4(SDTQ), CCSD, CCSD(T), and MRD-CI levels of theory show that the reaction is characterized by a low electronic barrier; excluding the effects of spin-orbit splitting in Cl, our best estimate at the MRD-CI/aug-cc-pVTZ//RHF-RCCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory predicts a Born-Oppenheimer barrier height of 0.7 kJ mol-1. The energies of the lowest six electronic states as resulting from MRD-CI calculations are presented at discrete points along the reaction path, and two avoided crossings are found in the transition state region. The spin-orbit splitting in Cl is also calculated along the reaction path; it is not negligible in the transition state region and is found to increase the barrier by only 1.4 kJ mol-1 at the RCCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ transition state geometry. The minimum energy path of the reaction connects an energetically weakly stabilized adduct on the flat potential surface on the reactant side and an energetically strongly stabilized postreaction adduct. The reaction rate coefficient and the kinetic isotope effects were calculated using improved canonical variational theory with small curvature tunneling (ICVT/SCT), and the results were compared to experimental data. The experimental reaction rate coefficient is reproduced within its uncertainty limits by variational transition state theory with interpolated single-point energy corrections (ISPE) at the MP4(SDTQ) level of theory and by conventional transition state theory with interpolated optimized energies (IOE) at the MRD-CI//RCCSD(T) level of theory and interpolated optimized geometries at the RCCSD(T) level of theory on an MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ potential energy surface when employing scaled vibrational frequencies.     

Theoretical prediction of the ionization energies of the C4H7 radicals: 1-methylallyl, 2-methylallyl, cyclopropylmethyl, and cyclobutyl radicals

The ionization energies (IEs) for the 1-methylallyl, 2-methylallyl, cyclopropylmethyl, and cyclobutyl radicals have been calculated by the wave function based ab initio CCSD(T)/CBS approach, which involves the approximation to the complete basis set (CBS) limit at the coupled cluster level with single and double excitations plus quasiperturbative triple excitation [CCSD(T)]. The zero-point vibrational energy correction, the core-valence electronic correction, and the scalar relativistic effect correction are included in these calculations. The present CCSD(T)/CBS results are then compared with the IEs determined in the photoelectron experiment by Schultz et al. [J. Am. Chem. Soc. 106, 7336 (1984)] The predicted IE value (7.881 eV) of 2-methylallyl radical is found to compare very favorably with the experimental value of 7.90+/-0.02 eV. Two ionization transitions for cis-1-methylallyl and trans-1-methylallyl radicals have been considered here. The comparison between the predicted IE values and the previous measurements shows that the photoelectron peak observed by Schultz et al. likely corresponds to the adiabatic ionization transition for the trans-1-methylallyl radical to form trans-1-methylallyl cation. Although a precise IE value for the cyclopropylmethyl radical has not been directly determined, the experimental value deduced indirectly using other known energetic data is found to be in good accord with the present CCSD(T)/CBS prediction. We expect that the Franck-Condon factor for ionization transition of c-C4H7-->bicyclobutonium is much less favorable than that for ionization transition of c-C4H7-->planar-C4H7+, and the observed IE in the previous photoelectron experiment is likely due to the ionization transition for c-C4H7-->planar-C4H7+. Based on our CCSD(T)/CBS prediction, the ionization transition of c-C4H7-->bicyclobutonium with an IE value around 6.92 eV should be taken as the adiabatic ionization transition for the cyclobutyl radical. The present study provides support for the conclusion that the CCSD(T)/CBS approach with high-level energetic corrections can be used to provide reliable IE predictions for C4 hydrocarbon radicals with an uncertainty of +/-22 meV. The CCSD(T)/CBS predictions to the heats of formation for the aforementioned radicals and cations are also presented.     

Ab initio and analytic intermolecular potentials for Ar-CF4

Ab initio calculations at the CCSD(T) level of theory were performed to characterize the Ar + CF4 intermolecular potential. Potential energy curves were calculated with the aug-cc-pVTZ basis set, and with and without a correction for basis set superposition error (BSSE). Additional calculations were performed with other correlation consistent basis sets to extrapolate the Ar-CF4 potential energy minimum to the complete basis set (CBS) limit. Both the size of the basis set and BSSE have substantial effects on the Ar + CF4 potential. Calculations with the aug-cc-pVTZ basis set, and with a BSSE correction, appear to give a good representation of the BSSE corrected potential at the CBS limit. In addition, MP2 theory is found to give potential energies in very good agreement with those determined by the much higher level CCSD(T) theory. Two model analytic potential energy functions were determined for Ar + CF4. One is a fit to the aug-cc-pVTZ calculations with a BSSE correction. The second was derived by fitting an average BSSE corrected potential, which is an average of the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ potentials with and without a BSSE correction. These analytic functions are written as a sum of two-body potentials and excellent fits to the ab initio potentials are obtained by representing each two-body interaction as a Buckingham potential.     

Identification and chemistry of C4H3 and C4H5 isomers in fuel-rich flames

Quantitative identification of isomers of hydrocarbon radicals in flames is critical to understanding soot formation. Isomers of C4H3 and C4H5 in flames fueled by allene, propyne, cyclopentene, or benzene are identified by comparison of the observed photoionization efficiencies with theoretical simulations based on calculated ionization energies and Franck-Condon factors. The experiments combine molecular-beam mass spectrometry (MBMS) with photoionization by tunable vacuum-ultraviolet synchrotron radiation. The theoretical simulations employ the rovibrational properties obtained with B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) density functional theory and electronic energies obtained from QCISD(T) ab initio calculations extrapolated to the complete basis set limit. For C4H3, the comparisons reveal the presence of the resonantly stabilized CH2CCCH isomer (i-C4H3). For C4H5, contributions from the CH2CHCCH2 (i-C4H5) and some combination of the CH3CCCH2 and CH3CHCCH isomers are evident. Quantitative concentration estimates for these species are made for allene, cyclopentene, and benzene flames. Because of low Franck-Condon factors, sensitivity to n-isomers of both C4H3 and C4H5 is limited. Adiabatic ionization energies, as obtained from fits of the theoretical predictions to the experimental photoionization efficiency curves, are within the error bars of the QCISD(T) calculations. For i-C4H3 and i-C4H5, these fitted adiabatic ionization energies are (8.06 +/- 0.05) eV and (7.60 +/- 0.05) eV, respectively. The good agreement between the fitted and theoretical ionization thresholds suggests that the corresponding theoretically predicted radical heats of formation (119.1, 76.3, 78.7, and 79.1 kcal/mol at 0 K for i-C4H3, i-C4H5, CH3CCCH2, and CH3CHCCH, respectively) are also quite accurate.     

Development of a 3-body:many-body integrated fragmentation method for weakly bound clusters and application to water clusters (H2O)(n = 3-10, 16, 17)

A 3-body:many-body integrated quantum mechanical (QM) fragmentation method for non-covalent clusters is introduced within the ONIOM formalism. The technique captures all 1-, 2-, and 3-body interactions with a high-level electronic structure method, while a less demanding low-level method is employed to recover 4-body and higher-order interactions. When systematically applied to 40 low-lying (H(2)O)(n) isomers ranging in size from n = 3 to 10, the CCSD(T):MP2 3-body:many-body fragmentation scheme deviates from the full CCSD(T) interaction energy by no more than 0.07 kcal mol(-1) (or <0.01 kcal mol(-1) per water). The errors for this QM:QM method increase only slightly for various low-lying isomers of (H(2)O)(16) and (H(2)O)(17) (always within 0.13 kcal mol(-1) of the recently reported canonical CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ energies). The 3-body:many-body CCSD(T):MP2 procedure is also very efficient because the CCSD(T) computations only need to be performed on subsets of the cluster containing 1, 2, or 3 monomers, which in the current context means the largest CCSD(T) calculations are for 3 water molecules, regardless of the cluster size.     

Accurate ab initio predictions of ionization energies and heats of formation for the 2-propyl, phenyl, and benzyl radicals

The ionization energies (IEs) for the 2-propyl (2-C(3)H(7)), phenyl (C(6)H(5)), and benzyl (C(6)H(5)CH(2)) radicals have been calculated by the wave-function-based ab initio CCSD(T)/CBS approach, which involves the approximation to the complete basis set (CBS) limit at the coupled cluster level with single and double excitations plus quasiperturbative triple excitation [CCSD(T)]. The zero-point vibrational energy correction, the core-valence electronic correction, and the scalar relativistic effect correction have been also made in these calculations. Although a precise IE value for the 2-C(3)H(7) radical has not been directly determined before due to the poor Franck-Condon factor for the photoionization transition at the ionization threshold, the experimental value deduced indirectly using other known energetic data is found to be in good accord with the present CCSD(T)/CBS prediction. The comparison between the predicted value through the focal-point analysis and the highly precise experimental value for the IE(C(6)H(5)CH(2)) determined in the previous pulsed field ionization photoelectron (PFI-PE) study shows that the CCSD(T)/CBS method is capable of providing an accurate IE prediction for C(6)H(5)CH(2), achieving an error limit of 35 meV. The benchmarking of the CCSD(T)/CBS IE(C(6)H(5)CH(2)) prediction suggests that the CCSD(T)/CBS IE(C(6)H(5)) prediction obtained here has a similar accuracy of 35 meV. Taking into account this error limit for the CCSD(T)/CBS prediction and the experimental uncertainty, the CCSD(T)/CBS IE(C(6)H(5)) value is also consistent with the IE(C(6)H(5)) reported in the previous HeI photoelectron measurement. Furthermore, the present study provides support for the conclusion that the CCSD(T)/CBS approach with high-level energy corrections can be used to provide reliable IE predictions for C(3)-C(7) hydrocarbon radicals with an uncertainty of +/-35 meV. Employing the atomization scheme, we have also computed the 0 K (298 K) heats of formation in kJ/mol at the CCSD(T)/CBS level for 2-C(3)H(7)/2-C(3)H(7) (+) ,C(6)H(5)/C(6)H(5) (+), and C(6)H(5)CH(2)/C(6)H(5)CH(2) (+) to be 105.2/822.7 (90.0/806.4), 351.4/1148.5 (340.4/1138.8), and 226.2/929.0 (210.3/912.7), respectively. Comparing these values with the available experimental values, we find that the discrepancies for the 0 and 298 K heats of formation values are < or =2.6 kJ/mol for 2-C(3)H(7)/2-C(3)H(7) (+),< or =4.1 kJ/mol for C(6)H(5)/C(6)H(5) (+), and < or =3.2 kJ//mol for C(6)H(5)CH(2)C(6)H(5)CH(2) (+).     

NH_(2-3)~(0-1 )离解能等的高级ab initio计算与评价

FeiQi等人[1]最近对H2N－H、H2N －H的离解能以及NH3、NH2的电离能，用真空紫外光电离实验进行了重新测定，并同时得到了H2N－H 的离解能．他们还在QCISD（T）／6－311＋G（3df，ZP）／／MPZ（full）／6刁IG（d）水平（GZ理论的参考水平）上对这些数据及其它相关分子的某些性质     

NH0-1+2-3离解能等的高级ab initio计算与评价

A recent experimental determination[1] of the dissociation energies (D0) for H2N-H, H2N+-H and H2N-H+, the ionization energies for NH3 and NH2 resulted in large deviations when compared with those of the earlier values and the QCISD(T)/6-311+G(3df,2p) ab initio calculations. We have performed some higher level ab initio calculations on these data by utilizing the Gaussian 92/DFT and Gaussian 94 pakages of programs and have assessed the available experimental values. Our calculations were carried out at the QCISD (TQ)/aug-cc-pVDZ, G2(QCI), QCISD(T)/6-311 ++G(3df,3pd) and QCISD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ levels of theory. Geometries were optimized at both of the MP2(full)/6-31G(d) and the MP2(full)/6-31(d,p) levels, and were compared with those of the experiments if available. The MP2(full)/6-31G(d,p) tight-optimized geometries for the neutrals are closer to those of the experiments than those of the MP2 (full)/6-31G(d), and are in excellent agreement with the experimental results as shown in Table 1. In this case, we assumed that the optimized geometries for the cations would be better if p polarization functions are added to the hydrogen atoms. We firstly noted that the symmetry of the NH3+ cation was D3h, other than Cs. as reported in ref.[1]. All of the zero-point energies and the final geometries are calculated at the MP2(full)/6-31G(d,p) level of theory. We have also repeated the QCISD(T )/6-311 + G(3df,2p) calculations of ref. [1], because we could not identify their level of goemetry optimization. It is found that the total energy, -55.244 19 Hartrees, for NH2+(1A1 ) in ref.[1] might be in error. Our result is -55.336 29 Hartrees at the same level of theory. At our highest level [QCISD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ] of calculations as shown in Table 3, the D0 (temperature at zero Kelvin) values of H2N-H, H2N+-H(3B1for NH2+ ) and H2N- H+ are 4.51, 5.49 and 8.00 eV, respectively. These data reported in re f.[1] were 4.97, 5.59 and 8.41 eV, respectively. Our result on D0(H2N-H) supports the work of ref.[2,3,5,6]. The ionization energies (IE) for NH3 and NH2 (3B1 for NH2+) at our highest level are 10.11 and 11.09 eV while in ref.[1] were 10.16 and 10.78 eV, respectively. For the latter, our result supports the experiment of ref.[3]. Our predicted D0 for HN2+-H and IE for NH2 (1A1 for each NH2+) are 6.80 and 12.39 eV, respectively. These values differ greatly from the predicted values (9.29 and 14.88 eV) of ref.[1] where the total energy of NH2+(1A1) might be in error. The D0 value for HN-H has not been found in ref.[1]. Our result supports the work of ref.[3]. We have also derived all of these values at the temperature of 298K and under the pressure of 101kPa at several levels of thoery as shown in Table 3. On examining the experiment of ref.[1] in detail, it is easy to find that all of the larger deviations might be from a too high value of the appearance potential of proton AP(H+). Indeed, ref.[1] has mentioned that the determintion of AP(H+), due to kinetic shift, would lead to a hihger value for the dissociation energy as has been pointed out by Berkowitz and Ruscic. In this work, we concluded that, besides some mistakes in the theoretical calculations of ref.[1], the dissociation energies for H2N-H and H2N-H+,the IE for NH2 (3B1 for NH2+) might also be unreliable and need to be re-examined.
     

Simple <Emphasis Type="Italic">b</Emphasis> ions have cyclic oxazolone structures. A neutralization-reionization mass spectrometric and computational study of oxazolone radicals

The 2-methyloxazol-5-on-2-yl radical (3) and its deuterium labeled analogs were generated in the gas-phase by femtosecond electron-transfer and studied by neutralization-reionization mass spectrometry and quantum chemical calculations. Radical 3 undergoes fast dissociation by ring opening and elimination of CO and CH(3)CO. Loss of hydrogen is less abundant and involves hydrogen atoms from both the ring and side-chain positions. The experimental results are corroborated by the analysis of the potential energy surface of the ground electronic state in 3 using density functional, perturbational, and coupled-cluster theories up to CCSD(T) and extrapolated to the 6-311 ++ G(3df,2p) basis set. RRKM calculations of radical dissociations gave branching ratios for loss of CO and H that were k(CO)/k(H) > 10 over an 80-300 kJ mol(-1) range of internal energies. The driving force for the dissociations of 3 is provided by large Franck-Condon effects on vertical neutralization and possibly from involvement of excited electronic states. Calculations also provided the adiabatic ionization energy of 3, IE(adiab) = 5.48 eV and vertical recombination energy of cation 3(+), RE(vert) = 4.70 eV. The present results strongly indicate that oxazolone structures can explain fragmentations of b-type peptide ions upon electron capture, contrary to previous speculations.     

Direct dynamics simulations of O(3P) + HCl at hyperthermal collision energies

The dynamics of the O(3P) + HCl reaction at hyperthermal collision energies were investigated using the quasiclassical trajectory method. Stationary points on the OClH 3A" and 3A' potential energy surfaces (PESs) were also examined. The lowest transition state leading to OCl + H on the 3A" surface is 2.26 eV above the reagents at the CCSD(T)/cc-pVTZ level of theory. This saddle point is bent and product-like. Direct dynamics calculations at the MP2/cc-pVTZ level of theory were used to investigate the excitation functions for OH + Cl, OCl + H, and O + H + Cl formation. OCl is formed mainly from small-impact-parameter collisions, and the OCl + H excitation function peaks around 5 eV, where it is similar in magnitude to the OH + Cl excitation function. The shape of the OCl + H excitation function is discussed, and features are identified that should be general to hyperthermal collision dynamics.     

State of the art theoretical study and comparison to experiment for the phenol...argon complex

The phenol...argon complex was studied by means of various high level ab initio quantum mechanics methods and high resolution threshold ionization spectroscopy. The structure and stabilization energy of different conformers were determined. Stabilization energy of van der Waals bonded and H-bonded PhOH...Ar complex determined at CCSD(T) complete basis set (CBS) level for CP-RI-MP2/cc-pVTZ/Ar aug-cc-pVTZ geometries amount to 434 and 285 cm(-1). The CCSD(T)/CBS were constructed either as a sum of MP2/CBS interaction energy and CCSD(T) correction term [difference between CCSD(T) and MP2 correlation energies determined with medium basis set] or directly from CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVDZ and aug-cc-pVTZ energies. Both schemes provide very similar values. Harmonic vibrational analysis revealed that the H-bonded structure does not represent energy minimum but first order transition structure. The respective imaginary vibrational mode (16 cm(-1)) connects two possible argon locations -- above and below the phenol aromatic ring. Including the DeltaZPVE, we obtained stabilization enthalpy at 0 K of 389 cm(-1). This value is marginally higher (25-35 cm(-1), 0.07-0.10 kcal/mol) than the experimental value. The determination of DeltaZPVE constitutes the most significant error and possible improvements should come from more accurate evaluation of the (nonharmonic) vibrational frequencies.     

Theoretical study of the spectroscopically relevant parameters for the detection of HNP(q) and HPN(q) (q = 0, +1, -1) in the gas phase

High level ab initio electronic structure calculations at different levels of theory have been performed on HNP and HPN neutrals, anions, and cations. This includes standard coupled cluster CCSD(T) level with augmented correlation-consistent basis sets, internally contacted multi-reference configuration interaction, and the newly developed CCSD(T)-F12 methods in connection with the explicitly correlated basis sets. Core-valence correction and scalar relativistic effects were examined. We present optimized equilibrium geometries, harmonic vibrational frequencies, rotational constants, adiabatic ionization energies, electron affinities, vertical detachment energies, and relative energies. In addition, the three-dimensional potential energy surfaces of HNP(-1,0,+1) and of HPN(-1,0,+1) were generated at the (R)CCSD(T)-F12b∕cc-pVTZ-F12 level. The anharmonic terms and fundamentals were derived using second order perturbation theory. For HNP, our best estimate for the adiabatic ionization energy is 7.31 eV, for the adiabatic electron affinity is 0.47 eV. The higher energy isomer, HPN, is 23.23 kcal∕mol above HNP. HPN possesses a rather large adiabatic electron affinity of 1.62 eV. The intramolecular isomerization pathways were computed. Our calculations show that HNP(-) to HPN(-) reaction is subject to electron detachment.     

Electron super-rich radicals in the gas phase. A neutralization-reionization mass spectrometric and ab initio/RRKM study of diaminohydroxymethyl and triaminomethyl radicals

Diaminohydroxymethyl (1) and triaminomethyl (2) radicals were generated by femtosecond collisional electron transfer to their corresponding cations (1+ and 2+, respectively) and characterized by neutralization-reionization mass spectrometry and ab initio/RRKM calculations at correlated levels of theory up to CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ. Ion 1+ was generated by gas-phase protonation of urea which was predicted to occur preferentially at the carbonyl oxygen with the 298 K proton affinity that was calculated as PA = 875 kJ mol-1. Upon formation, radical 1 gains vibrational excitation through Franck-Condon effects and rapidly dissociates by loss of a hydrogen atom, so that no survivor ions are observed after reionization. Two conformers of 1, syn-1 and anti-1, were found computationally as local energy minima that interconverted rapidly by inversion at one of the amine groups with a <7 kJ mol-1 barrier. The lowest energy dissociation of radical 1 was loss of the hydroxyl hydrogen atom from anti-1 with ETS = 65 kJ mol-1. The other dissociation pathways of 1 were a hydroxyl hydrogen migration to an amine group followed by dissociation to H2N-C=O* and NH3. Ion 2+ was generated by protonation of gas-phase guanidine with a PA = 985 kJ mol-1. Electron transfer to 2+ was accompanied by large Franck-Condon effects that caused complete dissociation of radical 2 by loss of an H atom on the experimental time scale of 4 mus. Radicals 1 and 2 were calculated to have extremely low ionization energies, 4.75 and 4.29 eV, respectively, which belong to the lowest among organic molecules and bracket the ionization energy of atomic potassium (4.34 eV). The stabilities of amino group containing methyl radicals, *CH2NH2, *CH(NH2)2, and 2, were calculated from isodesmic hydrogen atom exchange with methane. The pi-donating NH2 groups were found to increase the stability of the substituted methyl radicals, but the stabilities did not correlate with the radical ionization energies.     

Accurate ab initio structure, dissociation energy, and vibrational spectroscopy of the F(-)-CH4 anion complex

Accurate equilibrium structure, dissociation energy, global potential energy surface (PES), dipole moment surface (DMS), and the infrared vibrational spectrum in the 0-3000 cm(-1) range of the F(-)-CH4 anion complex have been obtained. The equilibrium electronic structure calculations employed second-order M?ller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) and coupled-cluster (CC) method up to single, double, triple, and perturbative quadruple excitations using the aug-cc-p(C)VXZ [X = 2(D), 3(T), 4(Q), and 5] correlation-consistent basis sets. The best equilibrium geometry has been obtained at the all-electron CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pCVQZ level of theory. The dissociation energy has been determined based on basis set extrapolation techniques within the focal-point analysis (FPA) approach considering (a) electron correlation beyond the all-electron CCSD(T) level, (b) relativistic effects, (c) diagonal Born-Oppenheimer corrections (DBOC), and (d) variationally computed zero-point vibrational energies. The final D(e) and D0 values are 2398 +/- 12 and 2280 +/- 20 cm(-1), respectively. The global PES and DMS have been computed at the frozen-core CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ and MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ levels of theory, respectively. Variational vibrational calculations have been performed for CH4 and F(-)-CH4 employing the vibrational configuration interaction (VCI) method as implemented in Multimode.     

One-photon mass-analyzed threshold ionization spectroscopy of 2-chloropropene (2-C3H5Cl) and its vibrational assignment based on the density-functional theory calculations

A high-quality mass-analyzed threshold ionization (MATI) spectrum of 2-chloropropene, 2-C3H5Cl, is reported. Its ionization energy determined for the first time from the 0-0 band position was 9.5395+/-0.0006 eV. Almost all the peaks in the MATI spectrum could be vibrationally assigned utilizing the frequencies calculated at the B3LYP6-311++G(3df,3pd) level and the Franck-Condon factors calculated with the molecular parameters obtained at the same level. In particular, the observed methyl torsional progression could be reproduced very well through quantum-mechanical calculations using the molecular parameters obtained at this level. Dramatic lowering of the torsional barrier inferred from the experimental data was entirely compatible with the B3LYP6-311++G(3df,3pd) results. The torsional barrier and the internal rotational constant determined by fits to six torsional peaks were 53.6 and 5.20 cm(-1), respectively. A brief discussion at the level of molecular orbital is presented to account for the dramatic lowering of the torsional barrier upon ionization.