Relative stability of the2 A 1g and2 E g states of the C2H 6 + ion

Anab initio study of the relative stability for the states² A _1g and² E _g of C₂H ₆ ⁺ has been carried out. The results of the Open Shell Restricted Hartree-Fock calculations lead to assign the² A _{1 g} as the ground state of the molecule in agreement with previous SCF calculations.The correlation energy associated to both states has been calculated within the correlation hole model and the results, contrary to those obtained from Configuration Interaction calculations, do not alter qualitatively the conclusions from SCF.     

Ab initio calculations including electron correlation for the minimum energy path of the (1A1) CH2+(1Σ)H2→ (1A1) CH4 insertion reaction

Ab initio calculations on the SCF level and with the inclusion of valence shell electron correlation in the IEPA–PNO (independent electron pair approximation with pair natural orbitals), the PNO–CI (pair-natural-orbital configuration interaction) and the CEPA–PNO (coupled electron pair approximation with pair natural orbitals) schemes with Gaussian lobe functions of “double zeta quality” have been performed for the minimum energy path of the insertion of singlet (¹A₁) methylene to the (¹Σ)H₂ molecule to yield methane. The energy was minimized on the SCF level to all geometrical parameters for various values of the “approximate” reaction coordinate. The energy along the reaction path decreases monotonically without a barrier and the curves representing the total energy of the system as a function of approximate reaction coordinates obtained at different levels of approximations have the same shape. From the physical point of view three phases of the reaction can be distinguished (chemically two steps) with different geometrical arrangements and different internal geometries of the partners.     

Comparative theoretical study of the dissociation process of the isoelectronic molecules BH3CO,CH2CO,HNCO, CO2 and BH3N2, CH2N2, HN3, N2O

Anab initio study of the electronic structure of several 22-electrons molecules is presented. The equilibrium geometries of their ground state are calculated at the SCF level using the 6–31G basis set and are found to be in good agreement with the experimental geometries. The dissociation process of these molecules leading to the isoelectronic products CO or N₂ on the one hand and BH₃, CH₂, NH and O on the other hand is studied. The least-energy dissociation paths of the ground states determined at the SCF level are compared on the basis of electron density interactions. The dissociation energies corresponding to the two lowest dissociation channels are calculated. In these calculations, the correlation energy is taken into account using a non-variational method developed previously. The calculated values of dissociation energies are in good agreement with the existing experimental values. The results permit to predict values for HNCO, BH₃CO and CH₂N₂ and to confirm the instability of BH₃N₂.Aspirant du Fonds National Belge de la Recherche Scientifique.     

Carbon-beryllium binding in CH2Be

Ab initio molecular orbital theory is used to study carbon-beryllium binding in the lowest singlet and triplet states of CH₂Be. When electron correlation is included, both singlet and triplet states are significantly bound relative to the ground states of CH₂ and Be fragments.     

Accuracy and limitations of the pseudopotential method

Molecular model potential calculations have been performed within the SCF approximation on nine di- and triatomic molecules from the first row of the periodic table. We compare the molecular constants with ab initio SCF values and with model potential results obtained by other authors. Our results are accurate to a few per cent. The three most significant approximations in molecular model potential theory are: 1) The molecular model potential is the sum of atomic model potentials; 2) The atomic model potential is energy-independent; 3) The electron interaction model operator is l/r ₁₂. We arrive at the following general conclusions concerning these approximations: 1) The first approximation does not hold for strongly ionic molecules and for some highly excited molecular states. 2) Approximations 2 and 3 cancel to a large extent in molecules as they do in atoms, except in the case where approximation 1 breaks down. 3) Although various model- and pseudo-potentials yield reasonable results for atoms, not all of them are suitable for molecular calculations.     

A fully ab initio potential energy surface for ClH2 reactive system

Anab initio analytical potential energy surface called BW3 for the ClH₂ reactive system is presented. The fit of this surface is based on about 1 200ab initio energy points, computed with multi-reference configuration interaction(MRCI) and scaling external correlation (SEC) method and a very large basis set. The precision in the fit is very high. The BW3 surface could reproduce correctly the dissociation energy of H₂ and HCl, and the endothermicity of the Cl + H₂ abstraction reaction. For the Cl + H₂ abstraction reaction, the saddle point of BW3 lies in collinear geometries, and the barrier height is 32.84 kJ/mol; for the H + ClH exchange reaction, the barrier of BW3 is also linear, with a height of 77.40 kJ/mol.     

SCF MO CI perturbation calculations of inner shell and valence shell vertical ionization potentials

A CI method for calculating inner and valence shell vertical ionization potentials is presented. It is based on ab initio SCF MO calculations for the neutral closedshell ground state followed by CI perturbation calculations for the ground and ion states including all spin and symmetry adapted singly and doubly excited configurations with respect to the main configurations of the state of interest. The state energy is computed by performing a CI calculation for a set of selected configurations, and then adding the contributions of the remaining configurations as estimated by second order Brillouin-Wigner perturbation theory. The use of the same set of MO's for all states together with the CI perturbation method makes the method rather rapid. The numerical results are, in spite of the limited Gaussian basis sets used, in good agreement with experiment.     

An investigation of the relative stabilities of the isomers of CF2N2: Comparison of ab initio and MNDO calculations

Ab initio SCF calculations at the HF/3-21G level and semi-empirical MNDO calculations have been used to locate the stationary points on the CF₂N₂ energy surface. Perfluorodiazomethane is predicted to be most stable isomer, but perfluorodiazirine is predicted to lie only ca 41 kJ higher in energy at the SCF level. There are significant differences between the ab initio and MNDO results for the ordering of some of the isomers. Frequency calculations give results in good agreement with the limited experimental data on these molecules.     

Ab initio study of hydrazoic acid

SCF and CI calculations were carried out on the ground^1A state of HN₃. The equilibrium geometry and vibration frequencies were computed. The results point to a planar structure (groupC _s) but to a non-linear (170 °) N-N-N conformation. The calculated vibration frequencies are in fair agreement with experimental assignments.The dissociation path of the molecule to NH and N₂ products was investigated and compared to the isoelectronic reaction of diazomethane. The dissociation energy of hydrazoic acid is estimated to be about –8 kcal/mole, with a potential barrier to dissociation of about 30 kcal/mole.Boursier IRSIA     

Electronic structure and the hydrogen-shift isomerization of hydrogen nitryl HNO2

Summary Electronic structure of hydrogen nitryl HNO₂, a yet not identified entity, and the path of its possible isomerization totrans-HONO have been investigated byab initio SCF and MRD-CI computations using the 6-31G** basis set. HNO₂ isC _2v -symmetric and its ground state (¹ A ₁) is less stable thantrans-HONO by 66 kJ/mol (with the SCF vibrational zero-point energy correction). The lowest two excited singlet states (¹ A ₂ and¹ B ₁) are nearly degenerate, their vertical excitation energies being predicted to be 4.8 eV. The isomerization path is traced by the CASSCF procedure and the activation barrier height is evaluated by the CI treatment. HNO₂ in its ground state isomerizes totrans-HONO by maintaining the planar (C _s-symmetric) structure. The activation energy is calculated to be 171 kJ/mol, which is clearly lower than the calculated H-N bond energy (253 kJ/mol). The transition state seems to be more adequately described as an interacting system of proton and the nitrite anion rather than as a pair of two fragment radicals.     

Ab initio and pseudopotential calculations on the singlet and triplet states of the disilyne isomers

Ab initio SCF as well as pseudopotential calculations were performed for determining equilibrium structures and relative stabilities of several disilyne isomers. For the singlet state there are only two structures, the bridged and the silavinylidene carbene, which correspond to minima on the energy hypersurface. The most stable of the six isomeric structures investigated is the bridged conformer in the ¹A₁ electronic state, followed by the silavinylidene carbene in the ¹A₁ and ³A₂ electronic states. Inclusion of electron correlation by MRD-CI calculations has no qualitative influence on the relative stabilities found in the SCF calculations.     

Theoretical studies on ammonia oxide and its unimolecular reactions

The unimolecular reactions of ammonia oxide H₃NO, isomerization and dehydrogenation, are investigated by ab initio MO calculations with the 4-31G basis set. The geometries and energies of the reactant, transition states and products have been determined on the singlet potential energy surface. The reaction ergodography along the intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC) for the two reactions have been performed. The vibrational frequency correlation diagram of the two reactions are analyzed along the IRC.     

Cation-binding to biomolecules

Ab initio SCF computations indicate that Mg²⁺ should bind essentially to the oxygen atoms of uracil, the remaining part of the base being rather repulsive towards such an interaction. The Coulombic component predominates in the interaction, the essential feature of which may thus be deduced from the study of the molecular electrostatic potential of uracil. These ab initio results contradict an earlier CNDO prediction that the binding of uracil and Mg²⁺ should occur preferentially at the C₅=C₆ double bond of the base. It is shown that the CNDO result is an artifact due to an exaggeration by this method of the charge transfer between the ligand and the cation. The small amount of available experimental data seem in favor of the ab initio results.     

Conformational analysis of dimethylphosphate with quantum-mechanical and classical methods

In order to shed light on the conformational behavior of polynucleotide chains, and in particular to clarify the origins of the barriers to internal rotation in the phosphodiester linkage, we computed, with a quantum-mechanical ab initio procedure, the energies associated to 86 combinations of the two torsion angles in the dimethylphosphate anion (CH₃O)₂PO₂ ^–, and then we sought for an analytical expression apt to reproduce these energies with the highest possible accuracy. An excellent agreement (standard deviation of the fitted energies from the ab initio energies 0.28 kcal/mole) with the quantum-mechanical calculations was reached with a potential consisting of four terms: 1) a 6–12 Lennard-Jones contribution, in which different parameters are used to describe the interactions of methyls with the ester oxygens and with the anionic oxygens; 2) a contribution with twofold periodicity, accounting for the anomeric effects connected to the interactions between the lone pair electrons and the polar bonds of phosphorus with the anionic oxygens; 3) a contribution with threefold periodicity, representing the usual bond-staggering term; and 4) a Coulombic contribution, arising from electrostatic interactions between partially charged atoms.     

Association of metal cations with alkanes: Na(CH4)+ versus Cu(CH4)+ as molecular models

Summary Ab initio molecular orbital calculations give small stabilization energies for the various Na(CH₄)⁺ adducts (less than 4 kcal mol^–1), but predict a stronger binding for the copper compounds (about 13 kcal mol^–1). The different behaviour of Na⁺ and Cu⁺, already present at the SCF level, is reinforced by electron correlation. This can be attributed to an important contribution of the dispersion energy to the binding energy of the copper ion: about 40% of the total, including basis set superposition corrections.Dedicated to Mrs A. Pullman     

Quantum-mechanical exploration of the properties of the sugar rings

Theab initio SCF method is used for computing the main electronic properties of the ribose unit of the nucleic acids. The present study is devoted to the ribose in the C₃-endo,gg conformation. The properties investigated include the distribution of the electronic charges, the electrostatic molecular potential around the four oxygens of the unit, the hydration and the Na⁺ binding schemes studied in the supermolecule approximation. The possibilities of through-water binding of the cation to the sugar are also explored. The predictions of the computation in particular with regard to cation binding to the ribose ring are correlated with recent experimental results.     

Hydration scheme of uracil and cytosine

The comparison of a pure electrostatic approximation and complete supermolecule SCF ab initio computations on the hydration scheme of uracil and cytosine shows that the electrostatic procedure is capable to reproduce the general aspects of the results of the supermolecule treatment provided that different distances of shortest approach be adopted for the distances between the oxygen of water and the nitrogen of NH₂ or NH groups or the oxygen of C-O groups on the one hand and the oxygen of water and pyridine-type nitrogens on the other hand.     

Ab initio crystal orbital studies on linear chains of H atoms

Anab initio crystal orbital method is used to calculate the energies of an infinite chain of H atoms and of linear arrangements of H₂ molecules with different interatomic distances. The H₂ arrangements are not stable in respect to isolated molecules. The cohesive energy of an optimized arrangement of H atoms chain is 0.0354 a.u.     

Quantum chemical studies on electrophilic addition

The geometries of the 2-aminoethyl cation and the isomeric protonated aziridine have been optimized using ab initio molecular orbital calculations employing the split-valence shell 4-31G basis set. The protonated aziridine is computed to be the more stable ion by 46.5 kcal/mole (4-31G level) and 44.9 kcal/mole (double-zeta basis set). The profile to interconversion is found to have a barrier of less than 15 kcal/mole (relative to the 2-aminoethyl cation) and this profile is compared with those computed for the similar ions XCH₂CH ₂ ⁺ where X=OH, F, SH and Cl.