Potential energy surfaces for the interaction of atomic and diatomic hydrogen with lithium metal clusters

In this paper a modified CNDO/2 method is used to study the interaction of hydrogen atoms and molecules with molecular clusters simulating the (100) surface of solid lithium metal. The modification, described in an earlier papers, involves rescaling bicentric CNDO/2 energy contributions with known diatomic bond energies. Potential energy curves are calculated for six attack points by the hydrogen atom on the surface, and for one attack point by the molecule. The results indicate that in both atom and molecule forms hydrogen penetrates the surface and that the molecule most likely dissociates.     

Surface crossing in interaction of atomic hydrogen with a lithium metal cluster

Interaction of atomic hydrogen with a (4,1,4) lithium cluster, simulating the (100) metal surface, is studied using the diatomics-in-molecules method. Ground-and excited-state potential curves for normal approach ofH to some attack positions on the surface intersect or pseudo-intersect. The results reveal possible non-adiabatic character of the absorption process.     

Potential energy surfaces for the interaction of hydrogen atoms with beryllium metal clusters

With a modified CNDO/2 molecular orbital approach, potential energy surfaces are computed for the attack of beryllium atom clusters simulating “smooth” (0001) and “corrugated” (1010) faces of beryllium metal. Several stable sites for chemisorption are found with binding energies of 40–55 kcal/mole, but penetration of the lattice appears possible at some points. Results are compared with the preliminary ab initio predictions of Bauschlicher, Liskow, Bender and Schaefer.     

Diatomics-in-molecules calculation of interaction of molecular hydrogen with a lithium metal cluster

Interaction of H₂ with a lithium metal surface simulated by eight Li atoms is studied using the DIM method. Two variables are examined, the distance of H₂ from the surface and the HH separation. The adsorption proceeds adiabatically. Associative chemisorption is predicted to be energetically more favourable than dissociative.     

Anomalous behavior of atomic hydrogen interacting with gold clusters

The change in the electronic structure of Au(n)- clusters induced by the exchange of an Au atom by hydrogen is studied using photoelectron spectroscopy. Au anion clusters react with one hydrogen atom but not with molecular hydrogen. The spectra of Au(n)- and Au(n-1)H- clusters show almost identical features for n > 2 suggesting that hydrogen behaves as a protonated species by contributing one electron to the valence pool of the Au(n)- cluster. This behavior is in sharp contrast to that of the commonly understood electronic structure of hydrogen in metals; namely, it attracts an electron from the conduction band of the metal and remains in an "anionic" form or forms covalent bonding. We discuss the influence of the unique electronic structure of H on the unusual catalytic behavior of Au clusters.     

Electronic nonadiabatic effects in the adsorption of hydrogen atoms on metals

The time-dependent, mean-field Newns-Anderson model for a spin-polarized adsorbate approaching a metallic surface is solved in the wide-band limit. Equations for the time evolution of the occupation of the spin dependent adsorbate states and for the nonadiabatic and nearly adiabatic adsorbate-surface energy transfer rates are derived. Numerical solutions are obtained using characteristic parameters derived from density functional theory calculations for the H/Cu(111) system. The time evolution of the model system is shown to be strongly nonadiabatic in the vicinity of the transition point between spin-polarized and nonpolarized ground states. Away from the spin transition the nonadiabatic energy transfer is in close agreement with the nearly adiabatic limit. Near the transition, nonadiabatic effects are large and the nearly adiabatic approximation fails.     

Statistical fragmentation of hot atomic metal clusters

Fragmentation processes of highly excited neutral and charged atomic metal clusters are studied in the framework of an equilibrium statistical model. In the particular case of hot (near and above melting) neutral and charged sodium clusters of 100 and 200 atoms, a microcanonical Metropolis sampling is used to compute mass (or charge) correlation functions as a function of the excitation energy. This method allows to take the strong anharmonicities in the internal phonon spectrum realistically into account which are linked to the internal structural changes like melting. It is found that, at high enough excitation energy, the system exhibits a phase transition. This phase transition is specific for fragmenting finite systems. From the shape of the caloric curve one sees that the two phases involved are connected by a van der Waals loop characterizing a first order phase transition. Here we observe an enhanced fission and multifragmentation into two or more charged clusters with more than 10 atoms each. Various fragment correlations are studied.     

Evaporation of hot mesoscopic atomic metal clusters

The evaporation times of hot mesoscopic sodium clusters are estimated using the microscopic and microcanonical statistical model of Weisskopf and the macroscopic canonical kinetic gas theory. The level density of liquid sodium clusters as function of the internal excitation energy is computed from the experimentally known thermodynamic quantities of the bulk matter. In using the known temperature dependent surface tension and standard thermodynamics, both theories are corrected to take into account finite size effects. By this method it is possible to obtain decay rates and internal level densities of mesoscopic clusters at excitations where any harmonic approximation breaks down. For clusters having more than about 200 atoms, the evaporation times obtained from the two models are practically equal.     

Nonadditive effects in metal clusters and chemisorption. Pseudopotential study of palladium clusters

The analysis of nonadditive effects in small palladium clusters via LCAO-MO-SCF calculations using the nonempirical pseudopotential model is presented. The results are tentatively correlated with previous studies on various metal clusters (Li, Be, Mg, etc.) for which a good knowledge of multibody terms has provided a valuable guide for understanding the cluster stabilities and their chemisorption capacity.     

Loss of metallicity in metal rich lithium oxide clusters

Mixed lithium-lithium oxide aggregates are experimentally obtained from unimolecular evaporative cascades starting at metal rich Li _p ⁺ (Li₂O)_n species and ending with the stoichiometric limit Li⁺(Li₂O)_n, for several sizes of the oxide part (Li₂O)_n with 0 ≤ n ≤ 8. The results show evidence of the vanishing of the properties of the quantum metallic droplet i.e. shell closing and odd-even alternation, portrayed in the dissociation energy, with increasing size of the oxide component. The competition between monomer and dimer lithium evaporation from the heated metal rich Li _p ⁺ (Li₂O)_n species points out the influence of the perturbation induced by the oxide component on the mixed metal oxide clusters.     

Pairing effects in metal clusters

Motivated by the experimental finding of oddeven alternations in the mass spectra and ionization potentials of metal clusters, we have investigated the possibility of interpreting these results as evidence for pairing correlations among the electrons. For the present exploratory calculations, we have used a spherical BCS model which we have applied, as an example, to some Al clusters. Additional model calculations have been carried out for Na _N with 34<N<100 in order to illustrate a possible systematics.     

A theoretical study of the effects of transition metal dopants on the adsorption and dissociation of hydrogen on nickel clusters

The structure, stability, adsorption, and dissociation of H₂ on nickel clusters doped with late transition metals were investigated using density functional theory with the BP86 functional. Molecular hydrogen physisorption occurred at a vertex atom with a low coordination number. Charge transfer between clusters and the H₂ molecule stabilized the physisorption. The chemisorption of H₂ occurred at the bridge sites, without any structural or spin change of the clusters. Among the pentamer clusters, Cd, Zn, and Au had the lowest chemisorption energies, while Ir and Pt had higher chemisorption energies for hydrogen. The computed reaction energies and activation barriers for the dissociation mechanism showed that dopants such as Rh, Pd, Pt, and Au have endothermic reaction energies and low activation barriers. This facilitates the reversible adsorption/dissociation of the H₂ molecule on these metal‐doped clusters. The dopant atoms play a major role in modulating the physisorption, chemisorption, and dissociation mechanism of H₂ on nickel clusters. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Combined SSF MO LCAO and correlation density functional method applied to adsorption of atomic hydrogen on lithium clusters

An SSF MO LCAO + CDF Method is developed, in which supplementary to a nonempirical SSF MO LCAO calculation the correlation energy of a many electron system is estimated as a functional of the electron density E_C[]. To check the effectiveness of this procedure for calculating the E_C[] functional, E_C is calculated for monohydrides of elements in the second and third columns of the periodic table. The SSF MO LCAO + CDF is applied to a comparative calculation of the adsorption of atomic hydrogen on lithium clusters with different multiplicity and the role of the electron correlation in this process is established.Translated from Teoreticheskaya i Éksperimental'naya Khimiya, Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 385–392, July–August, 1989.     

The interaction of fluorosilanes with hydrogen fluoride clusters: strongly blue-shifted hydrogen bonds

The equilibrium structures, binding energies, and vibrational spectra of the complexes formed between hydrogen fluoride clusters (HF)_n (1≤n≤4) and the fluorosilanes SiHF₃, SiH₂F₂, and SiH₃F are investigated within the second-order Møller–Plesset perturbation theory method applying extended basis sets. It is shown that Si–FH–F halogen–hydrogen bonds are formed in the most stable open dimers, SiHF₃–HF, SiH₂F₂HF, and SiH₃FHF. No Si–HF–H hydrogen bonds occur in these dimers. Nevertheless, blue shifts of Si–H stretching frequencies are calculated. All three trimers, fluorosilane–(HF)₂, all three tetramers, fluorosilane–(HF)₃, and two of the pentamers, fluorosilane–(HF)₄, form cyclic structures with strong Si–FH–F halogen–hydrogen bonds and weak Si–HF–H contacts, the latter displaying, nevertheless, strongly blue-shifted Si–H stretching frequencies. These blue shifts are comparable in size to those of the corresponding fluoromethane–(HF)_n complexes and are with about +50 cm⁻¹ for the case n=3 among the largest ever calculated and definitely the largest for Si–H bonds. In the title complexes, the formation of the Si–FH–F halogen–hydrogen bonds induces a substantial stretching of this Si–F bond, which in turn leads to a significant contraction of the fluorosilane Si–H bond in the Si–HF–H hydrogen bond. This disposition of the fluorosilane monomers is demonstrated with the aid of suitable potential energy surface scans and appears to be a prerequisite for the formation of strongly blue-shifted hydrogen bonds.     

Ionic core effects on the mie resonance in lithium clusters

We investigate the effects of the atomic cores on the Mie resonance in lithium metal clusters, perturbing a jellium Hamiltonian with zero-range pseudopotentials. The resonance is red-shifted with respect to the classical formula by core effects, most important of which is the increased effective mass due to the core potentials. Much of the large shift seen in lithium clusters is thereby explained if the strength of the pseudopotentials is taken from band structure calculations. However, such pseudopotentials cause the resonance to be greatly broadened, contrary to observation.     

Electron correlation effects in ionic hydrogen clusters

We employ density functional, post‐Hartree–Fock, and quantum Monte Carlo methods to study the electronic structure, geometries, and behavior of positively charged H_m⁺ clusters with m=3,5,…,17. Their structure consists of a tightly bound H₃⁺ core ion surrounded by successive solvation shells of H₂ molecules. For the largest clusters, we propose new geometries. We find that correlated methods yield the stepwise decrease of enthalpies for dissociation of H₂ from the clusters observed in experiments. Our best results are obtained by the diffusion Monte Carlo method, and by including finite temperature entropic effects, we are able to reproduce the experimental dissociation enthalpies with an unprecedented accuracy of less than 0.5 kcal/mol. These benchmark results contrast with erroneous predictions discovered in the density functional approaches. Finally, our analysis of the cluster energy surfaces indicates that under quantum and thermal fluctuations, the outer solvation shells will exhibit pronounced fluctional behavior. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quant Chem 83: 86–95, 2001     

Ionic structure effects on the optical response of lithium clusters

The optical response of alkali metal clusters is shown to be sensitive to a proper treatment of the electronion interaction and to the ionic spatial structure. A spherical symmetry model based on a combination of a geometrical optimization of the ionic structure and the random phase approximation (RPA) with exact exchange is applied to calculate the optical response of Li ₁₃₉ ⁺ . The optical response obtained within this model is in good agreement with the measured giant dipole resonance.     

Multi-component molecular orbital study of isotope effects on lithium hydride molecules with the configuration interaction scheme

The multi-component molecular orbital method, which can take account of the quantum effect of the electrons and nuclei, is applied to the calculation of lithium hydride isotope species with the configuration interaction (CI) scheme. The optimum basis set functions for quantum nuclei are proposed by the fully variational procedure under single electronic–single nuclear excitation CI level. The average internuclear distances and dipole moments for isotopic lithium hydride molecules calculated with small basis functions are reasonable agreement with the corresponding experimental values.     

Strongly blue-shifted C-H stretches: interaction of formaldehyde with hydrogen fluoride clusters

The equilibrium structures, binding energies, and vibrational spectra of the cyclic, hydrogen-bonded complexes formed between formaldehyde, H(2)CO, and hydrogen fluoride clusters, (HF)(1< or =n < or =4), are investigated by means of large-scale second-order M?ller-Plesset calculations with extended basis sets. All studied complexes exhibit marked blue shifts of the C-H stretching frequencies, exceeding 100 cm(-1) for n = 2-4. It is shown that these blue shifts are, however, only to a minor part caused by blue-shifting hydrogen bonding via C-H...F contacts. The major part arises due to the structural relaxation of the H(2)CO molecule under the formation of a strong C=O...H-F hydrogen bond which strengthens as n increases. The close correlation between the different structural parameters in the studied series of complexes is demonstrated, and the consequences for the frequency shifts in the complexes are pointed out, corroborating thus the suggestion of the primary role of the C=O...H-F hydrogen bonding for the C-H stretching frequency shifts. This particular behavior, that the appearance of an increasingly stronger blue shift of the C-H stretching frequencies is mainly induced by the formation of a progressively stronger C=O...H-F hydrogen bond in the series of H(2)CO...(HF)(1< or =n < or =4), complexes and only to a lesser degree by the formation of the so-called blue-shifting C-H...F hydrogen bond, is rationalized with the aid of selected sections of the intramolecular H(2)CO potential energy surface and by performing a variety of structural optimizations of the H(2)CO molecule embedded in external, differently oriented dipole electric fields, and also by invoking a simple analytical force-field model.