Ab initio calculations on urea

Multiconfiguration wave functions constructed from contracted Gaussian-lobe functions have been found for the ground and valence-excited states of urea. ICSCF molecular orbitals of the excited states were used as the parent configurations for the CI calculations except for the ¹A₁(π → π*) state. The ¹A₁(π → π*) state used as its parent configuration an orthogonal linear combination of natural orbitals obtained from the second root of a three-configuration SCF calculation. The lowest excited states are predicted to be the n π → π* and π → π* triplet states. The lowest singlet state is predicted to be the n π → π* state with an energy in good agreement with the one known UV band at 7.2 eV. The π → π* singlet state is predicted to be about 1.9 eV higher, contrary to several previous assignments which assumed the lowest band was a π → π* amide resonance band. The predicted ionization energy of 9.0 eV makes this and higher states autoionizing.