Carbamic acid and its dimer: A computational study

A recent work by Marks et al. on the formation of carbamic acid in NH  3 -CO  2 interstellar ices pointed out its stability in the gas phase and the concomitant production of its dimer. Prompted by these results and the lack of information on these species, we have performed an accurate structural, energetic and spectroscopic investigation of carbamic acid and its dimer. For the former, the structural and spectroscopic characterization employed composite schemes based on coupled cluster (CC) calculations that account for the extrapolation to the complete basis set limit and core correlation effects. A first important outcome is the definitive confirmation of the nonplanarity of carbamic acid, then followed by an accurate estimate of its rotational and vibrational spectroscopy parameters. As far as the carbamic acid dimer is concerned, the investigation started from the identification of its most stable forms. For them, structure and vibrational properties have been evaluated using density functional theory, while a composite scheme rooted in CC theory has been employed for the energetic characterization. Our results allowed us to provide a better interpretation of the feature observed in the recent experiment mentioned above.

Noble-Gas-Inserted Fluoro(sulphido)boron (FNgBS, Ng = Ar, Kr, and Xe): A Theoretical Prediction

The possibility of the existence of a new series of neutral noble gas compound, FNgBS (where Ng = Ar, Kr, Xe), is explored theoretically through the insertion of a Ng atom into the fluoroborosulfide molecule (FBS). Second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory, density functional theory, and coupled cluster theory based methods have been employed to predict the structure, stability, harmonic vibrational frequencies, and charge distribution of FNgBS molecules. Through energetics study, it has been found that the molecules could dissociate into global minima products (Ng + FBS) on the respective singlet potential energy surface via a unimolecular dissociation channel; however, the sufficiently large activation energy barriers provide enough kinetic stability to the predicted molecules, which, in turn, prevent them from dissociating into the global minima products. Moreover, the FNgBS species are thermodynamically stable, owing to very high positive energies with respect to other two two-body dissociation channels, leading to FNg + BS and F(-) + NgBS(+), and two three-body dissociation channels, corresponding to the dissociation into F + Ng + BS and F(-) + Ng + BS(+). Furthermore, the Mulliken and NBO charge analysis together with the AIM results reveal that the Ng-B bond is more of covalent in nature, whereas the F-Ng bond is predominantly ionic in character. Thus, these compounds can be better represented as F(-)[NgBS](+). This fact is also supported by the detail analysis of bond length, bond dissociation energy, and stretching force constant values. All of the calculated results reported in this work clearly indicate that it might be possible to prepare and characterize the FNgBS molecules in cryogenic environment through matrix isolation technique by using a mixture of OCS/BF3 in the presence of large quantity of noble gas under suitable experimental conditions.

Molecular properties of the PCO radical: heat of formation and the isomerization pathways

The potential energy surface of [P,C,O] system in the ground state was investigated by quantum chemical methods. Four different isomers were characterized at the B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ: COP (i1), cPCO (i2), PCO (i3), and CPO (i4). The linear species i3 is the global minimum in the ground state surface, while i4 is a bent structure, and i2 is a cyclic isomer. In view to evaluate the bond nature of each isomer, a QTAIM and a NBO analyses were applied. The triangular species presents a ring critical point which confirms its cyclic structure instead of a T-shape one. The stability increases in the following order: i3 > i2 > i1 > i4. The energy gap between i3 and i2 ranges from 49.20 to 51.15 kcal mol(-1). The reaction barrier energies that converge into the direction of i3 showed values around 10 kcal mol(-1), while the reverse barriers are considerably large (62.85 kcal mol(-1)). The i3 heat of formation at 298 K ranges from 11.83 to 19.41 kcal mol(-1).

Extrapolation to the complete basis set limit of structural parameters: comparison of different approaches

For the first time, different procedures for extrapolating structural parameters to the complete basis set limit are compared. More precisely, a well-tested scheme, based on extrapolated gradients, is employed for validating the extrapolation procedure directly applied to geometrical parameters by means of different extrapolation functions. For this purpose, a set of small systems (mostly triatomics), also containing second-row elements, has been chosen.

Characterization of singlet ground and low-lying electronic excited states of phosphaethyne and isophosphaethyne

The singlet ground ((approximate)X(1)Sigma1+) and excited (1Sigma-,1Delta) states of HCP and HPC have been systematically investigated using ab initio molecular electronic structure theory. For the ground state, geometries of the two linear stationary points have been optimized and physical properties have been predicted utilizing restricted self-consistent field theory, coupled cluster theory with single and double excitations (CCSD), CCSD with perturbative triple corrections [CCSD(T)], and CCSD with partial iterative triple excitations (CCSDT-3 and CC3). Physical properties computed for the global minimum ((approximate)X(1)Sigma+HCP) include harmonic vibrational frequencies with the cc-pV5Z CCSD(T) method of omega1=3344 cm(-1), omega2=689 cm(-1), and omega3=1298 cm(-1). Linear HPC, a stationary point of Hessian index 2, is predicted to lie 75.2 kcal mol(-1) above the global minimum HCP. The dissociation energy D0[HCP((approximate)X(1)Sigma+)-->H(2S)+CP(X2Sigma+)] of HCP is predicted to be 119.0 kcal mol(-1), which is very close to the experimental lower limit of 119.1 kcal mol(-1). Eight singlet excited states were examined and their physical properties were determined employing three equation-of-motion coupled cluster methods (EOM-CCSD, EOM-CCSDT-3, and EOM-CC3). Four stationary points were located on the lowest-lying excited state potential energy surface, 1Sigma- -->1A", with excitation energies Te of 101.4 kcal mol(-1) (1A"HCP), 104.6 kcal mol(-1)(1Sigma-HCP), 122.3 kcal mol(-1)(1A" HPC), and 171.6 kcal mol(-1)(1Sigma-HPC) at the cc-pVQZ EOM-CCSDT-3 level of theory. The physical properties of the 1A" state with a predicted bond angle of 129.5 degrees compare well with the experimentally reported first singlet state ((approximate)A1A"). The excitation energy predicted for this excitation is T0=99.4 kcal mol(-1) (34 800 cm(-1),4.31 eV), in essentially perfect agreement with the experimental value of T0=99.3 kcal mol(-1)(34 746 cm(-1),4.308 eV). For the second lowest-lying excited singlet surface, 1Delta-->1A', four stationary points were found with Te values of 111.2 kcal mol(-1) (2(1)A' HCP), 112.4 kcal mol(-1) (1Delta HPC), 125.6 kcal mol(-1)(2(1)A' HCP), and 177.8 kcal mol(-1)(1Delta HPC). The predicted CP bond length and frequencies of the 2(1)A' state with a bond angle of 89.8 degrees (1.707 A, 666 and 979 cm(-1)) compare reasonably well with those for the experimentally reported (approximate)C(1)A' state (1.69 A, 615 and 969 cm(-1)). However, the excitation energy and bond angle do not agree well: theoretical values of 108.7 kcal mol(-1) and 89.8 degrees versus experimental values of 115.1 kcal mol(-1) and 113 degrees. of 115.1 kcal mol(-1) and 113 degrees.

Rotational spectra of 1-chloro-2-fluoroethylene. II. Equilibrium structures of the cis and trans isomer

Equilibrium structures for the cis and trans isomer of 1-chloro-2-fluoroethylene are reported. The structures are obtained within a least-squares fit procedure using the available experimental ground-state rotational constants for various isotopic species of both forms. Vibrational effects were eliminated before the analysis using vibration-rotation interaction constants derived from computed quadratic and cubic force fields with the required quantum chemical calculations carried out using second-order Moller-Plesset perturbation as well as coupled-cluster (CC) theory. The semiexperimental or empirical equilibrium geometries obtained in this way agree well with the corresponding theoretical predictions obtained from CC calculations [at the CCSD(T) level] after extrapolation to the complete basis-set limit and inclusion of core-valence correlation corrections. The present results allow a detailed analysis of the geometrical differences between the two forms of 1-chloro-2-fluoroethylene. They are also compared to the structural data available for other halogenated ethylenes.

Ab initio study of the structure, bonding, vibrational spectra, and energetics of XBS+ (where X=H, F, and Cl)

High level ab initio electronic structure calculations at the CCSD(T) level with augmented correlation-consistent basis set extrapolated to complete basis set limit have been performed on XBS and XBS+ for X=H, F, and Cl. The geometries have been optimized up through the aug-cc-pV5Z level and the vibrational frequencies have been calculated with the aug-cc-pVQZ basis sets. Analysis of the bonding in XBS and XBS+ using natural bond orbital analysis shows that the BS bond in XBS is a triple bond, while in XBS+ it is a double bond. The energetic properties of XBS cation and its first excited state are reported. The calculated adiabatic ionization potential is 11.11+/-0.01 eV as compared to the experimental value of 11.11+/-0.03 eV for HBS. The adiabatic ionization potentials for FBS and CIBS are 10.89+/-0.01 and 10.57+/-0.01 eV, respectively.

The accuracy ofab initiomolecular geometries for systems containing second-row atoms

The performance of the standard hierarchy of ab initio models--that is, Hartree-Fock theory, second-order Moller-Plesset theory, coupled-cluster singles-and-doubles theory, and coupled-cluster singles-doubles-approximate-triples theory--in combination with correlation-consistent basis sets is investigated for equilibrium geometries of molecules containing second-row elements. From an analysis on a collection of 31 molecules (yielding statistical samples of 41 bond distances and 13 bond angles), the statistical errors (mean deviation, mean absolute deviation, standard deviation, and maximum absolute deviation) are established at each level of theory. The importance of core correlation is examined by comparing calculations in the frozen-core approximation with calculations where all electrons are correlated.