The intermolecular potential in NO–N2 and (NO–N2)+ systems: implications for the neutralization of ionic molecular aggregates

Semiempirical Potential in Kinetics Calculations on the HC3N + CN Reaction

The reaction between the cyano radical CN and cyanoacetylene molecule HC3N is of great interest in different astronomical fields, from star-forming regions to planetary atmospheres. In this work, we present a new synergistic theoretical approach for the derivation of the rate coefficient for gas phase neutral-neutral reactions. Statistic RRKM calculations on the Potential Energy Surface are coupled with a semiempirical analysis of the initial bimolecular interaction. The value of the rate coefficient for the HC3N + CN → H + NCCCCN reaction obtained with this method is compared with previous theoretical and experimental investigations, showing strengths and weaknesses of the new presented approach.

The Reaction N(2D) + CH3CCH (Methylacetylene): A Combined Crossed Molecular Beams and Theoretical Investigation and Implications for the Atmosphere of Titan

The reaction of excited nitrogen atoms N(²D) with CH₃CCH (methylacetylene) was investigated under single-collision conditions by the crossed molecular beams (CMB) scattering method with mass spectrometric detection and time-of-flight analysis at the collision energy (E_c) of 31.0 kJ/mol. Synergistic electronic structure calculations of the doublet potential energy surface (PES) were performed to assist the interpretation of the experimental results and characterize the overall reaction micromechanism. Theoretically, the reaction is found to proceed via a barrierless addition of N(²D) to the carbon–carbon triple bond of CH₃CCH and an insertion of N(²D) into the CH bond of the methyl group, followed by the formation of cyclic and linear intermediates that can undergo H, CH₃, and C₂H elimination or isomerize to other intermediates before unimolecularly decaying to a variety of products. Kinetic calculations for addition and insertion mechanisms and statistical (Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus) computations of product branching fractions (BFs) on the theoretical PES were performed at different values of total energy, including the one corresponding to the temperature (175 K) of Titan’s stratosphere and that of the CMB experiment. Up to 14 competing product channels were statistically predicted, with the main ones, at E_c = 31.0 kJ/mol, being the formation of CH₂NH (methanimine) + C₂H (ethylidyne) (BF = 0.41), c-C(N)CH + CH₃ (BF = 0.32), CH₂CHCN (acrylonitrile) + H (BF = 0.12), and c-CH₂C(N)CH + H (BF = 0.04). Of the 14 possible channels, seven correspond to H displacement channels of different exothermicity, for a total H channel BF of ∼0.25 at E_c = 31.0 kJ/mol. Experimentally, dynamical information could only be obtained about the overall H channels. In particular, the experiment corroborates the formation of acrylonitrile + H, which is the most exothermic of all 14 reaction channels and is theoretically calculated to be the dominant H-forming channel (BF = 0.12). The products containing a novel C–N bond could be potential precursors to form other nitriles (C₂N₂, C₃N) or more complex organic species containing N atoms in planetary atmospheres, such as those of Titan and Pluto. Overall, the results are expected to have a potentially significant impact on the understanding of the gas-phase chemistry of Titan’s atmosphere and the modeling of that atmosphere.

Photodissociation of the N2-NO Complex between 225.8 and 224.0 nm

Our primary goal was to measure the NO (A) photoproduct appearance energy and ground-state dissociation energy of the N₂-NO complex. We recorded velocity map ion images of NO photofragments resulting from the dissociation of the N₂-NO complex excited between ∼225.8 and 224.0 nm, which ranged from the photodissociation threshold to about 342 cm^-1 above the threshold. In the experiment, one photon dissociated the complex through the N₂ (X ¹Σ_g⁺)-NO (A ²Σ⁺) ← N₂ (X ¹Σ_g⁺)-NO (X ²Π) transition, and a second photon nonresonantly ionized the NO (A) photoproduct. The lowest-energy photons near 225.8 nm did not have sufficient energy to photodissociate the lowest excited state of the complex; however, dissociation was observed with increasing photon energy. On the basis of the experiments, we determined the appearance energy for the NO (A) photoproduct to be 44 284.7 ± 2.8 cm^-1. From the appearance energy and the NO A ← X origin band transition, we determined a ground-state dissociation energy of 85.8 ± 2.8 cm^-1. As we increased the photon energy, the excess energy was partitioned into rotational modes of the diatomic products as well as product translational energy. We found good agreement between the average fraction of rotational energy and the predictions of a simple pseudo three atom impulsive model. Finally, at all photon energies, we observed some contribution from internally excited complexes in the resulting P(E_T). The maximum internal energy of these complexes was consistent with the ground-state dissociation energy.

Angular Distribution of Ion Products in the Double Photoionization of Propylene Oxide

A photoelectron-photoion-photoion coincidence technique, using an ion imaging detector and tunable synchrotron radiation in the 18.0–37.0 eV photon energy range, inducing the ejection of molecular valence electrons, has been applied to study the double ionization of the propylene oxide, a simple prototype chiral molecule. The experiment performed at the Elettra Synchrotron Facility (Trieste, Italy) allowed to determine angular distributions for ions produced by the two-body dissociation reactions following the Coulomb explosion of the intermediate (C₃H₆O)²⁺ molecular dication. The analysis of the coincidence spectra recorded at different photon energies was done in order to determine the dependence of the β anisotropy parameter on the photon energy for the investigated two-body fragmentation channels. In particular, the reaction leading to CH3+ + C₂H₃O⁺ appears to be characterized by an increase of β, from β ≈ 0.00 up to β = 0.59, as the photon energy increases from 29.7 to 37.0 eV, respectively. This new observation confirms that the dissociation channel producing CH3+ and C₂H₃O⁺ final ions can occur with two different microscopic mechanisms as already indicated by the bimodality obtained in the kinetic energy released (KER) distributions as a function of the photon energy in a recent study. Energetic considerations suggest that experimental data are compatible with the formation of two different stable isomers of C₂H₃O⁺: acetyl and oxiranyl cations. These new experimental data are inherently relevant and are mandatory information for further experimental and theoretical investigations involving oriented chiral molecules and linearly or circularly polarized radiation. This work is in progress in our laboratory.

Closer versus Long Range Interaction Effects on the Non-Arrhenius Behavior of Quasi-Resonant O2 + N2 Collisions

We report in this paper an investigation on energy transfer processes from vibration to vibration and/or translation in thermal and subthermal regimes for the O₂ + N₂ system performed using quantum-classical calculations on different empirical, semiempirical, and ab initio potential energy surfaces. In particular, the paper focuses on the rationalization of the non-Arrhenius behavior (inversion of the temperature dependence) of the quasi-resonant vibration-to-vibration energy transfer transition rate coefficients at threshold. To better understand the microscopic nature of the involved processes, we pushed the calculations to the detail of the related cross sections and analyzed the impact of the medium and long-range components of the interaction on them. Furthermore, the variation with temperature of the dependence of the quasi-resonant rate coefficient on the vibrational energy gap between initial and final vibrational states and the effectiveness of quantum-classical calculations to overcome the limitations of the purely classical treatments were also investigated. These treatments, handled in an open molecular science fashion by chaining data and competencies of the various laboratories using a grid empowered molecular simulator, have allowed a rationalization of the dependence of the computed rate coefficients in terms of the distortion of the O₂-N₂ configuration during the diatom-diatom collisions. A way of relating such distortions to a smooth and continuous progress variable, allowing a proper evolution from both long to closer range formulation of the interaction and from its entrance to exit channel (through the strong interaction region) relaxed graphical representations, is also discussed in the paper.

Enhanced Flexibility of the O2 + N2 Interaction and Its Effect on Collisional Vibrational Energy Exchange

Prompted by a comparison of measured and computed rate coefficients of Vibration-to-Vibration and Vibration-to-Translation energy transfer in O2 + N2 non-reactive collisions, extended semiclassical calculations of the related cross sections were performed to rationalize the role played by attractive and repulsive components of the interaction on two different potential energy surfaces. By exploiting the distributed concurrent scheme of the Grid Empowered Molecular Simulator we extended the computational work to quasiclassical techniques, investigated in this way more in detail the underlying microscopic mechanisms, singled out the interaction components facilitating the energy transfer, improved the formulation of the potential, and performed additional calculations that confirmed the effectiveness of the improvement introduced.

Energy transfer dynamics and kinetics of elementary processes (promoted) by gas-phase CO2 -N2 collisions: Selectivity control by the anisotropy of the interaction

In this work, we exploit a new formulation of the potential energy and of the related computational procedures, which embodies the coupling between the intra and intermolecular components, to characterize possible propensities of the collision dynamics in energy transfer processes of interest for simulation and control of phenomena occurring in a variety of equilibrium and nonequilibrium environments. The investigation reported in the paper focuses on the prototype CO2 -N2 system, whose intramolecular component of the interaction is modeled in terms of a many body expansion while the intermolecular component is modeled in terms of a recently developed bonds-as-interacting-molecular-centers' approach. The main advantage of this formulation of the potential energy surface is that of being (a) truly full dimensional (i.e., all the variations of the coordinates associated with the molecular vibrations and rotations on the geometrical and electronic structure of the monomers, are explicitly taken into account without freezing any bonds or angles), (b) more flexible than other usual formulations of the interaction and (c) well suited for fitting procedures better adhering to accurate ab initio data and sensitive to experimental arrangement dependent information. Specific attention has been given to the fact that a variation of vibrational and rotational energy has a higher (both qualitative and quantitative) impact on the energy transfer when a more accurate formulation of the intermolecular interaction (with respect to that obtained when using rigid monomers) is adopted. This makes the potential energy surface better suited for the kinetic modeling of gaseous mixtures in plasma, combustion and atmospheric chemistry computational applications. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Efficiency of Collisional O2 + N2 Vibrational Energy Exchange

By following the scheme of the Grid Empowered Molecular Simulator (GEMS), a new O2 + N2 intermolecular potential, built on ab initio calculations and experimental (scattering and second virial coefficient) data, has been coupled with an appropriate intramolecular one. On the resulting potential energy surface detailed rate coefficients for collision induced vibrational energy exchanges have been computed using a semiclassical method. A cross comparison of the computed rate coefficients with the outcomes of previous semiclassical calculations and kinetic experiments has provided a foundation for characterizing the main features of the vibrational energy transfer processes of the title system as well as a critical reading of the trajectory outcomes and kinetic data. On the implemented procedures massive trajectory runs for the proper interval of initial conditions have singled out structures of the vibrational distributions useful to formulate scaling relationships for complex molecular simulations.

The structure of the NO(X (2)Pi)-N(2) complex: A joint experimental-theoretical study

We report the first measurement of the spectrum of the NO-N(2) complex in the region of the first vibrational NO overtone transition. The origin band of the complex is blueshifted by 0.30 cm(-1) from the corresponding NO monomer frequency. The observed spectrum consists of three bands assigned to the origin band, the excitation of one quantum of z-axis rotation and one associated hot band. The spacing of the bands and the rotational structure indicate a T-shaped vibrationally averaged structure with the NO molecule forming the top of the T. These findings are confirmed by high level ab initio calculations of the potential energy surfaces in planar symmetry. The deepest minimum is found for a T-shaped geometry on the A(")-surface. As a result the sum potential also has the global minimum for this structure. The different potential surfaces show several additional local minima at slightly higher energies indicating that the complex most likely will perform large amplitude motion even in its ground vibrational state. Nevertheless, as suggested by the measured spectra, the complex must, on average, spend a substantial amount of time near the T-shaped configuration.

Coping with the anisotropy in the analytical representation of an ab initio potential energy surface for the Cl2 dimer

The intermolecular potential energy surface (PES) of the Cl2 dimer is calculated at the MP2/aTZ + b level of ab initio theory. A quantitative measure is proposed for comparison of the anisotropy of PESs of different systems at different intermolecular distances. A high degree of anisotropy at short and intermediate distances results in the failure of fitting strategies that are based on the angular expansion of the potential energy. To tackle this problem, a step-by-step fitting strategy is designed for analytical representation of the PES. The global minimum energy configuration of the dimer is found to be a distorted L-shape structure with a well depth of around 615 cm(-1). The PES is finally scaled to minimize deviations between calculated and experimental second virial coefficients.