Infrared spectra of small anionic water clusters from density functional theory and wavefunction theory calculations

Microsolvation of electrons by a handful of ammonia molecules

Microsolvation of electrons in ammonia is studied here via anionic NH_{3 n} ^- clusters with n = 2-6. Intensive samplings of the corresponding configurational spaces using second-order perturbation theory with extended basis sets uncover rich and complex energy landscapes, heavily populated by many local minima in tight energy windows as calculated from highly correlated coupled cluster methods. There is a marked energetical preference for structures that place the excess electron external to the molecular frame, effectively coordinating it with the three protons from a single ammonia molecule. Overall, as the clusters grow in size, the lowest energy dimer serves as the basic motif over which additional ammonia molecules are attached via unusually strong charge-assisted hydrogen bonds. This is a priori quite unexpected because, on electrostatic grounds, the excess electron would be expected to be in contact with as many protons as possible. Accordingly, a full quantum mechanical treatment of the bonding interactions under the tools provided by the quantum theory of atoms in molecules is carried out in order to dissect and understand the nature of intermolecular contacts. Vertical detachment energies reveal bound electrons even for n = 2.

Efficient floating diffuse functions for accurate characterization of the surface-bound excess electrons in water cluster anions

In this work, the effect of diffuse function types (atom-centered diffuse functions versus floating functions and s-type versus p-type diffuse functions) on the structures and properties of three representative water cluster anions featuring a surface-bound excess electron is studied and we find that an effective combination of such two kinds of diffuse functions can not only reduce the computational cost but also, most importantly, considerably improve the accuracy of results and even avoid incorrect predictions of spectra and the EE shape. Our results indicate that (a) simple augmentation of atom-centered diffuse functions is beneficial for the vertical detachment energy convergence, but it leads to very poor descriptions for the singly occupied molecular orbital (SOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) distributions of the water cluster anions featuring a surface-bound excess electron and thus a significant ultraviolet spectrum redshift; (b) the ghost-atom-based floating diffuse functions can not only contribute to accurate electronic calculations of the ground state but also avoid poor and even incorrect descriptions of the SOMO and the LUMO induced by excessive augmentation of atom-centered diffuse functions; (c) the floating functions can be realized by ghost atoms and their positions could be determined through an optimization routine along the dipole moment vector direction. In addition, both the s- and p-type floating functions are necessary to supplement in the basis set which are responsible for the ground (s-type character) and excited (p-type character) states of the surface-bound excess electron, respectively. The exponents of the diffuse functions should also be determined to make the diffuse functions cover the main region of the excess electron distribution. Note that excessive augmentation of such diffuse functions is redundant and even can lead to unreasonable LUMO characteristics.