Quantum dynamics of hydrogen interacting with single-walled carbon nanotubes: multiple H-atom adsorbates

Quantum Dynamical Investigation of Dihydrogen-Hydride Exchange in a Transition-Metal Polyhydride Complex

The ongoing shift toward clean, sustainable energy is a primary driving force behind hydrogen fuel research. Safe and effective storage of hydrogen is a major challenge (particularly for mobile applications) and requires a detailed understanding of the atomic level interactions of hydrogen with its host materials. The light mass of hydrogen, however, implies that quantum effects are important, so a quantum dynamical treatment is required to properly account for these effects in computational simulations. As one such example, we describe herein the hydrogen exchange dynamics between a hydride and a dihydrogen ligand in the [FeH(H2)(PH3)4]+ model complex. A global three-dimensional (3D) potential energy surface (PES) was constructed by fitting to and interpolating from a discrete set of grid points computed using density functional theory; exact quantum dynamical calculations were then carried out on the 3D PES using discrete variable representation basis sets. Energy levels and their quantum tunneling splittings were computed up to 3000 cm-1 above the ground state. Within that energy range, all three fundamentals have been identified using wave function plots, as well as the first three overtones of the exchange (reaction coordinate) motion and several of its combination bands. From the tunneling splittings, the Boltzmann-averaged tunneling rates were computed. The Arrhenius plot of the total exchange rate shows a clear transition around 150 K, below which the activation energy is essentially zero and above which it is less than half of the electronic structure barrier. This indicates that exchange rates are governed by quantum tunneling throughout the relevant temperature range with the low-temperature regime dominated by a single quantum (ground) state. This work is the first-ever fully quantum dynamical study to investigate the hydrogen exchange dynamics between hydride and dihydrogen ligands coordinated to a transition-metal complex.

A quantum dynamical study of the rotation of the dihydrogen ligand in the Fe(H)2(H2)(PEtPh2)3 coordination complex

Progress in the hydrogen fuel field requires a clear understanding and characterization of how materials of interest interact with hydrogen. Due to the inherently quantum mechanical nature of hydrogen nuclei, any theoretical studies of these systems must be treated quantum dynamically. One class of material that has been examined in this context are dihydrogen complexes. Since their discovery by Kubas in 1984, many such complexes have been studied both experimentally and theoretically. This particular study examines the rotational dynamics of the dihydrogen ligand in the Fe(H)₂(H₂)(PEtPh₂)₃ complex, allowing for full motion in both the rotational degrees of freedom and treating the quantum dynamics (QD) explicitly. A "gas-phase" global potential energy surface is first constructed using density functional theory with the Becke, 3-parameter, Lee-Yang-Parr functional; this is followed by an exact QD calculation of the corresponding rotation/libration states. The results provide insight into the dynamical correlation of the two rotation angles as well as a comprehensive analysis of both ground- and excited-state librational tunneling splittings. The latter was computed to be 6.914 cm^-1-in excellent agreement with the experimental value of 6.4 cm^-1. This work represents the first full-dimensional ab initio exact QD calculation ever performed for dihydrogen ligand rotation in a coordination complex.