Communication: A chemically accurate global potential energy surface for the HO + CO → H + CO2 reaction

Construction of a Mode-Combination Hamiltonian under the Grid-Based Representation for the Quantum Dynamics of OH + HO2 → O2 + H2O

In this work, a systematic construction framework on a mode-combination Hamiltonian operator of a typical polyatomic reaction, OH + HO2 → O2 + H2O, is developed. First, a set of Jacobi coordinates are employed to construct the kinetic energy operator (KEO) through the polyspherical approach ( Phys. Rep. 2009, 484, 169). Second, due to the multiconfigurational electronic structure of this system, a non-adiabatic potential energy surface (PES) is constructed where the first singlet and triplet states are involved with spin-orbital coupling. To improve the training database, the training set of random energy data was optimized through a popular iterative optimization approach with extensive trajectories. Here, we propose an automatic trajectory method, instead of the classical trajectory on a crude PES, where the gradients are directly computed by the present ab initio calculations. Third, on the basis of the training set, the potential function is directly constructed in the canonical polyadic decomposition (CPD) form ( J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2021, 17, 2702-2713) which is helpful in propagating the nuclear wave function under the grid-based representation. To do this, the Gaussian process regression (GPR) approach for building the CPD form, called the CPD-GPR method ( J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2022, 13, 11128-11135) is adopted where we further revise CPD-GPR by introducing the mode-combination (mc) scheme leading to the present CPD-mc-GPR approach. Constructing the full-dimension non-adiabatic Hamiltonian operator with mode combination, as test calculations, the nuclear wave function is propagated to preliminarily compute the reactive probability of OH + HO2 → O2 + H2O where the reactants are prepared in vibrational ground states and in the first triplet electronic state.

Theoretical Insights into the Dynamics of Gas-Phase Bimolecular Reactions with Submerged Barriers

Much attention has been paid to the dynamics of both activated gas-phase bimolecular reactions, which feature monotonically increasing integral cross sections and Arrhenius kinetics, and their barrierless capture counterparts, which manifest monotonically decreasing integral cross sections and negative temperature dependence of the rate coefficients. In this Perspective, we focus on the dynamics of gas-phase bimolecular reactions with submerged barriers, which often involve radicals or ions and are prevalent in combustion, atmospheric chemistry, astrochemistry, and plasma chemistry. The temperature dependence of the rate coefficients for such reactions is often non-Arrhenius and complex, and the corresponding dynamics may also be quite different from those with significant barriers or those completely dominated by capture. Recent experimental and theoretical studies of such reactions, particularly at relatively low temperatures or collision energies, have revealed interesting dynamical behaviors, which are discussed here. The new knowledge enriches our understanding of the dynamics of these unusual reactions.

Unraveling sulfur chemistry in interstellar carbon oxide ices

Formyl radical (HCO•) and hydroxycarbonyl radical (HOCO•) are versatile building blocks in the formation of biorelevant complex organic molecules (COMs) in interstellar medium. Understanding the chemical pathways for the formation of HCO• and HOCO• starting with primordial substances (e.g., CO and CO2) is of vital importance in building the complex network of prebiotic chemistry. Here, we report the efficient formation of HCO• and HOCO• in the photochemistry of hydroxidooxidosulfur radical (HOSO•)–a key intermediate in SO2 photochemistry–in interstellar analogous ices of CO and CO2 at 16 K through hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) reactions. Specifically, 266 nm laser photolysis of HOSO• embedded in solid CO ice yields the elusive hydrogen‑bonded complexes HCO•···SO2 and HOCO•···SO, and the latter undergoes subsequent HAT to furnish CO2···HOS• under the irradiation conditions. Similar photo-induced HAT of HOSO• in solid CO2 ice leads to the formation of HOCO•···SO2. The HAT reactions of HOSO• in astronomical CO and CO2 ices by forming reactive acyl radicals may contribute to understanding the interplay between the sulfur and carbon ice-grain chemistry in cold molecular clouds and also in the planetary atmospheric chemistry.

Adiabatic models for the quantum dynamics of surface scattering with lattice effects

In this contribution, we review models for the lattice effects in quantum dynamics calculations on surface scattering, which is important to modeling heterogeneous catalysis for achieving an interpretation of experimental measurements. Unlike dynamics models for reactions in the gas phase, those for heterogeneous reactions have to include the effects of the surface. For manageable computational costs in calculations, the effects of static surface (SS) are firstly modeled as this is simply and easily implemented. Then, the SS model has to be improved to include the effects of the flexible surface, that is the lattice effects. To do this, various surface models have been designed where the coordinates of the surface atoms are introduced in the Hamiltonian operator, especially those of the top surface atom. Based on this model Hamiltonian operator, extensive multi-dimension quantum dynamics calculations can be performed to recover the lattice effects. Here, we first review an overview of the techniques in constructing the Hamiltonian operator, which is a sum of the kinetic energy operator (KEO) and potential energy surface (PES). Since the PES containing the coordinates of the surface atoms in a cell is still expensive, the SS model is often accepted. We consider a mathematical model, called the coupled harmonic oscillator (CHO) model, to introduce the concepts of adiabatic and diabatic representations for separating the molecule and surface. Under the adiabatic model, we further introduce the expansion model where the potential function is Taylor expanded around the optimized geometry of the surface. By an expansion model truncated at the first and second order, various coupling surface models between the molecule and surface are derived. Moreover, by further and deeply understanding the adiabatic representation, an effective Hamiltonian operator is obtained by optimizing the total wave function in factorized form. By this factorized form of wave function and effective Hamiltonian operator, the geometry phase of the surface wave function is theoretically found. This theoretical prediction may be measured by carefully designing experiments. Finally, discussions on the adiabatic representation, the PES construction, and possibility of the classical-dynamics solutions are given. Based on these discussions, a simple outlook on the dynamics of photocatalytics is finally given.

An accurate full-dimensional potential energy surface for the reaction OH + SO → H + SO2

An accurate full-dimensional PES for the OH + SO ↔ H + SO₂ reaction is developed by the permutation invariant polynomial-neural network approach.

The Triplet Hydroxyl Radical Complex of Phosphorus Monoxide

Phosphorus monoxide (^. PO) is a key intermediate in phosphorus chemistry, and its association with the hydroxyl radical (^. OH) to yield metaphosphorous acid (cis-HOPO) contributes to the chemiluminescence in the combustion of phosphines. When photolyzing cis-HOPO in an Ar-matrix at 2.8 K, the simplest dioxophosphorane HPO₂ and an elusive hydroxyl radical complex (HRC) of ^. PO form. This prototypical radical-radical complex reforms into cis-HOPO at above 12.0 K by overcoming a barrier of 0.28±0.02 kcal mol^-1 . The vibrational spectra of this HRC and its D- and ¹⁸ O-isotopologues suggest a structure of ^. OH⋅⋅⋅OP^. , for which a triplet spin multiplicity with a binding energy of -3.20 kcal mol^-1 has been computed at the UCCSD(T)-F12a/aug-cc-pVTZ level.

Nuclear-electronic all-particle density matrix renormalization group

We introduce the Nuclear-Electronic All-Particle Density Matrix Renormalization Group (NEAP-DMRG) method for solving the time-independent Schrödinger equation simultaneously for electrons and other quantum species. In contrast to the already existing multicomponent approaches, in this work, we construct from the outset a multi-reference trial wave function with stochastically optimized non-orthogonal Gaussian orbitals. By iterative refining of the Gaussians' positions and widths, we obtain a compact multi-reference expansion for the multicomponent wave function. We extend the DMRG algorithm to multicomponent wave functions to take into account inter- and intra-species correlation effects. The efficient parameterization of the total wave function as a matrix product state allows NEAP-DMRG to accurately approximate the full configuration interaction energies of molecular systems with more than three nuclei and 12 particles in total, which is currently a major challenge for other multicomponent approaches. We present the NEAP-DMRG results for two few-body systems, i.e., H₂ and H₃ ⁺, and one larger system, namely, BH₃.

Combined Experimental-Theoretical Study of the OH + CO → H + CO2 Reaction Dynamics

A combined experimental-theoretical study is performed to advance our understanding of the dynamics of the prototypical tetra-atom, complex-forming reaction OH + CO → H + CO₂, which is also of great practical relevance in combustion, Earth's atmosphere, and, potentially, Mars's atmosphere and interstellar chemistry. New crossed molecular beam experiments with mass spectrometric detection are analyzed together with the results from previous experiments and compared with quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) calculations on a new, full-dimensional potential energy surface (PES). Comparisons between experiment and theory are carried out both in the center-of-mass and laboratory frames. Good agreement is found between experiment and theory, both for product angular and translational energy distributions, leading to the conclusion that the new PES is the most accurate at present in elucidating the dynamics of this fundamental reaction. Yet, small deviations between experiment and theory remain and are presumably attributable to the QCT treatment of the scattering dynamics.

Full-dimensional quantum mechanics calculations for the spectroscopic characterization of the isomerization transition states of HOCO/DOCO systems

Full-dimensional quantum mechanics calculations were performed to determine the vibrational energy levels of HOCO and DOCO based on an accurate potential energy surface. Almost all of the vibrational energy levels up to 3500 cm^-1 from the vibrational ground state were assigned, and the calculated energy levels in this work are well in agreement with the reported results by Bowman. The corresponding full dimensional wavefunctions present some special features. When the energy level approaches the barrier height, the trans-HOCO and cis-HOCO states strongly couple through tunneling interactions, and the tunneling interaction and Fermi resonance were observed in the DOCO system. The energy level patterns of trans-HOCO, cis-HOCO and trans-DOCO provide a reasonable fitted barrier height using the fitting formula of Field et al., however, a discrepancy exists for the cis-DOCO species which is considered as a random event. Our full-dimensional calculations give positive evidence for the accuracy of the spectroscopic characterization model of the isomerization transition state reported by Field et al., which was developed from one-dimensional model systems. Furthermore, the special case of cis-DOCO in this work means that the isotopic substitution can solve the problem of the accidental failure of Field's spectroscopic characterization model.

Accurate potential energy surfaces for hydrogen abstraction reactions: A benchmark study on the XYG3 doubly hybrid density functional

The potential energy surface (PES) for the H + CH₄ system has been constructed with the recently developed XYG3 doubly hybrid functional, while those with the standard B3LYP hybrid functional, and the Møller-Plesset perturbation theory up to the second order (MP2) are also presented for comparison. Quantum dynamics studies demonstrated that satisfactory results on the reaction probabilities and the rate coefficients can be obtained on top of the XYG3-PES, as compared to the results based on the highly accurate, yet expensive, CCSD(T)-PES (Li et al., J. Chem. Phys. 2015, 142, 204302). Further investigation suggested that the XYG3 functional is useful in providing accurate rate coefficients for some larger systems involving H atom abstractions. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Toolkit for the Construction of Reproducing Kernel-Based Representations of Data: Application to Multidimensional Potential Energy Surfaces

In the early days of computation, slow processor speeds limited the amount of data that could be generated and used for scientific purposes. In the age of big data, the limiting factor usually is the method with which large amounts of data are analyzed and useful information is extracted. A typical example from chemistry are high-level ab initio calculations for small systems, which have nowadays become feasible even if energies at many different geometries are required. Molecular dynamics simulations often require several thousand distinct trajectories to be run. Under such circumstances suitable analytical representations of potential energy surfaces (PESs) based on ab initio calculations are required to propagate the dynamics at an acceptable cost. In this work we introduce a toolkit which allows the automatic construction of multidimensional PESs from gridded ab initio data based on reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) theory. The resulting representations require no tuning of parameters and allow energy and force evaluations at ab initio quality at the same cost as empirical force fields. Although the toolkit is primarily intended for constructing multidimensional potential energy surfaces for molecular systems, it can also be used for general machine learning purposes. The software is published under the MIT license and can be downloaded, modified, and used in other projects for free.

Quantum Chemical Study of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Effects on Combustion Kinetics

In oxy-fuel combustion, the pure oxygen (O₂), diluted with CO₂ is used as oxidant instead air. Hence, the combustion products (CO₂ and H₂O) are free from pollution by nitrogen oxides. Moreover, high pressures result in the near-liquid density of CO₂ at supercritical state (sCO₂). Unfortunately, the effects of sCO₂ on the combustion kinetics are far from being understood. To assist in this understanding, in this work we are using quantum chemistry methods. Here we investigate potential energy surfaces of important combustion reactions in the presence of the carbon dioxide molecule. All transition states and reactant and product complexes are reported for three reactions: H₂CO + HO₂ → HCO + H₂O₂ (R1), 2HO₂ → H₂O₂ + O₂ (R2), and CO + OH → CO₂ + H (R3). In reaction R3, covalent binding of CO₂ to the OH radical and then the CO molecule opens a new pathway, including hydrogen transfer from oxygen to carbon atoms followed by CH bond dissociation. Compared to the bimolecular OH + CO mechanism, this pathway reduces the activation barrier by 5 kcal/mol and is expected to accelerate the reaction. In the case of hydroperoxyl self-reaction 2HO₂ → H₂O₂ + O₂ the intermediates, containing covalent bonds to CO₂ are found not to be competitive. However, the spectator CO₂ molecule can stabilize the cyclic transition state and lower the barrier by 3 kcal/mol. Formation of covalent intermediates is also discovered in the H₂CO + HO₂ → HCO + H₂O₂ reaction, but these species lead to substantially higher activation barriers, which makes them unlikely to play a role in hydrogen transfer kinetics. The van der Waals complexation with carbon dioxide also stabilizes the transition state and reduces the reaction barrier. These results indicate that the CO₂ environment is likely to have a catalytic effect on combustion reactions, which needs to be included in kinetic combustion mechanisms in supercritical CO₂.

The Rovibrational Spectra of trans- and cis-HOCO, Calculated by MULTIMODE with ab Initio Potential Energy and Dipole Moment Surfaces

The code MULTIMODE is used in its reaction path version, along with ab initio potential energy and dipole moment surfaces introduced earlier, to predict the infrared spectra of both trans and cis forms of HOCO at temperatures 296 and 15 K. All six fundamentals are isolated for each isomer and temperature, and their main features examined, paying particular attention to the OH stretch fundamental, whose spectrum has been reported experimentally for trans-HOCO. The current spectra for cis-HOCO, while not of "spectroscopic" accuracy, should be sufficient to aid in new experimental efforts to record the spectrum of this isomer.

Dynamics of transient speciesviaanion photodetachment

Recent experimental and theoretical advances in transient reaction dynamics probed by photodetachment of polyatomic anions are reviewed.

Recent advances in quantum scattering calculations on polyatomic bimolecular reactions

This review surveys quantum scattering calculations on chemical reactions of polyatomic molecules in the gas phase published in the last ten years.

VUV photochemistry of the H2O⋯CO complex in noble-gas matrices: formation of the OH⋯CO complex and the HOCO radical

VUV photolysis of the H₂O⋯CO complexes leads to the formation of the OH⋯CO radical–molecule complexes and trans-HOCO radicals.

Chemical Reaction CO+OH(•) → CO2+H(•) Autocatalyzed by Carbon Dioxide: Quantum Chemical Study of the Potential Energy Surfaces

The supercritical carbon dioxide medium, used to increase efficiency in oxy combustion fossil energy technology, may drastically alter both rates and mechanisms of chemical reactions. Here we investigate potential energy surface of the second most important combustion reaction with quantum chemistry methods. Two types of effects are reported: formation of the covalent intermediates and formation of van der Waals complexes by spectator CO2 molecule. While spectator molecule alter the activation barrier only slightly, the covalent bonding opens a new reaction pathway. The mechanism includes sequential covalent binding of CO2 to OH radical and CO molecule, hydrogen transfer from oxygen to carbon atoms, and CH bond dissociation. This reduces the activation barrier by 11 kcal/mol at the rate-determining step and is expected to accelerate the reaction rate. The finding of predicted catalytic effect is expected to play an important role not only in combustion but also in a broad array of chemical processes taking place in supercritical CO2 medium. It may open a new venue for controlling reaction rates for chemical manufacturing.

Role of Double Hydrogen Atom Transfer Reactions in Atmospheric Chemistry

Hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) reactions are ubiquitous and play a crucial role in chemistries occurring in the atmosphere, biology, and industry. In the atmosphere, the most common and traditional HAT reaction is that associated with the OH radical abstracting a hydrogen atom from the plethora of organic molecules in the troposphere via R-H + OH → R + H2O. This reaction motif involves a single hydrogen transfer. More recently, in the literature, there is an emerging framework for a new class of HAT reactions that involves double hydrogen transfers. These reactions are broadly classified into four categories: (i) addition, (ii) elimination, (iii) substitution, and (iv) rearrangement. Hydration and dehydration are classic examples of addition and elimination reactions, respectively whereas tautomerization or isomerization belongs to a class of rearrangement reactions. Atmospheric acids and water typically mediate these reactions. Organic and inorganic acids are present in appreciable levels in the atmosphere and are capable of facilitating two-point hydrogen bonding interactions with oxygenates possessing an hydroxyl and/or carbonyl-type functionality. As a result, acids influence the reactivity of oxygenates and, thus, the energetics and kinetics of their HAT-based chemistries. The steric and electronic effects of acids play an important role in determining the efficacy of acid catalysis. Acids that reduce the steric strain of 1:1 substrate···acid complex are generally better catalysts. Among a family of monocarboxylic acids, the electronic effects become important; barrier to the catalyzed reaction correlates strongly with the pKa of the acid. Under acid catalysis, the hydration of carbonyl compounds leads to the barrierless formation of diols, which can serve as seed particles for atmospheric aerosol growth. The hydration of sulfur trioxide, which is the principle mechanism for atmospheric sulfuric acid formation, also becomes barrierless under acid catalysis. Rate calculations suggest that such acid catalysis play a key role in the formation of sulfuric acid in the Earth's stratosphere, Venusian atmosphere, and on heterogeneous surfaces. Over the past few years, theoretical calculations have shown that these acid-mediated double hydrogen atom transfers are important in the chemistry of Earth's atmosphere as well as that of other planets. This Account reviews and puts into perspective some of these atmospheric HAT reactions and their environmental significance.

Structure and spectroscopic properties of low-lying states of the HOC(O)O radical

The HOC(O)O radical is a product of the reaction of HOCO radicals with oxygen atoms. The present study provides theoretical prediction of critical spectroscopic features of this radical that should aid in its experimental characterization. Energies, structures, rotational constants, and harmonic frequencies are presented for the ground and two low-lying excited electronic states of HOC(O)O. The energies for the Ã(2)A″←X̃(2)A' and B̃(2)A'←X̃(2)A' electronic transitions are reported. The band origin of the B̃←X̃ transition of HOC(O)O is predicted to occur in the near infrared region of the spectrum at around 1.5 eV and it is suggested to be the most promising one for observing this radical spectroscopically. The structural and spectroscopic similarities between HOC(O)O and the isoelectronic radical FC(O)O are discussed. The abundance of experimental data on the FC(O)O radical should guide the spectroscopic characterization of HOC(O)O and serve as a benchmark for the structural and spectroscopic parameters obtained from theory.

Energetics and transition-state dynamics of the F + HOCH3 → HF + OCH3 reaction

Probing the transition state of the F + HOCH₃ → HF + OCH₃ reaction using photoelectron–photofragment coincidence spectroscopy accesses reactants, products, stable van der Waals complexes and long-lived metastable complexes.

A versatile, pulsed anion source utilizing plasma-entrainment: characterization and applications

A novel pulsed anion source has been developed, using plasma entrainment into a supersonic expansion. A pulsed discharge source perpendicular to the main gas expansion greatly reduces unwanted "heating" of the main expansion, a major setback in many pulsed anion sources in use today. The design principles and construction information are described and several examples demonstrate the range of applicability of this anion source. Large OH(-)(Ar)n clusters can be generated, with over 40 Ar solvating OH(-). The solvation energy of OH(-)(Ar)n, where n = 1-3, 7, 12, and 18, is derived from photoelectron spectroscopy and shows that by n = 12-18, each Ar is bound by about 10 meV. In addition, cis- and trans- HOCO(-) are generated through rational anion synthesis (OH(-) + CO + M → HOCO(-) + M) and the photoelectron spectra compared with previous results. These results, along with several further proof-of-principle experiments on solvation and transient anion synthesis, demonstrate the ability of this source to efficiently produce cold anions. With modifications to two standard General Valve assemblies and very little maintenance, this anion source provides a versatile and straightforward addition to a wide array of experiments.

High-Level, First-Principles, Full-Dimensional Quantum Calculation of the Ro-vibrational Spectrum of the Simplest Criegee Intermediate (CH2OO)

The ro-vibrational spectrum of the simplest Criegee intermediate (CH2OO) has been determined quantum mechanically based on nine-dimensional potential energy and dipole surfaces for its ground electronic state. The potential energy surface is fitted to more than 50 000 high-level ab initio points with a root-mean-square error of 25 cm(-1), using a recently proposed permutation invariant polynomial neural network method. The calculated rotational constants, vibrational frequencies, and spectral intensities of CH2OO are in excellent agreement with experiment. The potential energy surface provides a valuable platform for studying highly excited vibrational and unimolecular reaction dynamics of this important molecule.