Ab initio relativistic effective potentials with spin‐orbit operators. I. Li through Ar

Zeolite encapsulated organometallic complexes as model catalysts

Heterogeneities in the structure of active centers in metal-containing porous materials are unavoidable and complicate the description of chemical events occurring along reaction coordinates at the atomic level. Metal containing zeolites include sites of varied local coordination and secondary confining environments, requiring careful titration protocols to quantify the predominant active sites. Hybrid organometallic-zeolite catalysts are useful well-defined platform materials for spectroscopic, kinetic, and computational studies of heterogeneous catalysis that avoid the complications of conventional metal-containing porous materials. Such materials have been synthesized and studied previously, but catalytic applications were mostly limited to liquid-phase oxidation and electrochemical reactions. The hydrothermal stability, time-on-stream stability, and utility of these materials in gas-phase oxidation reactions are under-studied. The potential applications for single-site heterogeneous catalysts in fundamental research are abundant and motivate future synthetic, spectroscopic, kinetic, and computational studies.

CRYSTAL23: A Program for Computational Solid State Physics and Chemistry

The Crystal program for quantum-mechanical simulations of materials has been bridging the realm of molecular quantum chemistry to the realm of solid state physics for many years, since its first public version released back in 1988. This peculiarity stems from the use of atom-centered basis functions within a linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) approach and from the corresponding efficiency in the evaluation of the exact Fock exchange series. In particular, this has led to the implementation of a rich variety of hybrid density functional approximations since 1998. Nowadays, it is acknowledged by a broad community of solid state chemists and physicists that the inclusion of a fraction of Fock exchange in the exchange-correlation potential of the density functional theory is key to a better description of many properties of materials (electronic, magnetic, mechanical, spintronic, lattice-dynamical, etc.). Here, the main developments made to the program in the last five years (i.e., since the previous release, Crystal17) are presented and some of their most noteworthy applications reviewed.

Manifestation of the interplay between spin-orbit and Jahn-Teller effects in Au25 superatom UV-Vis fingerprint spectra

Atomically precise nanoclusters play an important role in nanoscale catalysis, photonics, and quantum information science. Their nanochemical properties arise from their unique superatomic electronic structures. As the flagship of atomically precise nanochemistry, the Au₂₅(SR)₁₈ nanocluster exhibits tunable spectroscopic signatures that are sensitive to the oxidation state. This work aims to unravel the physical underpinnings of the spectral progression of Au₂₅(SR)₁₈ nanocluster using variational relativistic time-dependent density functional theory. The investigation will focus on the effects of superatomic spin-orbit coupling, its interplay with Jahn-Teller distortion, and their manifestations in the absorption spectra of Au₂₅(SR)₁₈ nanoclusters of different oxidation states.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Pseudopotential Inconsistency Errors in Molecular Applications of Density Functional Theory

The pseudopotential (PP) approximation is one of the most common techniques in computational chemistry. Despite its long history, the development of custom PPs has not tracked with the explosion of different density functional approximations (DFAs). As a result, the use of PPs with exchange/correlation models for which they were not developed is widespread, although this practice is known to be theoretically unsound. The extent of PP inconsistency errors (PPIEs) associated with this practice has not been systematically explored across the types of energy differences commonly evaluated in chemical applications. We evaluate PPIEs for a number of PPs and DFAs across 196 chemically relevant systems of both transition-metal and main-group elements, as represented by the W4-11, TMC34, and S22 data sets. Near the complete basis set limit, these PPs are found to cleanly approach all-electron (AE) results for noncovalent interactions but introduce root-mean-squared errors (RMSEs) upwards of 15 kcal mol^-1 into predictions of covalent bond energies for a number of popular DFAs. We achieve significant improvements through the use of empirical atom- and DFA-specific PP corrections, indicating considerable systematicity of the PPIEs. The results of this work have implications for chemical modeling in both molecular contexts and for DFA design, which we discuss.

State Interaction Linear Response Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory with Perturbative Spin-Orbit Coupling: Benchmark and Perspectives

Spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is an important driving force in photochemistry. In this work, we develop a perturbative spin-orbit coupling method within the linear response time-dependent density function theory framework (TDDFT-SO). A full state interaction scheme, including singlet-triplet and triplet-triplet coupling, is introduced to describe not only the coupling between the ground and excited states, but also between excited states with all couplings between spin microstates. In addition, expressions to compute spectral oscillator strengths are presented. Scalar relativity is included variationally using the second-order Douglas-Kroll-Hess Hamiltonian, and the TDDFT-SO method is validated against variational SOC relativistic methods for atomic, diatomic, and transition metal complexes to determine the range of applicability and potential limitations. To demonstrate the robustness of TDDFT-SO for large-scale chemical systems, the UV-Vis spectrum of Au₂₅(SR)₁₈ ^- is computed and compared to experiment. Perspectives on the limitation, accuracy, and capability of perturbative TDDFT-SO are presented via analyses of benchmark calculations. Additionally, an open-source Python software package (PyTDDFT-SO) is developed and released to interface with the Gaussian 16 quantum chemistry software package to perform this calculation.

Environmental considerations in ab initio calculations of electronic states of PtCl4 -2 complexes

Many quantum chemical methods used for large complexes are based on a limited treatment of electrons due to the computational demand dictated by the number of electrons that must be explicitly considered, especially when considering the chemical environment. Such treatments can fail to correlate accurately with electronic spectra. Ab initio electronic structure theory using the spin-orbit configuration interaction method is applied in a study of spectral transitions in PtCl₄ ^2- including counter-ion environmental effects. In this method, electronic wave functions are eigenfunctions of the total angular momentum operator belonging to one of the symmetry types of the molecular double group. PtCl₄ ^2- is investigated as a charged gas phase complex, a point-charge-neutralized complex, and a pseudopotential-neutralized complex. Results indicate that the use of a whole-atom relativistic effective core potential for the potassium cation provides a more accurate representation of the environment than a point charge and accurately represents electronic states without increasing the complexity of the calculation and, therefore, its computational demand.

ωB97X-3c: A composite range-separated hybrid DFT method with a molecule-optimized polarized valence double-ζ basis set

A new composite density functional theory (DFT) method is presented. It is based on ωB97X-V as one of the best-performing density functionals for the GMTKN55 thermochemistry database and completes the family of "3c" methods toward range-separated hybrid DFT. This method is consistently available for all elements up to Rn (Z = 1-86). Its further key ingredients are a polarized valence double-ζ (vDZP) Gaussian basis set, which was fully optimized in molecular DFT calculations, in combination with large-core effective core potentials and a specially adapted D4 dispersion correction. Unlike most existing double-ζ atomic orbital sets, vDZP shows only small basis set superposition errors (BSSEs) and can compete with standard sets of triple-ζ quality. Small residual BSSE effects are efficiently absorbed by the D4 damping scheme, which overall eliminates the need for an explicit treatment or empirical corrections for BSSE. Thorough tests on a variety of thermochemistry benchmark sets show that the new composite method, dubbed ωB97X-3c, is on par with or even outperforms standard hybrid DFT methods in a quadruple-zeta basis set at a small fraction of the computational cost. Particular strengths of this method are the description of non-covalent interactions and barrier heights, for which it is among the best-performing density functionals overall.

A new generation of effective core potentials from correlated and spin-orbit calculations: selected heavy elements

We introduce new correlation consistent effective core potentials (ccECPs) for the elements I, Te, Bi, Ag, Au, Pd, Ir, Mo, and W with $4d$, $5d$, $6s$ and $6p$ valence spaces. These ccECPs are given as a sum of spin-orbit averaged relativistic effective potential (AREP) and effective spin-orbit (SO) terms. The construction involves several steps with increasing refinements from more simple to fully correlated methods. The optimizations are carried out with objective functions that include weighted many-body atomic spectra, norm-conservation criteria, and spin-orbit splittings. Transferability tests involve molecular binding curves of corresponding hydride and oxide dimers. The constructed ccECPs are systematically better and in a few cases on par with previous effective core potential (ECP) tables on all tested criteria and provide a significant increase in accuracy for valence-only calculations with these elements. Our study confirms the importance of the AREP part in determining the overall quality of the ECP even in the presence of sizable spin-orbit effects. The subsequent quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) calculations point out the importance of accurate trial wave functions which in some cases (mid series transition elements) require treatment well beyond single-reference.

The Potential Energy Profile of the HBr+ + HCl Bimolecular Collision

Recently, the HBr⁺ + HCl bimolecular reaction has been exploited by guided ion beam studies to probe the effect of rotational excitations and collision energies on the dynamics of the ion-molecule reactions. The current manuscript employs high-level ab initio calculations and reports the potential energy of pathways leading to various products, including HBr + HCl⁺, H₂Cl⁺ + Br, H₂Br⁺ + Cl, and H₂ + BrCl⁺. The study shows that the intermediates involved in this reaction are connected by low-lying transition states, thus frequent isomerizations and diverse products are expected. Further, this manuscript screens the performance of 192 different combinations of computationally efficient methods and basis sets in order to identify the optimal quantum chemical method for further dynamics simulations.

Stable copernicium hexafluoride (CnF6) with an oxidation state of VI

As the heaviest group 12 element known currently, copernicium (Cn) often presents the oxidation states of I+, II+, and rarely IV+ as in its homologue mercury. In this work we systematically studied the stability of some oxides, fluorides, and oxyfluorides of Cn by two-component relativistic calculations and found that the CnF₆ molecule with an oxidation state of VI+ has an extraordinary stability. CnF₆ may decompose into CnF₄ by conquering an energy barrier of about 34 kcal mol^-1 without markedly releasing heat. Our results indicate that CnF₆ may exist under some special conditions.

Perturbation Theory Treatment of Spin-Orbit Coupling, Part I: Double Perturbation Theory Based on a Single-Reference Initial Approximation

We develop a perturbation theory for solving the many-body Dirac equation within a given relativistic effective-core potential approximation. Starting from a scalar-relativistic unrestricted Hartree-Fock (SR UHF) solution, we carry out a double perturbation expansion in terms of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and the electron fluctuation potential. Computationally convenient energy expressions are derived through fourth order in SOC, second order in the electron fluctuation potential, and a total of third order in the coupling between the two. Illustrative calculations on the halogen series of neutral and singly positive diatomic molecules show that the perturbation expansion is well-converged by taking into account only the leading (nonvanishing) term at each order of the electron fluctuation potential. Our perturbation theory approach provides a computationally attractive alternative to a two-component self-consistent field treatment of SOC. In addition, it includes coupling with the fluctuation potential through third order and can be extended (in principle) to multireference calculations, when necessary for both closed- and open-shell cases, using quasi-degenerate perturbation theory.

Ambient-Temperature Hydrogen Storage via Vanadium(II)-Dihydrogen Complexation in a Metal-Organic Framework

The widespread implementation of H2 as a fuel is currently hindered by the high pressures or cryogenic temperatures required to achieve reasonable storage densities. In contrast, the realization of materials that strongly and reversibly adsorb hydrogen at ambient temperatures and moderate pressures could transform the transportation sector and expand adoption of fuel cells in other applications. To date, however, no adsorbent has been identified that exhibits a binding enthalpy within the optimal range of -15 to -25 kJ/mol for ambient-temperature hydrogen storage. Here, we report the hydrogen adsorption properties of the metal-organic framework (MOF) V2Cl2.8(btdd) (H2btdd, bis(1H-1,2,3-triazolo[4,5-b],[4',5'-i])dibenzo[1,4]dioxin), which features exposed vanadium(II) sites capable of backbonding with weak π acids. Significantly, gas adsorption data reveal that this material binds H2 with an enthalpy of -21 kJ/mol. This binding energy enables usable hydrogen capacities that exceed that of compressed storage under the same operating conditions. The Kubas-type vanadium(II)-dihydrogen complexation is characterized by a combination of techniques. From powder neutron diffraction data, a V-D2(centroid) distance of 1.966(8) Å is obtained, the shortest yet reported for a MOF. Using in situ infrared spectroscopy, the H-H stretch was identified, and it displays a red shift of 242 cm-1. Electronic structure calculations show that a main contribution to bonding stems from the interaction between the vanadium dπ and H2 σ* orbital. Ultimately, the pursuit of MOFs containing high densities of weakly π-basic metal sites may enable storage capacities under ambient conditions that far surpass those accessible with compressed gas storage.

Theoretical study of the Coriolis effect in LiNa, LiK, and LiRb molecules

The non-adiabatic electronic matrix elements, LΠΣ(R), that arise from the spin-conserving electron-rotational interactions between all mΣ+ and mΠ states, where multiplicity m = 1, 3, converging to the lowest three dissociation limits of Li-containing alkali diatomics, LiM (M = Na, K, Rb), were calculated ab initio up to large internuclear distances, R. The required electronic wavefunctions were obtained within the framework of the multi-reference configuration interaction treatment of the two-valence-electron problem constructed using small-core scalar-relativistic effective core potentials and l-independent core-polarization potentials. A least squares analysis of the ab initio functions at large internuclear distances in conjunction with long-range perturbation theory (LRPT) revealed three different asymptotic behaviors of the LΠΣ(R → +∞)-functions: const. + β[n]/Rn, characterized by n = -1, 3 and 6. The asymptotic coefficients β[n], extracted from the point-wise ab initio data, were found to be in agreement with their LRPT counterparts, which were evaluated analytically using the relevant atomic parameters. The mass dependence of the LΠΣ matrix elements was investigated analytically and numerically. To confirm the reliability of the LΠΣ(R)-functions and interatomic potentials at small and intermediate distances, the empirical q-factors available for the D1Π-states of all LiM molecules studied were compared with their theoretical counterparts derived from the present ab initio data.

A first principles study of the spin–orbit coupling effect in LiM (M = Na, K, Rb, Cs) molecules

Both fully relativistic and scalar-state based perturbation models provided the spin–orbit functions of the LiM (M = Na, K, Rb, Cs) molecules at almost experimental level of confidence.

Indium(iii) {2}-metallacryptates assembled from 2,6-dipicolinoyl-bis(N,N-diethylthiourea)

{2}-Metallacryptates are constructed from the self-assembly of 2,6-dipicolinoylbis(N,N-diethylthiourea) ligands and mixtures of indium(iii) chloride and chlorides of monovalent cations.

Multilink F* Method for Combined Quantum Mechanical and Molecular Mechanical Calculations of Complex Systems

Combined quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical (QM/MM) studies on catalysis in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are relatively undeveloped in contrast to the wide use of QM/MM for enzyme catalysis. One reason is that the currently available methods for treating QM-MM boundaries are not fully compatible with the combination of features in MOFs, namely, their high connectivity, their polar bonds (e.g., metal-oxygen bonds), and their potential boundary atoms with high partial atomic charges. The treatment of polar bonds can be improved by using tuned link atoms, but both the widely used H link atom method and the F* link atom method provide limited options in placing the QM-MM boundary in MOFs and other covalently bonded solids, which seriously reduces the efficiency of QM/MM calculations. Here, we propose a generalized version of the F* link atom method with greater flexibility for the placement of the QM-MM boundary in MOFs and with a practical scheme for tuning. The new method, called the multilink F* method, allows a large part of an inorganic node of a MOF to be partitioned into the MM subsystem to increase the efficiency. Our validation calculations on dimerization of ethylene to 1-butene by a nickel catalyst supported on a MOF show that the overall performance of QM/MM calculations with the multilink F* method is excellent for energies, geometries, and partial atomic charges.

Nitrogen Reduction by Multimetallic trans-Uranium Actinide Complexes: A Theoretical Comparison of Np and Pu to U

There is recent interest in organometallic complexes of the trans-uranium elements. However, preparation and characterization of such complexes are hampered by radioactivity and chemotoxicity issues as well as the air-sensitive and poorly understood behavior of existing compounds. As such, there are no examples of small-molecule activation via redox reactivity of organometallic trans-uranium complexes. This contrasts with the situation for uranium. Indeed, a multimetallic uranium(III) nitride complex was recently synthesized, characterized, and shown to be able to capture and functionalize molecular nitrogen (N₂) through a four-electron reduction process, N₂ → N₂^4-. The bis-uranium nitride, U-N-U core of this complex is held in a potassium siloxide framework. Importantly, the N₂^4- product could be further functionalized to yield ammonia (NH₃) and other desirable species. Using the U-N-U potassium siloxide complex, K₃U-N-U, and its cesium analogue, Cs₃U-N-U, as starting points, we use scalar-relativistic and spin-orbit coupled density functional theory calculations to shed light on the energetics and mechanism for N₂ capture and functionalization. The N₂ → N₂^4- reactivity depends on the redox potentials of the U(III) centers and crucially on the stability of the starting complex with respect to decomposition into the mixed oxidation U(IV)/U(III) K₂U-N-U or Cs₂U-N-U species. For the trans-uranium, Np and Pu analogues of K₃U-N-U, the N₂ → N₂^4- process is endoergic and would not occur. Interestingly, modification of the Np-O and Pu-O bonds between the actinide cores and the coordinated siloxide framework to Np-NH, Pu-NH, Np-CH₂, and Pu-CH₂ bonds drastically improves the reaction free energies. The Np-NH species are stable and can reductively capture and reduce N₂ to N₂^4-. This is supported by analysis of the spin densities, molecular structure, long-range dispersion effects, as well as spin-orbit coupling effects. These findings chart a path for achieving small-molecule activation with organometallic neptunium analogues of existing uranium complexes.

Potential Energy Surface of Group 11 Trimers (Cu, Ag, Au): Bond Angle Isomerism in Au3

Potential energy surfaces for the group 11 trimers were generated at various levels of coupled-cluster theory to examine the effects of Jahn-Teller distortions. Our calculations show that the lowest-energy conformer for Cu₃, Ag₃, and Au₃ is the ²B₂ (∼65° isomer) without spin-orbit corrections. Spin-orbit corrections have negligible contributions to the relative energies for the angle dependence of the potential energy surfaces for Cu₃ and Ag₃. The inclusion of spin-orbit corrections for Au₃ makes the ²B₂ (∼65°) and ²A₁ (∼55°) states approximately degenerate. A novel ²B₂ isomer of Au₃ at an obtuse angle of ∼125° was also characterized, providing evidence for bond angle isomerism on the same ²B₂ potential energy surface. Spin-orbit corrections increase the barrier height between the ²B₂ (65°) and ²B₂ (125°) bond angle isomers of Au₃. The calculated symmetric stretch vibrational frequencies are in good agreement with the available experimental values. All frequencies calculated for the Au₃ ²B₂ (∼125°) state are real, and there is at least one bound bending vibration for this state. Jahn-Teller parameters are also derived for each trimer.

Parametrization of Combined Quantum Mechanical and Molecular Mechanical Methods: Bond-Tuned Link Atoms

Combined quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical (QM/MM) methods are the most powerful available methods for high-level treatments of subsystems of very large systems. The treatment of the QM−MM boundary strongly affects the accuracy of QM/MM calculations. For QM/MM calculations having covalent bonds cut by the QM−MM boundary, it has been proposed previously to use a scheme with system-specific tuned fluorine link atoms. Here, we propose a broadly parametrized scheme where the parameters of the tuned F link atoms depend only on the type of bond being cut. In the proposed new scheme, the F link atom is tuned for systems with a certain type of cut bond at the QM−MM boundary instead of for a specific target system, and the resulting link atoms are call bond-tuned link atoms. In principle, the bond-tuned link atoms can be as convenient as the popular H link atoms, and they are especially well adapted for high-throughput and accurate QM/MM calculations. Here, we present the parameters for several kinds of cut bonds along with a set of validation calculations that confirm that the proposed bond-tuned link-atom scheme can be as accurate as the system-specific tuned F link-atom scheme.

Singlet-triplet energy gaps and the degree of diradical character in binuclear copper molecular magnets characterized by spin-flip density functional theory

Molecular magnets, defined here as organic polyradicals, can be used as building blocks in the fabrication of novel and structurally diverse magnetic light-weight materials. We present a theoretical investigation of the lowest spin states of several binuclear copper diradicals. In contrast to previous studies, we consider not only the energetics of the low-lying states (which are related to the exchange-coupling parameter within the Heisenberg-Dirac-van-Vleck model), but also the character of the diradical states themselves. We use natural orbitals, their occupations, and the number of effectively unpaired electrons to quantify bonding patterns in these systems. We compare the performance of spin-flip time-dependent density functional theory (SF-TDDFT) using various functionals and effective core potentials against the wave function based approach, equation-of-motion spin-flip coupled-cluster method with single and double substitutions (EOM-SF-CCSD). We find that SF-TDDFT paired with the PBE50 and B5050LYP functionals performs comparably to EOM-SF-CCSD, with respect to both singlet-triplet gaps and states' characters. Visualization of frontier natural orbitals shows that the unpaired electrons are localized on copper centers, in some cases exhibiting slight through-bond interaction via copper d-orbitals and p-orbitals of neighboring ligand atoms. The analysis reveals considerable interactions between the formally unpaired electrons in the antiferromagnetic diradicaloids, meaning that they are poorly described by the Heisenberg-Dirac-van-Vleck model. Thus, for these systems the experimentally derived exchange-coupling parameters are not directly comparable with the singlet-triplet gaps. This explains systematic discrepancies between the computed singlet-triplet energy gaps and the exchange-coupling parameters extracted from experiment.

Efficient Method for Calculating Effective Core Potential Integrals

Effective core potential (ECP) integrals are among the most difficult one-electron integrals to calculate due to the projection operators. The radial part of these operators may include r⁰, r^-1, and r^-2 terms. For the r⁰ terms, we exploit a simple analytic expression for the fundamental projected integral to derive new recurrence relations and upper bounds for ECP integrals. For the r^-1 and r^-2 terms, we present a reconstruction method that replaces these terms by a sum of r⁰ terms and show that the resulting errors are chemically insignificant for a range of molecular properties. The new algorithm is available in Q-Chem 5.0 and is significantly faster than the ECP implementations in Q-Chem 4.4, GAMESS (US) and Dalton 2016.

Ionization and Single and Double Electron Capture in Proton-Ar Collisions

Total cross sections for formation of H and H^-, and electron production, in H⁺ + Ar collisions have been calculated at energies between 100 eV and 200 keV by employing two methods: for E < 10 keV, a semiclassical treatment with an expansion in a basis of electronic wave functions of the ArH⁺ quasimolecule and, for E > 10 keV, the switching-classical-trajectory-Monte Carlo method (s-CTMC). The semiclassical calculation involves transitions to molecular autoionizing states, calculated by applying a block-diagonalization technique. The s-CTMC method is adept to treat two-electron processes and yields total cross sections for H^- formation in reasonably good agreement with the experimental data. Cross sections for electron- and H-production processes, which are dominated by one-electron transitions, are in good agreement with the experimental data.

Application of the complex Kohn variational method to attosecond spectroscopy

The complex Kohn variational method is extended to compute light-driven electronic transitions between continuum wave functions in atomic and molecular systems. This development enables the study of multiphoton processes in the perturbative regime for arbitrary light polarization. As a proof of principle, we apply the method to compute the photoelectron spectrum arising from the pump-probe two-photon ionization of helium induced by a sequence of extreme ultraviolet and infrared light pulses. We compare several two-photon ionization pump-probe spectra, resonant with the (2s2p) 1P 1 o Feshbach resonance, with independent simulations based on the atomic B-spline close-coupling STOCK code, and find good agreement between the two approaches. This finite-pulse perturbative approach is a step towards the ab initio study of weak-field attosecond processes in polyelectronic molecules.

Phonon spectra, electronic, and thermodynamic properties of WS2 nanotubes

Hybrid density functional theory calculations are performed for the first time on the phonon dispersion and thermodynamic properties of WS₂ -based single-wall nanotubes. Symmetry analysis is presented for phonon modes in nanotubes using the standard (crystallographic) factorization for line groups. Symmetry and the number of infra-red and Raman active modes in achiral WS₂ nanotubes are given for armchair and zigzag chiralities. It is demonstrated that a number of infrared and Raman active modes is independent on the nanotube diameter. The zone-folding approach is applied to find out an impact of curvature on electron and phonon band structure of nanotubes rolled up from the monolayer. Phonon frequencies obtained both for layers and nanotubes are used to compute the thermal contributions to their thermodynamic functions. The temperature dependences of energy, entropy, and heat capacity of nanotubes are estimated with respect to those of the monolayer. The role of phonons in the stability estimation of nanotubes is discussed based on Helmholtz free energy calculations. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Theoretical Study of Low-Lying Electronic States of PtX (X = F, Cl, Br, and I) Including Spin-Orbit Coupling

The low-lying electronic states of platinum ions (Pt(+)) and platinum monohalides (PtX; X = F, Cl, Br, and I) are calculated using the multireference configuration interaction method with relativistic effective core potentials. The spin-orbit coupling is taken into account through the perturbative state-interaction approach. For the Ω states of PtX below 35000 cm(-1), the potential energy curves and the corresponding spectroscopic constants are reported. It is found that the lowest Ω = 3/2 state is the ground one for the four species of PtX. Overall, the theoretical results are in reasonable agreement with the available experimental data.

A theoretical study on the reaction of ozone with aqueous iodide

Atmospheric iodine chemistry plays a key role in tropospheric ozone catalytic destruction, new particle formation, and as one of the possible sinks of gaseous polar elemental mercury. Moreover, it has been recently proposed that reaction of ozone with iodide on the sea surface could be the major contributor to the chemical loss of atmospheric ozone. However, the mechanism of the reaction between aqueous iodide and ozone is not well known. The aim of this paper is to improve the understanding of such a mechanism. In this paper, an ab initio study of the reaction of aqueous iodide and ozone is presented, evaluating thermodynamic data of the different reactions proposed in previous experimental studies. In addition, the structures, energetics and possible evolution of the key IOOO(-) intermediate are discussed for the first time.