An accurateab initioHOCl potential energy surface, vibrational and rotational calculations, and comparison with experiment

Accurate Thermochemical and Kinetic Parameters at Affordable Cost by Means of the Pisa Composite Scheme (PCS)

A new strategy for the computation at an affordable cost of geometrical structures, thermochemical parameters, and rate constants for medium-sized molecules in the gas phase is proposed. The most distinctive features of the new model are the systematic use of cc-pVnZ-F12 basis sets, the addition of MP2 core-valence correlation in geometry optimizations by a double-hybrid functional, the separate extrapolation of MP2 and post-MP2 contributions, and the inclusion of anharmonic contributions in zero-point energies and thermodynamic functions. A thorough benchmark based on a wide range of prototypical systems shows that the new scheme outperforms the most well-known model chemistries without the need for any empirical parameter. Additional tests show that the computed zero-point energies and thermal contributions can be confidently used for obtaining accurate thermochemical and kinetic parameters. Since the whole computational workflow is translated in a black-box procedure, which can be followed with standard electronic structure codes, the way is paved for the accurate yet not prohibitively expensive study of medium- to large-sized molecules also by nonspecialists.

Accurate thermochemistry at affordable cost by means of an improved version of the JunChS-F12 model chemistry

The junChS-F12 composite method has been improved by means of the latest implementation of the CCSD(F12*)(T+) ansatz and validated for the thermochemistry of molecules containing atoms of the first three rows of the periodic table. A thorough benchmark showed that this model, in conjunction with cost-effective revDSD-PBEP86-D3(BJ) reference geometries, offers an optimal compromise between accuracy and computational cost. If improved geometries are sought, the most effective option is to add MP2-F12 core-valence correlation corrections to CCSD(T)-F12b/jun-cc-pVTZ geometries without the need of performing any extrapolation to the complete basis set limit. In the same vein, CCSD(T)-F12b/jun-cc-pVTZ harmonic frequencies are remarkably accurate without any additional contribution. Pilot applications to noncovalent intermolecular interactions, conformational landscapes, and tautomeric equilibria confirm the effectiveness and reliability of the model.

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.

Theoretical study of product polarization of O(1D) + HCl(v = 0; j = 0) → ClO + H and its isotope exchange reaction

O(1D) + HCl(v = 0; j = 0) → ClO + H and its isotope exchange reaction O(1D) + DCl(v = 0; j = 0) → ClO + D are studied in the collision energy range 14.0–20.0 kcal/mol based on the potential energy surface 1[Formula: see text] state. Reaction probabilities, integral cross sections, the two angular distribution functions (concerning the initial/final velocity vector, and the product rotational momentum vector), and the product rotational alignment parameters are calculated as a function of the collision energy for the two reactions. The four generalized polarization dependent differential cross sections are presented to manifest the polarization characters. Also, the effect of the collision energy and the kinetic isotope effect are studied.

Stereodynamic study of the reaction H(²S) + ClO(²Π) → HO(²Π) + Cl(²P) via quasi-classical trajectory calculations

Quasi-classical trajectory calculations were performed to investigate the stereodynamics of the reaction H(²S) + ClO(²Π) → HO(²Π) + Cl(²P) using the ground-state potential energy surface 1¹A'. The alignment and orientation of the product molecules as well as the four polarization-dependent differential cross-sections (PDDCSs) for this reaction across a wide range of collision energies (0.05-1.0 eV) and for the rovibrational state ClO(v = 0 and j = 0) were obtained and are reported here. It was found that the OH product rotational polarization is not very sensitive to the collision energy selected. We discuss this phenomenon in detail. The calculated results indicate that, for this system, the two deep wells in the potential energy surface are very likely to be powerful influences on the degree of product rotational polarization. In addition, the microscopic reaction mechanism that dictates the product angular momentum orientation was investigated. The forward peak in the PDDCS₀₀ at θ = 0° in our study showed a strong dependence on the initial collision energy.

Reagent vibrational, rotational and isotopic effects on stereodynamics of the H + OCl → OH + Cl reaction

The quasi-classical trajectory method has been employed to investigate the initial vibrational and rotational effects of the title reaction on an improved ab initio potential energy surface for the 11A′ state. Meanwhile, isotopic effect has also been studied at collision energy of 19 kcal/mol. The product rotational alignment factor 〈P2(j′ • k)〉, angular distributions of P(ϕr), P(θr) and the generalized polarization dependent differential cross-sections have been calculated. The- results show that the reagent vibrational excitation generally strengthens the product alignment perpendicular to the reagent relative velocity vector k and affects the product scattering preference, and the rotational excitation has the same trend from j = 0 to 2 except for the higher excitation of j = 3. Further, the substitution of atom H with D leads to a stronger product alignment while changes some stereodynamical properties subtly.

The dynamical study of O(1D) + HCl(v = 0, j = 0) reaction at hyperthermal collision energies

Backgrounds

The quasi-classical trajectory calculations for O(¹D) + HCl → OH + Cl (R1) and O(¹D) + HCl → ClO + H (R2) reactions have been performed at hyperthermal collision energies (60.0, 90.0, and 120.0 kal/mol) on the ¹A' state. Reaction probabilities and integral cross sections are calculated. The product rotational distributions for the two channels, and the product rotational alignment parameters are investigated. Also, the alignment and the orientation of the products have been predicted through the angular distribution functions (concerning the initial/final velocity vector, and the product rotational angular momentum vector). To have a deeper understanding of the natures of the vector correlation between reagent and product relative velocities, a natural generalization of the differential cross section __PDDCS₀₀, is calculated.

Results

The OH + Cl channel is the main product channel and is observed to have essentially isotropic rotational distributions. The ClO + H channel is found to be clearly rotationally polarized.

Conclusions

The dynamical, especially the stereodynamical characters are quite different for the two channels of the title reaction. Most reactions occur directly, except for R2 reaction at the collision energies of 60.0 and 120.0 kcal/mol. The alignment and orientation effects are weak/strong for R1/R2 reaction. The well structure on the potential energy surface and hyperthermal collision energies might result in the dynamical effects.

THEORETICAL STUDY OF THE STEREO-DYNAMICS OF THE REACTION O + HCl → ClO + H

Quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) method is used to study the stereo-dynamics of the title reaction on the ground 1 1A′ potential energy surface (PES). Differential cross-sections (DCSs) and alignments of the product rotational angular momentum for the reaction are reported. The influence of collision energy on the product vector properties is also studied in the present work. The distribution of angle between k and j′, P(θr), the distribution of dihedral angle denoting k-k′-j′ correlation, P(ϕr) ⋅ (2π/σ)( d σ00/ d ωt), (2π/σ)( d σ20/ d ωt), (2π/σ)( d σ22+/ d ωt) and (2π/σ)(dσ21-/dωt) have been calculated in the center of mass frame, respectively.

CHEMICAL REACTIONS IN THE O(1D) + HCl SYSTEM I

New global ab initio potential energy surfaces (PES) are presented for the low-lying 11A′, 11A′′ and 21A′ electronic states which are correlated to O (1D) + HCl . These potential energy surfaces are computed by using the multi-reference configuration interaction method with the Davidson correction (MRCI+Q). The reference functions are constructed by the complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) calculations using the quadruple zeta + polarization basis set augmented with diffuse functions. The computations are carried out at about 5000 molecular conformations on each three-dimensional potential energy surface. The high accuracy of the computations is confirmed by a comparison with the available most accurate data for the ground state 11A′; thus the present work is the first report of the accurate potential energy surfaces for the two excited states. Three low-lying transition states on the excited surfaces, two (TS2 and TS4) on 11A′′ and one (TS3) on 21A′, are found. Since TS2 and TS3 are as low as 0.07 eV and 0.28 eV, respectively, and correlate to the OH (2Π) + Cl (2P) product, these excited surfaces are expected to play quite important roles in the reaction dynamics. Possible effects of nonadiabatic couplings among the three PESs are also briefy discussed, although the nonadiabatic couplings have not yet been estimated. The quantum reaction dynamics on these three PESs are discussed in the second accompanying paper, Paper II.

CHEMICAL REACTIONS IN THE O(1D) + HCl SYSTEM II

Using the accurate global potential energy surfaces for the 11A′, 11A′′, and 21A′ states reported in the previous sister Paper I, detailed quantum dynamics calculations are performed for these three adiabatic surfaces separately for J = 0 (J: total angular momentum quantum number). Overall reaction probabilities for O + HCl → OH + Cl and H + ClO, the branching ratio between the two reactions, effects of the initial rovibrational excitation, and product rovibrational distributions are evaluated in the total energy region E tot ≤ 0.9 eV. Significant contributions to the overall reaction dynamics are found from the two excited 11A′′ and 21A′ potential energy surfaces, clearly indicating the insufficiency of the dynamics only on the ground 11A′ surface. The detailed dynamics on the excited surfaces are reported in the third paper of this series.

INITIAL ROTATIONAL QUANTUM STATE EXCITATION AND ISOTOPIC EFFECTS FOR THE O(1D)+HCl → OH+Cl (OCl+H) REACTION

We present reaction probabilities, branching ratios and vibrational product quantum state distributions for the reaction O (1D)+ HCl → OH+Cl (OCl+H) , Boltzmann averaged over initial rotational quantum states at a temperature of 300 K and also for the deuterium isotopic variant. The quantum scattering dynamics are performed using the potential energy surfaces for all three contributing electronic states. Comparisons are presented with results computed using only the ground electronic state potential energy surface, with results computed using only the j = 0 initial rotational state and also with results obtained using an equal weighting for the lowest 10 rotational states. Inclusion of the higher initial rotational states significantly changes the form of the reaction probability as a function of collision energy, reducing the threshold for reaction on the 1A" and 2A' excited electronic states. We found that the combined inclusion of higher initial rotational states and all three contributing electronic states is crucial for obtaining a branching ratio that is within the range and trend given by experiment from our J = 0 calculations. Isotopic effects range from tunnelling effects for the hydrogen variant and enhancement of reactivity for the production of OD on the excited electronic states.

EFFECTS OF ROTATIONAL AND VIBRATIONAL EXCITATION ON THE STEREODYNAMICS OF THE O (D-1) + HCl → OH + Cl REACTION

The stereodynamics of the title reaction on the ground 1 1A′ potential energy surface (PES) has been studied using quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) method. Collision energy of 6.4 kcal/mol is considered, and vector properties including angular momentum alignment distributions and polarization-dependent differential cross-sections (PDDCS) of the product OH are presented. Furthermore, the influence of reagent rotational excitation and vibrational excitation on the product vector properties has also been studied in the present work. The results indicate that the distribution of the P(θr) and P(ϕr) are sensitively affected by the rotational and vibrational excitation. The rotational excitation decreases the degree of alignment and orientation, while vibrational excitation increases the degree of alignment and orientation. The PDDCS (2π/σ)(dσ20/dωt) and (2π/σ)(dσ22+/dωt) are sensitively influenced by rotational and vibrational excitations, while the PDDCS ((2π/σ)(dσ00/dωt)) and (2π/σ)(dσ21-/dωt) are not. The preference of forward scattering has been found from the results of PDDCS ((2π/σ)(dσ00/dωt)), which is in good agreement with the experimental results.

ACCURATE AND HIGHLY EFFICIENT CALCULATION OF THE O(1D)HCl VIBRATIONAL BOUND STATES, USING A COMBINATION OF METHODS

Hypochlorous acid, HOCl, is an important intermediate in the O (1D) HCl reactive system. Due in part to a large number of vibrational bound states (over 800), extremely large direct product basis sets (around 300,000) are required to compute the energy levels just below the dissociation threshold. This situation, combined with a very high density of states, results in difficult convergence for iterative methods — e.g. Lanczos requires 50,000 iterations, and filter diagonalization uses 60,000 iterations. In contrast, using new methodologies, we are able to compute the highest-lying bound states with only 271 iterations, although the CPU cost per iteration is substantially greater. Lower lying states are also computed, for a fraction of the CPU cost of the highest energy calculation.

The dynamics of the O(1D) + HCl --> OH + Cl reaction at a 0.26 eV collision energy: a comparison between theory and experiment

The dynamics of the O((1)D) + HCl(v = 0, j = 0) --> Cl + OH reaction at a 0.26 eV collision energy has been investigated by means of a quasiclassical trajectory (QCT) and statistical quantum and quasiclassical methods. State-resolved cross sections and Cl atom velocity distributions have been calculated on two different potential energy surfaces (PESs): the H2 surface (Martinez et al. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2000, 2, 589) and the latest surface by Peterson, Bowman, and co-workers (PSB2) (J. Chem. Phys. 2000, 113, 6186). The comparison with recent experimental results reveals that the PSB2 PES manages to describe correctly differential cross sections and the velocity distributions of the departing Cl atom. The calculations on the H2 PES seem to overestimate the OH scattering in the forward direction and the fraction of Cl at high recoil velocities. Although the comparison of the corresponding angular distributions is not bad, significant deviations with a statistical description are found, thus ruling out a complex-forming mechanism as the dominant reaction pathway. However, for the ClO + H product channel, the QCT and statistical predictions are found to be in good agreement.

A theoretical study of the mechanism and kinetics of F+N3 reactions

Both the singlet(1A') and triplet(3A'') potential energy surfaces (PESs) of F+N(3) reactions are investigated using the complete-active-space self-consistent field (CASSCF) and the multireference configuration interaction (MRCI) methods with a proper active space. The minimum energy crossing point (MECP) at the intersection seam between the 1A' and 3A'' PESs is located and used to clarify the reaction mechanisms. Two triplet transition states are found, with one in the cis form and the other one in the trans form. Further kinetic calculations are performed with the canonical unified statistical (CUS) theory on the singlet PES and the improved canonical variational transition-state (ICVT) method on the triplet PES. The rate constants are also reported. At 298 K, the calculated rate constant is in reasonably good agreement with experimental values, and spin-orbit coupling effects lower it by 28 %. The spectroscopic constants derived from the fitted potential-energy curves for the singlet and triplet states of NF are in very good agreement with experimental values. Our calculations indicate that the adiabatic reaction on the singlet PES leading to NF(a(1)Delta)+N(2) is the major channel, whereas the nonadiabatic reaction through the MECP, which leads to NF(X(3)Sigma(-))+N(2), is a minor channel.

HOCl Ro-Vibrational Bound-State Calculations for Nonzero Total Angular Momentum

The Lanczos homogeneous filter diagonalization method has been employed to compute the HOCl ro-vibrational states for a range of total angular momenta (J = 0, 1, 5, 10, 11, 20, 30) on a newly developed ab initio potential energy surface by Nanbu et al. (J. Theor. Comput. Chem. 2002, 1, 263). For such computationally challenging calculations, a parallel computing strategy has been incorporated into our method to perform the matrix-vector multiplications. For the computed low bound states, a spectroscopic assignment has been made and the widely used approximate adiabatic rotation method has been tested for the broad range of total angular momenta for this deep-well system. Comparison of experimental results with exact quantum mechanical calculations for the selected far-infrared transitions involving the range of total angular momenta has been made possible for the first time.

Accurate and highly efficient calculation of the highly excited pure OH stretching resonances of O(1D)HCl, using a combination of methods

Accurate calculation of the energies and widths of the resonances of HOCl--an important intermediate in the O(1D)HCl reactive system--poses a challenging benchmark for computational methods. The need for very large direct product basis sets, combined with an extremely high density of states, results in difficult convergence for iterative methods. A recent calculation of the highly excited OH stretch mode resonances using the filter diagonalization method, for example, required 462,000 basis functions, and 180,000 iterations. In contrast, using a combination of new methods, we are able to compute the same resonance states to higher accuracy with a basis less than half the size, using only a few hundred iterations-although the CPU cost per iteration is substantially greater. Similar performance enhancements are observed for calculations of the high-lying bound states, as reported in a previous paper [J. Theo. Comput. Chem. 2, 583 (2003)].

Quantum scattering calculation of the O(1D)+HBr reaction

Three-dimensional time-dependent quantum wave packet calculation for the O((1)D)+HBr reaction has been carried out using an accurate ab initio global potential energy surface [K. A. Peterson, J. Chem. Phys. 113, 4598 (2000)]. The calculations show that the initial state-selected reaction probabilities are dominated by resonance structures, and the lifetime of the resonance is generally in the subpicosecond time scale. The energy dependence of the reaction cross section is computed, which manifests still resonance structures, and is a decreasing function of the translational energy. The thermal rate constants are also computed, which are nearly independent on the temperature. The calculation results are discussed and compared to similar reaction with deep well.

Vibrational zero-point energies and thermodynamic functions beyond the harmonic approximation

This paper compares harmonic and anharmonic zero-point energies and thermodynamic functions for a number of molecules of small and medium size. Anharmonic corrections cannot be neglected for quantitative studies, but can be obtained quite effectively by a perturbative treatment including cubic force constants to the second order and semidiagonal quartic constants to the first order. Simple finite difference equations provide all the necessary terms by at most 6N-11 Hessian evaluations, where N is the number of atoms in the system. Accurate values are obtained by this method using the Becke three parameter Lee-Yang-Parr functional, medium size basis sets, and, when needed, proper treatment of internal rotations. The whole model has been completely automated in the Gaussian package.

Quantum scattering calculations on chemical reactions

This review discusses recent quantum scattering calculations on bimolecular chemical reactions in the gas phase. This theory provides detailed and accurate predictions on the dynamics and kinetics of reactions containing three atoms. In addition, the method can now be applied to reactions involving polyatomic molecules. Results obtained with both time-independent and time-dependent quantum dynamical methods are described. The review emphasises the recent development in time-dependent wave packet theories and the applications of reduced dimensionality approaches for treating polyatomic reactions. Calculations on over 40 different reactions are described.