Multireference configuration interaction calculations of the first six ionization potentials of the uranium atom

Prediction of Redox Potentials for U, Np, Pu, and Am in Aqueous Solution

The redox properties of the actinides in aqueous solution are important for fuel production/reprocessing and understanding the environmental impact of nuclear waste. The redox potentials for U, Np, Pu, and Am in oxidation states from 0 up to VII (as appropriate) in aqueous solutions have been predicted at the density functional theory level with the B3LYP functional, Stuttgart small core pseudopotential basis sets for the actinides, and explicit (30H2O molecules)/implicit treatment of the aqueous solvent using the self-consistent reaction field COSMO and SMD approaches for the implicit solvation. The predictions of the structural parameters of clusters incorporating first and second solvation shells are consistent with the available experimental data. Our results are typically within 0.2 V of the available experimental data using two explicit solvation shells with an implicit solvent model. The use of the PW91 functional substantially improved the prediction of the Pu(VI/V) redox couple. The redox couples for An(VI/IV) and An(V/IV) which involve the addition of protons and removal of the actinyl oxygens led to slightly larger differences from an experiment. The An(IV/0) and An(III/0) couples were reliably predicted with our approach. Predictions of the unknown An(II/I) redox potentials were negative, consistent with expectations, and predictions for unknown An(VII/VI), An(III/II), and An(II/0) redox couples improve prior estimates.

Cholesky Decomposition-Based Implementation of Relativistic Two-Component Coupled-Cluster Methods for Medium-Sized Molecules

A Cholesky decomposition (CD)-based implementation of relativistic two-component coupled-cluster (CC) and equation-of-motion CC (EOM-CC) methods using an exact two-component Hamiltonian augmented with atomic-mean-field spin-orbit integrals (the X2CAMF scheme) is reported. The present CD-based implementation of X2CAMF-CC and EOM-CC methods employs atomic-orbital-based algorithms to avoid the construction of two-electron integrals and intermediates involving three and four virtual indices. Our CD-based implementation extends the applicability of X2CAMF-CC and EOM-CC methods to medium-sized molecules with the possibility to correlate around 1000 spinors. Benchmark calculations for uranium-containing small molecules were performed to assess the dependence of the CC results on the Cholesky threshold. A Cholesky threshold of 10-4 is shown to be sufficient to maintain chemical accuracy. Example calculations to illustrate the capability of the CD-based relativistic CC methods are reported for the bond-dissociation energy of the uranium hexafluoride molecule, UF6, with up to quadruple-ζ basis sets, and the lowest excitation energy in the solvated uranyl ion [UO22+(H2O)12].

Route to Chemical Accuracy for Computational Uranium Thermochemistry

Benchmark spinor-based relativistic coupled-cluster calculations for the ionization energies of the uranium atom, the uranium monoxide molecule (UO), and the uranium dioxide molecule (UO₂) and for the bond dissociation energies of UO and UO₂ are reported. The accuracy of these calculations in the treatments of relativistic, electron-correlation, and basis-set effects is analyzed. The intrinsic convergence of the computed results and the favorable comparison with the experimental values demonstrate the unique applicability of the spinor representation of quantum-chemical methods to open-shell uranium-containing atomic and molecular species with uranium oxidation states ranging from U(0) to U(V).

Ab Initio Composite Approaches for Heavy Element Energetics: Ionization Potentials for the Actinide Series of Elements

The first, second, and third gas-phase ionization potentials have been determined for the actinide series of elements using an ab initio composite scalar and fully relativistic approach, employing the coupled cluster with single, double, and perturbative triple excitations (CCSD(T)) and Dirac Hartree-Fock (DHF) methods, extrapolated to the complete basis set (CBS) limit. The impact of electron correlation and basis set choice within this framework are examined. Additionally, the first three ionization potentials were obtained using an ab initio heavy element correlation-consistent Composite Approach (here referred to as α-ccCA). This is the first utilization of a ccCA for actinide species.