ISSN:
0020-7608
Keywords:
Computational Chemistry and Molecular Modeling
;
Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Chemistry and Pharmacology
Notes:
Second-order density functional methods are used to introduce the electron correlation in Hartree-Fock (HF) ab initio electronic energy calculations of three-dimensional potential energy surfaces (PES). We analyze the behavior of these methods in PES calculations by applying them to the Li + FH reaction, which has been considered a prototype of the elementary atom-diatom reactions. This system has been studied also by the usual techniques, allowing a point-by-point (for a total of 317 grid points) comparison for the lowest 2A' adiabatic state. In particular, we compare the results obtained using the HF, Møller-Plesset (MP3 level), and configuration interaction (CISD and MRDCI levels) methods with the corresponding results obtained using the Colle-Salvetti (CS) and Moscardó-San Fabián (MSF) procedures using the HF results as the starting point. We found that the CS and MSF procedures support the prediction of a shallow well in the entrance channel that deepens slightly away from collinearity and disappears for a bond angle Θ 〈 74°. We also found that the constrained saddle-point positions remain essentially constant from Θ = 180°-90° and are clearly in the exit channel as for the MRDCI approach (corresponding to the best results). In conclusion, there is a good overall agreement, but there is a question in which this agreement is less pronounced: the heights of the saddle points including the transition state. In particular, the transition-state height is about 3 kcal/mol higher than the more accurate value obtained with the MRDCI approach. However, the second-order density functional methods have been capable of reducing the HF barrier from 18 to 9 kcal/mol (all of these values obtained by spline interpolation), the latter value being very similar to the CISD result. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Additional Material:
3 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/qua.560520419
