A Spin-Free Approach for Valence Bond Theory and its

A spin-free approach for valence bond theory and its applications 

Department of Chemistry, The State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, and Institute of Physical Chemistry, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361005, China 

A spin-free approach for valence bond (VB) theory, based on symmetric group techniques, is introduced in this chapter. Bonded tableaux (BT) are adopted to represent VB structures, and a paired-permanent-determinant algorithm is developed to solve the so-called IV problem in the nonorthogonal VB method, followed by the introduction of our ab initio VB program, Xiamen-99. Furthermore, applications of ab initio VB method to the resonance effect, chemical reactions, and excited states are carried out by the Xiamen package. 

In the MO theory, the most reliable approach for the study of reaction pathways perhaps is CASSCF [12, 13], but multi-VBSCF is essentially at the same level with CASSCF [14]. Since a VB wave function can be expanded into the combination of numerous Slater determinants that are used to define configurations in the MO theory, the VB theory provides a very compact, accurate description for chemical reactions. While both MO and VB theories have their own advantages as well as disadvantages, in our opinions, there are some areas where the VB theory is particularly superior to the MO theory 1) the refinement of molecular mechanics force field 2) the development of empirical or semi-empirical VB approaches 3) the impact of intermolecular charge transfer or intramolecular electron delocalization on the structure and properties 4) the validation of classical chemical theories and concepts at the quantitative level 5) the elucidation of chemical reactions and excited states intuitively. 

Closely related to the above merit of VB methods, the unique definition of diabatic states also allows us to derive the energy profiles for diabatic states. Since for many reactions the whole process can be described with very few resonance structures, the comparison between the diabatic and adiabatic state energy profiles can yield insight into the nature governing the reactions [22-24]. In fact, even for complicated enzymatic reactions, simple VB ideas have shown unparalleled value [25, 26]. However, the further utilization of the VB ideas at the empirical and semi-empirical levels should be carefully verified by benchmark ab initio VB 

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W. Hiberty, Y. Mo, Z. Cao, Q. Zhang, A Spin-Free Approach for Valence Bond Theory and its Applications. In Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, volume 10, p. 143, D. L. Cooper, ed., Elsevier, Amsterdam (2002)... 

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2002, pp. 143-186. A Spin Free Approach for Valence Bond Theory and Its Application. 

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