Core electrons Critical point

The purpose of this chapter will be to review the fundamentals of ab initio MD. We will consider here Density Functional Theory based ab initio MD, in particular in its Car-Parrinello version. We will start by introducing the basics of Density Functional Theory and the Kohn-Sham method, as the method chosen to perform electronic structure calculation. This will be followed by a rapid discussion on plane wave basis sets to solve the Kohn-Sham equations, including pseudopotentials for the core electrons. Then we will discuss the critical point of ab initio MD, i.e. coupling the electronic structure calculation to the ionic dynamics, using either the Born-Oppenheimer or the Car-Parrinello schemes. Finally, we will extend this presentation to the calculation of some electronic properties, in particular polarization through the modern theory of polarization in periodic systems. 

The report of the first zinc compound with a Zn-Zn core elicited a number of critical comments on the structure and bonding of decamethyldizincocene, and the interpretation of the results.236,237 None of the authors of these commentaries questioned the data or their interpretation. Parkin, however, has pointed out that the formal oxidation state of +1 for zinc in this compound is merely due to the convention that metals are assigned an oxidation state of 0 when they form bonds with like atoms.237 If the conventional definition of valence, namely the capacity of atoms to form bonds to other atoms is used, then the zinc atoms in decamethyldizincocene are not monovalent, but divalent. The synthesis of a paramagnetic organozinc compound in which zinc uses only one of its two 4s electrons will remain an interesting challenge to many synthetic organometallic chemists. 

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