Potential energy surfaces complexes

Jeziorski B, Moszynski R and Szalewicz K 1994 Perturbation theory approach to intermolecular potential energy surfaces of van der Waals complexes Chem. Rev. 94 1887... 

The use of isotopic substitution to detennine stmctures relies on the assumption that different isotopomers have the same stmcture. This is not nearly as reliable for Van der Waals complexes as for chemically bound molecules. In particular, substituting D for H in a hydride complex can often change the amplitudes of bending vibrations substantially under such circumstances, the idea that the complex has a single stmcture is no longer appropriate and it is necessary to think instead of motion on the complete potential energy surface a well defined equilibrium stmcture may still exist, but knowledge of it does not constitute an adequate description of the complex. 

There are other important properties tliat can be measured from microwave and radiofrequency spectra of complexes. In particular, tire dipole moments and nuclear quadmpole coupling constants of complexes may contain useful infonnation on tire stmcture or potential energy surface. This is most easily seen in tire case of tire dipole moment. The dipole moment of tire complex is a vector, which may have components along all tire principal inertial axes. 

Tunable visible and ultraviolet lasers were available well before tunable infrared and far-infrared lasers. There are many complexes that contain monomers with visible and near-UV spectra. The earliest experiments to give detailed dynamical infonnation on complexes were in fact those of Smalley et al [22], who observed laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectra of He-l2 complexes. They excited the complex in the I2 B <—A band, and were able to produce excited-state complexes containing 5-state I2 in a wide range of vibrational states. From line w idths and dispersed fluorescence spectra, they were able to study the rates and pathways of dissociation. Such work was subsequently extended to many other systems, including the rare gas-Cl2 systems, and has given quite detailed infonnation on potential energy surfaces [231. 

The Ar-HCl and Ar-HF complexes became prototypes for the study of intennolecular forces. Holmgren et al [30] produced an empirical potential energy surface for Ar-HCl fitted to the microwave and radiofrequency spectra,... 

The vibrationally excited states of H2-OH have enough energy to decay either to H2 and OH or to cross the barrier to reaction. Time-dependent experiments have been carried out to monitor the non-reactive decay (to H2 + OH), which occurs on a timescale of microseconds for H2-OH but nanoseconds for D2-OH [52, 58]. Analogous experiments have also been carried out for complexes in which the H2 vibration is excited [59]. The reactive decay products have not yet been detected, but it is probably only a matter of time. Even if it proves impossible for H2-OH, there are plenty of other pre-reactive complexes that can be produced. There is little doubt that the spectroscopy of such species will be a rich source of infonnation on reactive potential energy surfaces in the fairly near future. 

In many instances tire adiabatic ET rate expression overestimates tire rate by a considerable amount. In some circumstances simply fonning tire tire activated state geometry in tire encounter complex does not lead to ET. This situation arises when tire donor and acceptor groups are very weakly coupled electronically, and tire reaction is said to be nonadiabatic. As tire geometry of tire system fluctuates, tire species do not move on tire lowest potential energy surface from reactants to products. That is, fluctuations into activated complex geometries can occur millions of times prior to a productive electron transfer event. 

The full quantum mechanical study of nuclear dynamics in molecules has received considerable attention in recent years. An important example of such developments is the work carried out on the prototypical systems H3 [1-5] and its isotopic variant HD2 [5-8], Li3 [9-12], Na3 [13,14], and HO2 [15-18], In particular, for the alkali metal trimers, the possibility of a conical intersection between the two lowest doublet potential energy surfaces introduces a complication that makes their theoretical study fairly challenging. Thus, alkali metal trimers have recently emerged as ideal systems to study molecular vibronic dynamics, especially the so-called geometric phase (GP) effect [13,19,20] (often referred to as the molecular Aharonov-Bohm effect [19] or Berry s phase effect [21]) for further discussion on this topic see [22-25], and references cited therein. The same features also turn out to be present in the case of HO2, and their exact treatment assumes even further complexity [18],... 

To carry out ageometry optimization (minimi/atioiT), IlyperCh em starts with a set of Cartesian coordinates for a molecule and tries to find anew set of coordinates with a minimum potential energy. Yon should appreciate that the potential energy surface is very complex, even for a molecule containing only a few dihedral an gles. 

Most potential energy surfaces are extremely complex. Fiber and Karplus analyzed a 300 psec molecular dynamics trajectory of the protein myoglobin. They estimate that 2000 thermally accessible minima exist near the native protein structure. The total number of conformations is even larger. Dill derived a formula to calculate the upper bound of thermally accessible conformations in a protein. Using this formula, a protein of 150 residues (the approx-... 

One of the most important questions for a conformational search strategy is, When have I found all of the energetically interesting con formers This is an area of active research and the ideal answer seems to be, When you find all of the local minima. However, this answer is not always reasonable, because medium to large molecules have a large number of minima (see Complexity of Potential Energy Surfaces on page 14). 

Y Levy, CM Becker. Effect of conformational constraints on the topography of complex potential energy surfaces. Phys Rev Lett 81 1126-1129, 1998. 

These statements refer to an elementary reaction, which from this point of view may be defined as a reaction possessing a single transition state. A complex reaction is then a set of elementary reactions, the potential energy surface of the whole being continuous. Thus, for two consecutive reactions the product of the first reaction is the reactant of the second. Each reaction has its own transition state. 

Exercise 8.7 will consider a much more complex potential energy surface. ... 

The above models consider only one spatial variable which is the bonding distance. It is clear that, for a molecule anything more complex than diatomic, many parameters are needed to define even approximately the potential energy surface. The enormous advances in computational chemistry during the last few years have allowed quantum mechanical calculations on fairly large size molecules. The first attempt to apply quantum mechanics on deformed polymer chains was made... 

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