Potential energy surfaces molecular spectroscopy

In summary, the existence of these three different structure types suggests a rather delicate balance between the different minima on this interesting potential energy surface. Molecular orbital calculations at the highest levels currently practical are certainly quite useful in elucidating the nature of these structures. This is also an area where one may safely predict continuing efforts and where we anticipate additional insights by both ESR and CIDNP spectroscopy. 

The importance of the topography of the potential-energy surface in spectroscopy and molecular dynamics is well established. For example, the... 

This section discusses how spectroscopy, molecular beam scattering, pressure virial coeflScients, measurements on transport phenomena and even condensed phase data can help detemiine a potential energy surface. 

In the Bom-Oppenheimer picture the nuclei move on a potential energy surface (PES) which is a solution to the electronic Schrodinger equation. The PES is independent of the nuclear masses (i.e. it is the same for isotopic molecules), this is not the case when working in the adiabatic approximation since the diagonal correction (and mass polarization) depends on the nuclear masses. Solution of (3.16) for the nuclear wave function leads to energy levels for molecular vibrations (Section 13.1) and rotations, which in turn are the fundamentals for many forms of spectroscopy, such as IR, Raman, microwave etc. 

There exist a series of beautiful spectroscopy experiments that have been carried out over a number of years in the Lineberger (1), Brauman (2), and Beauchamp (3) laboratories in which electronically stable negative molecular ions prepared in excited vibrational-rotational states are observed to eject their extra electron. For the anions considered in those experiments, it is unlikely that the anion and neutral-molecule potential energy surfaces undergo crossings at geometries accessed by their vibrational motions in these experiments, so it is believed that the mechanism of electron ejection must involve vibration-rotation... 

Fig. 5.1 Sample IJs) curves for various vibrational states of carbon monosulfide, C = S. These curves were calculated2 in accordance with Eq. (5.2), using i )y(r) functions obtained by solving Schrodinger s equation with an experimental potential energy surface derived from molecular spectroscopy.

This research is supported by the Italian National Research Council (CNR), by the Ministero deU Universita e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica (MURST), and by the European Union within the Training and Mobility of Researchers Network Potential Energy Surfaces for Molecular Spectroscopy and Dynamics [Contract no. FMRX-CT96-088],... 

S. P. A. Sauer and M. J. Packer, The Ab Initio Calculation of Molecular Properties other than the Potential Energy Surface, Computational Molecular Spectroscopy, P. R. Bunker and P. Jensen, eds., Wiley, London, 2000, Chapter 7, pp. 221. 

A review of the Journal of Physical Chemistry A, volume 110, issues 6 and 7, reveals that computational chemistry plays a major or supporting role in the majority of papers. Computational tools include use of large Gaussian basis sets and density functional theory, molecular mechanics, and molecular dynamics. There were quantum chemistry studies of complex reaction schemes to create detailed reaction potential energy surfaces/maps, molecular mechanics and molecular dynamics studies of larger chemical systems, and conformational analysis studies. Spectroscopic methods included photoelectron spectroscopy, microwave spectroscopy circular dichroism, IR, UV-vis, EPR, ENDOR, and ENDOR induced EPR. The kinetics papers focused on elucidation of complex mechanisms and potential energy reaction coordinate surfaces. 

The molecular potential energy surface is one of the most important concepts of physical chemistry. It is at the foundations of spectroscopy, of chemical kinetics and of the study of the bulk properties of matter. It is a concept on which both qualitative and quantitative interpretations of molecular properties can be based. So firmly is it placed in the theoretical interpretation of chemistry that there is a tendency to raise it above the level of a concept by ascribing it some physical reality. 

A valuable approach toward the determination of solution structures is to combine molecular mechanics calculations with solution experimental data that can be related to the output parameters of force field calculations 26. Examples of the combination of molecular mechanics calculations with spectroscopy will be discussed in Chapter 9. Here, we present two examples showing how experimentally determined isomer distributions may be used in combination with molecular mechanics calculations to determine structures of transition metal complexes in solution. The basis of this approach is that the quality of isomer ratios, computed as outlined above, is dependent on the force field and is thus linked to the quality of the computed structures. That is, it is assumed that both coordinates on a computed potential energy surface, the... 

Nonpolar and dipolar altitudinal rotors (compounds 2 and 3 in Fig. 17.3) have been synthesized. 19F NMR spectroscopy showed that the barrier to rotation in 3 was extremely low in solution. Both systems have then been immobilized on Au(l 11) surfaces and studied with a variety of techniques.57 The results obtained indicated that for a fraction of molecules the static electric field from the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) tip could induce an orientation change in the dipolar rotor but not in the nonpolar analog (for a recent example of an azimuthal molecular rotor controlled by the STM tip, see Reference 58). Compound 3 can exist as three pairs of helical enantiomers because of the propeller-like conformation of the tetra-arylcyclobutadienes. For at least one out of the three diastereomers, an asymmetric potential energy surface can be predicted by molecular dynamics simulations on application of an alternating electric field.55... 

The most basic information that is needed for constructing a global potential energy surface for gas phase MD simulations is the structures and vibrational frequencies. The earliest information about gas-phase RDX molecular structures was obtained from theoretical calculations [54-58]. In 1984 Karpowicz and Brill [59] reported Fourier transform infrared spectra for vapor-phase (and for the a - and p -phase) RDX in 1984, however, their data precluded a complete description of the molecular conformations and vibrational spectroscopy. More recently, Shishkov et al. [60] presented a more complete description based on electron-scattering data and molecular modeling. They concluded that the data were best reproduced by RDX in the chair conformation with all the nitro groups in axial positions. 

Recent developments in the field of infrared laser molecular beam spectroscopy have lead to a wealth of information on both the structure (Jucks et al. 1988 Klemperer 1978, 1987 Lovejoy and Nesbitt 1987) and potential energy surfaces (Cohen and Saykally 1991a,b, 1992 Hutson 1988, 1990) associated with these weakly bound molecular complexes in the ground electronic state (Fraser and Pine 1989b Gough et al. 1977 Jucks et al., 1988 Kleiner et al. 1991 Mcllroy et... 

The concept of potential-energy surface (or just potentials) is of major importance in spectroscopy and the theoretical study of molecular collisions. It is also essential for the understanding of the macroscopic properties of matter (e.g., thermophysical properties and kinetic rate constants) in terms of structural and dynamical parameters (e.g., molecular geometries and collision cross sections). Its role in the interpretation of recent work in plasmas, lasers, and air pollution, directly or otherwise related to the energy crisis, makes it of even greater value. 

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