Potential energy surfaces point geometry

Figure 15. Calculated potential energy surface and geometries of intermediates of the V" + CO2 reaction. The energy of the lowest energy state for the quintet (solid hnes) and triplet (dotted lines) stationary points are shown. Energies are calculated at the CCSD(T)/6-311+G(3df) level, at the B3LYP/6-311+G(d) geometry and include zero-point energy at the B3LYP/6-311+G(d) level.

The origin of a torsional barrier can be studied best in simple cases like ethane. Here, rotation about the central carbon-carbon bond results in three staggered and three eclipsed stationary points on the potential energy surface, at least when symmetry considerations are not taken into account. Quantum mechanically, the barrier of rotation is explained by anti-bonding interactions between the hydrogens attached to different carbon atoms. These interactions are small when the conformation of ethane is staggered, and reach a maximum value when the molecule approaches an eclipsed geometry. 

To calculate the properties of a molecule, you need to generate a well-defined structure. A calculation often requires a structure that represents a minimum on a potential energy surface. HyperChem contains several geometry optimizers to do this. You can then calculate single point properties of a molecule or use the optimized structure as a starting point for subsequent calculations, such as molecular dynamics simulations. 

HyperChem provides three types of potential energy surface sampling algorithms. These are found in the HyperChem Compute menu Single Point, Geometry Optimization, and Molecular Dynamics. 

The optimization facility can be used to locate transition structures as well as ground states structures since both correspond to stationary points on the potential energy-surface. However, finding a desired transition structure directly by specifying u reasonable guess for its geometry can be chaUenging in many cases. 

Because of the nature of the computations involved, firequency calculations are valid only at stationary points on the potential energy surface. Thus, frequency calculations must be performed on optimized structures. For this reason, it is necessary to run a geometry optimization prior to doing a frequency calculation. The most convenient way of ensuring this is to include both Opt and Freq in the route section of the job, which requests a geometry optimization followed immediately by a firequency calculation. Alternatively, you can give an optimized geometry as the molecule specification section for a stand-alone frequency job. 

Another use of frequency calculations is to determine the nature of a stationary point found by a geometry optimization. As we ve noted, geometry optimizations converge to a structure on the potential energy surface where the forces on the system are essentially zero. The final structure may correspond to a minimum on the potential energy surface, or it may represent a saddle point, which is a minimum with respect to some directions on the surface and a maximum in one or more others. First order saddle points—which are a maximum in exactly one direction and a minimum in all other orthogonal directions—correspond to transition state structures linking two minima. 

An IRC calculation examines the reaction path leading down from a transition structure on a potential energy surface. Such a calculation starts at the saddle point and follows the path in both directions from the transition state, optimizing the geometry of the molecular system at each point along the path. In this way, an IRC calculation definitively connects two minima on the potential energy surface by a path which passes through the transition state between them. 

Chapter 3, Geometry Optimizations, describes how to locate equilibrium structures of molecules, or, more technically, stationary points on the potential energy surface. It includes an overview of the various commonly used optimization techniques and a consideration of optimizing transition strucmres as well as minimizations. 

Transition State Geometry. The geometry corresponding to a Stationary Point on the Potential Energy Surface which is an energy minimum in all directions except one (the Reaction Coordinate), for which it is an energy maximum. 

Secondly, it is usual to calculate only a few points which are assumed to be characteristic with full optimization of geometry instead of the complete potential energy surface 48). For a pure thermodynamical view it is enough to know the minima of the educts and products, but kinetic assertions require the knowledge of the educts and the activated complex as a saddle point at the potential energy surface (see also part 3.1). 

Fig. 13. Geometries (bond length in pm) and atomic charges (a.u.) at the stationary points (I)-(V) of the C2Hs+ /C2H4 potential energy surface (see Fig. 4)...

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