Precise Measurement of the Pure Rotational Submillimeter-Wave Spectrum of HCl and DCl in Their v = 0, 1 States

Weak hydrogen bonding to halogens and chirality communication in propanols: Raman and microwave spectroscopy benchmark theory

Constitutional and conformational isomers of bromopropanol are vibrationally and rotationally characterised with parallels drawn to the structural chlorine analogues. A previous microwave spectroscopic study of the chloropropanols is re-examined and all systems are explored by Raman jet spectroscopy. For bromine, the entire nuclear quadrupole coupling tensors are accurately determined and compared to their chlorine counterparts. Tensor asymmetry parameters are determined and linked with the hydrogen bond strength as indicated by the downshift of the OH-stretching frequency. The spectroscopic constants derived from the observed transitions are used as benchmarks for a large variety of electronic structure methods followed by harmonic and anharmonic rovibrational treatments. The CCSD(T) electronic structure calculations provide the best performance, in particular once anharmonic and relativistic corrections are applied or implied. Standard DFT approaches vary substantially with respect to their systematic error cancellation across the investigated species, and cost-effective compromises for the different observables are proposed.

Ab initio quantum scattering calculations and a new potential energy surface for the HCl(X1Σ+)-O2(X3Σg-) system: Collision-induced line shape parameters for O2-perturbed R(0) 0-0 line in H35Cl

The remote sensing of abundance and properties of HCl-the main atmospheric reservoir of Cl atoms that directly participate in ozone depletion-is important for monitoring the partitioning of chlorine between "ozone-depleting" and "reservoir" species. Such remote studies require knowledge of the shapes of molecular resonances of HCl, which are perturbed by collisions with the molecules of the surrounding air. In this work, we report the first fully quantum calculations of collisional perturbations of the shape of a pure rotational line in H35Cl perturbed by an air-relevant molecule [as the first model system we choose the R(0) line in HCl perturbed by O2]. The calculations are performed on our new highly accurate HCl(X1Σ+)-O2(X3Σg-) potential energy surface. In addition to pressure broadening and shift, we also determine their speed dependencies and the complex Dicke parameter. This gives important input to the community discussion on the physical meaning of the complex Dicke parameter and its relevance for atmospheric spectra (previously, the complex Dicke parameter for such systems was mainly determined from phenomenological fits to experimental spectra and the physical meaning of its value in that context is questionable). We also calculate the temperature dependence of the line shape parameters and obtain agreement with the available experimental data. We estimate the total combined uncertainties of our calculations at 2% relative root-mean-square error in the simulated line shape at 296 K. This result constitutes an important step toward computational population of spectroscopic databases with accurate ab initio line shape parameters for molecular systems of terrestrial atmospheric importance.

State-of-the-Art Quantum Chemistry Meets Variable Reaction Coordinate Transition State Theory to Solve the Puzzling Case of the H2S + Cl System

The atmospheric reaction of H₂S with Cl has been reinvestigated to check if, as previously suggested, only explicit dynamical computations can lead to an accurate evaluation of the reaction rate because of strong recrossing effects and the breakdown of the variational extension of transition state theory. For this reason, the corresponding potential energy surface has been thoroughly investigated, thus leading to an accurate characterization of all stationary points, whose energetics has been computed at the state of the art. To this end, coupled-cluster theory including up to quadruple excitations has been employed, together with the extrapolation to the complete basis set limit and also incorporating core-valence correlation, spin-orbit, and scalar relativistic effects as well as diagonal Born-Oppenheimer corrections. This highly accurate composite scheme has also been paralleled by less expensive yet promising computational approaches. Moving to kinetics, variational transition state theory and its variable reaction coordinate extension for barrierless steps have been exploited, thus obtaining a reaction rate constant (8.16 × 10^-11 cm³ molecule^-1 s^-1 at 300 K and 1 atm) in remarkable agreement with the experimental counterpart. Therefore, contrary to previous claims, there is no need to invoke any failure of the transition state theory, provided that sufficiently accurate quantum-chemical computations are performed. The investigation of the puzzling case of the H₂S + Cl system allowed us to present a robust approach for disclosing the thermochemistry and kinetics of reactions of atmospheric and astrophysical interest.

Finding the Better Fit: The Microwave Spectrum and Sterically Preferred Structure of trans-1,2-Difluoroethylene-Hydrogen Chloride

The rotational spectrum of the gas-phase bimolecular heterodimer formed between trans-1,2-difluoroethylene and hydrogen chloride is obtained using Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy from 5.6 to 20.6 GHz. Analysis of the spectrum provides rotational constants and nuclear quadrupole coupling constants that are used to determine the structure of the complex. The HCl molecule forms a hydrogen bond with one of the two electrostatically equivalent fluorine atoms of the difluoroethylene, and this hydrogen bond bends from linearity to allow a secondary interaction between the chlorine atom and the hydrogen atom located cis to the fluorine atom in the hydrogen bond. Because the two hydrogen atoms are likewise electrostatically equivalent, the structure indicates that this is the sterically preferred arrangement in HCl binding to a fluoroethylene rather than the one with the secondary interaction to the geminal hydrogen atom. Detailed comparisons among the geometries of the complexes formed between HCl and HF, on the one hand, and vinyl fluoride, 1,1-difluoroethylene, trans-1,2-difluoroethylene, 1,1,2-trifluoroethylene, and ( E)-1-chloro-2-fluoroethylene, on the other, reveal structural trends accompanying increasing fluorination and substitution of chlorine for fluorine.

Toward an absolute NMR shielding scale using the spin-rotation tensor within a relativistic framework

How can one extend Flygare's rule to the relativistic framework? Three models are proposed here. The best of them shows that σ is related with the spin-rotation tensor, the atomic shielding and a new term coined as σ^SO-S.

New Experimental NMR Shielding Scales Mapped Relativistically from NSR: Theory and Application

The recently proposed relativistic mapping between nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) shielding and nuclear spin-rotation (NSR) coupling tensors [J. Chem. Phys. 2013, 138, 134104] is employed to establish new experimental (more precisely, experimentally derived) absolute shielding constants for H and X in HX (X = F, Cl, Br, and I). The results are much more accurate than the old "experimental" values that were based on the well-known nonrelativistic mapping. The relativistic mapping is very robust in the sense that it is rather insensitive to the quality of one-particle basis sets and the treatment of electron correlation. Relativistic effects in the NSR coupling constants are also elucidated in depth.

High-order electron-correlation methods with scalar relativistic and spin-orbit corrections

An assortment of computer-generated, parallel-executable programs of ab initio electron-correlation methods has been fitted with the ability to use relativistic reference wave functions. This has been done on the basis of scalar relativistic and spin-orbit effective potentials and by allowing the computer-generated programs to handle complex-valued, spinless orbitals determined by these potentials. The electron-correlation methods that benefit from this extension are high-order coupled-cluster methods (up to quadruple excitation operators) for closed- and open-shell species, coupled-cluster methods for excited and ionized states (up to quadruples), second-order perturbation corrections to coupled-cluster methods (up to triples), high-order perturbation corrections to configuration-interaction singles, and active-space (multireference) coupled-cluster methods for the ground, excited, and ionized states (up to active-space quadruples). A subset of these methods is used jointly such that the dynamical correlation energies and scalar relativistic effects are computed by a lower-order electron-correlation method with more extensive basis sets and all-electron relativistic treatment, whereas the nondynamical correlation energies and spin-orbit effects are treated by a higher-order electron-correlation method with smaller basis sets and relativistic effective potentials. The authors demonstrate the utility and efficiency of this composite scheme in chemical simulation wherein the consideration of spin-orbit effects is essential: ionization energies of rare gases, spectroscopic constants of protonated rare gases, and photoelectron spectra of hydrogen halides.

Third-order Douglas–Kroll relativistic coupled-cluster theory through connected single, double, triple, and quadruple substitutions: Applications to diatomic and triatomic hydrides

Coupled-cluster methods including through and up to the connected single, double, triple, and quadruple substitutions have been derived and implemented automatically for sequential and parallel executions by an algebraic and symbolic manipulation program TCE (TENSOR CONTRACTION ENGINE) for use in conjunction with a one-component third-order Douglas-Kroll approximation for relativistic corrections. A combination of the converging electron-correlation methods, the accurate relativistic reference wave functions, and the use of systematic basis sets tailored to the relativistic approximation has been shown to predict the experimental singlet-triplet separations within 0.02 eV (0.5 kcal/mol) for five triatomic hydrides (CH2, NH2+, SiH2, PH2+, and AsH2+), the experimental bond lengths (re or r0) within 0.002 angstroms, rotational constants (Be or B0) within 0.02 cm(-1), vibration-rotation constants (alphae) within 0.01 cm(-1), centrifugal distortion constants (De) within 2%, harmonic vibration frequencies (omegae) within 8 cm(-1) (0.4%), anharmonic vibrational constants (xomegae) within 2 cm(-1), and dissociation energies (D0(0)) within 0.02 eV (0.4 kcal/mol) for twenty diatomic hydrides (BH, CH, NH, OH, FH, AlH, SiH, PH, SH, ClH, GaH, GeH, AsH, SeH, BrH, InH, SnH, SbH, TeH, and IH) containing main-group elements across the second through fifth rows of the periodic table. In these calculations, spin-orbit effects on dissociation energies, which were assumed to be additive, were estimated from the measured spin-orbit coupling constants of atoms and diatomic molecules, and an electronic energy in the complete-basis-set, complete-electron-correlation limit has been extrapolated in two ways to verify the robustness of the results: One assuming Gaussian-exponential dependence of total energies on double through quadruple zeta basis sets and the other assuming n(-3) dependence of correlation energies on double through quintuple zeta basis sets.

Nuclear quadrupole hyperfine structure in the microwave spectrum of HCl–N[sub 2]O: Electric field gradient perturbation of N[sub 2]O by HCl

The microwave spectra of six isotopomers of HCl-N(2)O have been obtained in the 7-19 GHz region with a pulsed molecular beam, Fourier transform microwave spectrometer. The nuclear quadrupole hyperfine structure due to all quadrupolar nuclei is resolved and the spectra are analyzed using the Watson S-reduced Hamiltonian with the inclusion of nuclear quadrupole coupling interactions. The spectroscopic constants determined include rotational constants, quartic and sextic centrifugal distortion constants, and nuclear quadrupole coupling constants for each quadrupolar nucleus. Due to correlations of the structural parameters, the effective structure of the complex cannot be obtained by fitting to the spectroscopic constants of the six isotopomers. Instead, the parameters for each isotopomer are calculated from the A and C rotational constants and the chlorine nuclear quadrupole coupling constant along the a-axis, chi(aa). There are two possible structures; the one in which hydrogen of HCl interacts with the more electronegative oxygen of N(2)O is taken to represent the complex. The two subunits are approximately slipped parallel. For H (35)Cl-(14)N(2)O, the distance between the central nitrogen and chlorine is 3.5153 A and the N(2)O and HCl subunits form angles of 72.30 degrees and 119.44 degrees with this N-Cl axis, respectively. The chlorine and oxygen atoms occupy the opposite, obtuse vertices of the quadrilateral formed by O, central N, Cl, and H. Nuclear quadrupole coupling constants show that while the electric field gradient of the HCl subunit remains essentially unchanged upon complexation, there is electronic rearrangement about the two nitrogen nuclei in N(2)O.

The Radial Hamiltonians for the X(1)Sigma(+) and B(1)Sigma(+) States of HCl

All literature vibration-rotational and pure rotational transition energies for the ground X(1)Sigma(+) electronic state of H(35)Cl, H(37)Cl, D(35)Cl, and D(37)Cl, along with the entire collection of electronic B(1)Sigma(+) --> X(1)Sigma(+) emission data for the four isotopomers, have been used in a least-squares fit of compact analytic Born-Oppenheimer potential functions for the B(1)Sigma(+) and X(1)Sigma(+) electronic states. Additional functions related to the adiabatic and nonadiabatic corrections have also been determined. Separate least-squares fits were made according to the hamiltonian operators of J. K. G. Watson (J. Mol. Spectrosc. 80, 411 (1980)) and R. M. Herman and J. F. Ogilvie (Adv. Chem. Phys. 103, 187 (1998)). The results from the separate analyses demonstrate clearly that the two hamiltonian operators are essentially equivalent, both achieving equally satisfactory representations of the spectral data, and furnishing virtually identical Born-Oppenheimer potential functions. Fully quantum-mechanical vibrational eigenvalues and rotational perturbation series parameters B(v)-O(v) are presented for the lower levels of the X(1)Sigma(+) ground state for which infrared and/or microwave data are available (v" </= 7 for H(35)Cl and H(37)Cl, v" </= 10 for D(35)Cl and D(37)Cl). These parameters collectively reproduce the corresponding spectroscopic line positions included in our fit to within the uncertainties of the measurements. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

Improved Parameterization for Combined Isotopomer Analysis of Diatomic Spectra and Its Application to HF and DF

A new way of representing vibration-rotation term values for multiple isotopomers of a given electronic state of a diatomic molecule is presented which resolves problems associated with the way the conventional combined isotopomer expansion represents the atomic mass-dependent JWKB and Born-Oppenheimer breakdown correction terms. Its application to infrared and microwave data for HF and DF yields new Dunham expansion coefficients and Born-Oppenheimer breakdown correction terms for this species. This procedure is implemented in a generally available computer program for fitting to various types of data involving one or several electronic states of multiple isotopomers of a diatomic molecule. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.