1
|
Derbali E, Ajili Y, Mehnen B, Żuchowski PS, Kędziera D, Al-Mogren MM, Jaidane NE, Hochlaf M. Towards the generation of potential energy surfaces of weakly bound medium-sized molecular systems: the case of benzonitrile-He complex. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2023; 25:30198-30210. [PMID: 37807943 DOI: 10.1039/d3cp02720a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/10/2023]
Abstract
Currently, the explicitly correlated coupled cluster method is used routinely to generate the multi-dimensional potential energy surfaces (mD-PESs) of van der Waals complexes of small molecular systems relevant for atmospheric, astrophysical and industrial applications. Although very accurate, this method is computationally prohibitive for medium and large molecules containing clusters. For instance, the recent detections of complex organic molecules (COMs) in the interstellar medium, such as benzonitrile, revealed the need to establish an accurate enough electronic structure approach to map the mD-PESs of these species interacting with the surrounding gases. As a benchmark, we have treated the case of the polar molecule benzonitrile interacting with helium, where we use post-Hartree-Fock and symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) techniques. Accordingly, we show that MP2 and distinguishable-cluster approximation (DCSD) cannot be used for this purpose, whereas accurate enough PESs may be obtained using the corresponding explicitly correlated versions (MP2-F12 or DCSD-F12) with a reduction in computational costs. Alternatively, computations revealed that SAPT(DFT) is as performant as CCSD(T)-F12/aug-cc-pVTZ, making it the method of choice for mapping the mD-PESs of COMs containing clusters. Therefore, we have used this approach to generate the 3D-PES of the benzonitrile-He complex along the intermonomer Jacobi coordinates. As an application, we have incorporated the analytic form of this PES into quantum dynamical computations to determine the cross sections of the rotational (de-)excitation of benzonitrile colliding with helium at a collision energy of 10 cm-1.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Eya Derbali
- Laboratoire de Spectroscopie Atomique, Moléculaire et Applications LSAMA, Université de Tunis Al Manar, Tunis, Tunisia.
| | - Yosra Ajili
- Laboratoire de Spectroscopie Atomique, Moléculaire et Applications LSAMA, Université de Tunis Al Manar, Tunis, Tunisia.
| | - Bilel Mehnen
- Institute of Physics, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Informatics, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Grudziadz Street 5, 87-100 Toruń, Poland
| | - Piotr S Żuchowski
- Institute of Physics, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Informatics, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Grudziadz Street 5, 87-100 Toruń, Poland
| | - Dariusz Kędziera
- Faculty of Chemistry, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, ul. Gagarina 7, PL 87-100 Toruń, Poland.
| | - Muneerah Mogren Al-Mogren
- Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, King Saud University, PO Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
| | - Nejm-Edine Jaidane
- Laboratoire de Spectroscopie Atomique, Moléculaire et Applications LSAMA, Université de Tunis Al Manar, Tunis, Tunisia.
| | - Majdi Hochlaf
- Université Gustave Eiffel, COSYS/IMSE, 5 Bd Descartes 77454, Champs sur Marne, France.
| |
Collapse
|