CH2Cl2 + OH- reaction in aqueous solution: a combined quantum mechanical and molecular mechanics study.

The CH2Cl2 + OH(-) reaction in aqueous solution was investigated using combined quantum mechanical and molecular mechanics approach. We present analysis of the reactant, transition, and product state structures and calculate the free energy reaction profile through the CCSD(T) level of the theory for the reactive region. Our results show that the aqueous environment has a significant impact on the reaction process, raising the reaction barrier by ∼ 17 kcal/mol and the reaction energy by ∼ 20 kcal/mol. While solvation effects play a predominant role, we also find sizable contributions from solvent-induced polarization effects.

Kinetics of the reaction of the heaviest hydrogen atom with H2, the 4Heµ + H2 → 4HeµH + H reaction: experiments, accurate quantal calculations, and variational transition state theory, including kinetic isotope effects for a factor of 36.1 in isotopic mass.

The neutral muonic helium atom (4)Heµ, in which one of the electrons of He is replaced by a negative muon, may be effectively regarded as the heaviest isotope of the hydrogen atom, with a mass of 4.115 amu. We report details of the first muon spin rotation (µSR) measurements of the chemical reaction rate constant of (4)Heµ with molecular hydrogen, (4)Heµ + H(2) → (4)HeµH + H, at temperatures of 295.5, 405, and 500 K, as well as a µSR measurement of the hyperfine coupling constant of muonic He at high pressures. The experimental rate constants, k(Heµ), are compared with the predictions of accurate quantum mechanical (QM) dynamics calculations carried out on a well converged Born-Huang (BH) potential energy surface, based on complete configuration interaction calculations and including a Born-Oppenheimer diagonal correction. At the two highest measured temperatures the agreement between the quantum theory and experiment is good to excellent, well within experimental uncertainties that include an estimate of possible systematic error, but at 295.5 K the quantum calculations for k(Heµ) are below the experimental value by 2.1 times the experimental uncertainty estimates. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed. Variational transition state theory calculations with multidimensional tunneling have also been carried out for k(Heµ) on the BH surface, and they agree with the accurate QM rate constants to within 30% over a wider temperature range of 200-1000 K. Comparisons between theory and experiment are also presented for the rate constants for both the D + H(2) and Mu + H(2) reactions in a novel study of kinetic isotope effects for the H + H(2) reactions over a factor of 36.1 in isotopic mass of the atomic reactant.

Interaction of ClO radical with liquid water.

In the present work, the interaction between ClO radical and liquid water is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. We perform simulations of collisions of a ClO radical with the surface of liquid water to understand the accommodation of ClO by liquid water. Simulation results show that the ClO radical has a higher propensity to be adsorbed on the air-water interface than to be dissolved in the bulk. The free energy profile is also calculated, and the solvation free energy and Henry's law constant are determined for ClO as DeltaG(s) of -2.9 kcal/mol and 5.5 M/atm, respectively. The mechanism of the ClO recombination reaction is also discussed, and the results are consistent with laboratory findings.

Interactions of Cl- and OH radical in aqueous solution.

There is a considerable controversy surrounding the nature of the Cl-/OH complex in aqueous solution, which appears as a byproduct of the irradiation of salt solutions in nuclear reactor operation, radioactive waste storage, medicine, and environmental problems. In this work, we report results of combined quantum mechanical molecular mechanics calculations of ground-state free-energy surfaces and absorption spectrum through the CCSDT level of theory that are consistent with the experimental data and suggest that hemibonded HOCl- species may indeed exist in bulk aqueous solution.

Functional representation for the born-oppenheimer diagonal correction and born-huang adiabatic potential energy surfaces for isotopomers of H3.

Multireference configuration interaction (MRCI) calculations of the Born-Oppenheimer diagonal correction (BODC) for H(3) were performed at 1397 symmetry-unique configurations using the Handy-Yamaguchi-Schaefer approach; isotopic substitution leads to 4041 symmetry-unique configurations for the DH(2) mass combination. These results were then fit to a functional form that permits calculation of the BODC for any combination of isotopes. Mean unsigned fitting errors on a test grid of configurations not included in the fitting process were 0.14, 0.12, and 0.65 cm(-1) for the H(3), DH(2), and MuH(2) isotopomers, respectively. This representation can be combined with any Born-Oppenheimer potential energy surface (PES) to yield Born-Huang (BH) PESs; herein, we choose the CCI potential energy surface, the uncertainties of which ( approximately 0.01 kcal/mol) are much smaller than the magnitude of the BODC. Fortran routines to evaluate these BH surfaces are provided. Variational transition state theory calculations are presented comparing thermal rate constants for reactions on the BO and BH surfaces to provide an initial estimate of the significance of the diagonal correction for the dynamics.

Molecular dynamics simulations of atmospheric oxidants at the air-water interface: solvation and accommodation of OH and O3.

A comparative study of OH, O3, and H2O equilibrium aqueous solvation and gas-phase accommodation on liquid water at 300 K is performed using a combination of ab initio calculations and molecular dynamics simulations. Polarizable force fields are developed for the interaction potential of OH and O3 with water. The free energy profiles for transfer of OH and O3 from the gas phase to the bulk liquid exhibit a pronounced minimum at the surface, but no barrier to solvation in the bulk liquid. The calculated surface excess of each oxidant is comparable to calculated and experimental values for short chain, aliphatic alcohols. Driving forces for the surface activity are discussed in terms of the radial distribution functions and dipole orientation distributions for each molecule in the bulk liquid and at the surface. Simulations of OH, O3, and H2O impinging on liquid water with a thermal impact velocity are used to calculate thermal accommodation (S) and mass accommodation (alpha) coefficients. The values of S for OH, O3, and H2O are 0.95, 0.90, and 0.99, respectively. The approaching molecules are accelerated toward the liquid surface when they are approximately 5 angstroms above it. The molecules that reach thermal equilibrium with the surface do so within 2 ps of striking the surface, while those that do not scatter into the gas phase with excess translational kinetic energy in the direction perpendicular to the surface. The time constants for absorption and desorption range from approximately 35 to 140 ps, and the values of alpha for OH, O3, and H2O are 0.83, 0.047, and 0.99, respectively. The results are consistent with previous formulations of gas-phase accommodation from simulations, in which the process occurs by rapid thermal and structural equilibration followed by diffusion on the free energy profile. The implications of these results with respect to atmospheric chemistry are discussed.

Kinetic isotope effects for the reactions of muonic helium and muonium with H2.

The neutral muonic helium atom may be regarded as the heaviest isotope of the hydrogen atom, with a mass of ~4.1 atomic mass units ((4.1)H), because the negative muon almost perfectly screens one proton charge. We report the reaction rate of (4.1)H with (1)H(2) to produce (4.1)H(1)H + (1)H at 295 to 500 kelvin. The experimental rate constants are compared with the predictions of accurate quantum-mechanical dynamics calculations carried out on an accurate Born-Huang potential energy surface and with previously measured rate constants of (0.11)H (where (0.11)H is shorthand for muonium). Kinetic isotope effects can be compared for the unprecedentedly large mass ratio of 36. The agreement with accurate quantum dynamics is quantitative at 500 kelvin, and variational transition-state theory is used to interpret the extremely low (large inverse) kinetic isotope effects in the 10(-4) to 10(-2) range.

Many-body decomposition of the binding energies for OH.(H2O)2 and OH.(H2O)3 complexes.

We use ab initio electronic structure methods to calculate the many-body decomposition of the binding energies of the OH.(H2O)n (n=2,3) complexes. We employ MP2 and CCSD(T) levels of theory with aug-cc-pVDZ and aug-cc-pVTZ basis sets and analyze the significance of the nonpairwise interactions between OH radical and the surrounding water molecules. We also evaluate the accuracy of our newly developed potential function, the modified Thole-type model, for predicting the many-body terms in these complexes. Our analysis of the many-body contributions to the OH.(H2O)n binding energies clearly shows that they are just as important in the OH interactions with water as they are for interactions in pure water systems.

Self-consistent polarization neglect of diatomic differential overlap: application to water clusters.

Semiempirical self-consistent field (SCF) methods based on the neglect of diatomic differential overlap (NDDO) formalism have the ability to treat the formation and breaking of chemical bonds but have been found to poorly describe hydrogen bonding and weak electrostatic complexes. In contrast, most empirical potentials are not able to describe bond breaking and formation but have the ability to add missing elements of hydrogen bonding by using classical electrostatic interactions. We present a new method which combines aspects of both NDDO-based SCF techniques and classical descriptions of polarization to describe the diffuse nature of the electronic wavefunction in a self-consistent manner. We develop the "self-consistent polarization neglect of diatomic differential overlap" (SCP-NDDO) theory with the additional description of molecular dispersion developed as a second-order perturbation theory expression. The current study seeks to model water-water interactions as a test case. To this end, we have parametrized the method to accurate ab initio complete basis set limit estimates of small water cluster binding energies of Xantheas and co-workers [J. Chem. Phys. 116, 1493 (2002); 120, 823 (2004)]. Overall agreement with the ab initio binding energies (n=2-6, and 8) is achieved with a rms error of 0.19 kcal/mol. We achieve noticeable improvements in the structure, vibrational frequencies, and energetic predictions of water clusters (n< or =21) relative to standard NDDO-based methods.

Activation energies and potentials of mean force for water cluster evaporation.

Activation energies for water cluster evaporation are of interest in many areas of chemical physics. We present the first computation of activation energies for monomer evaporation of small water clusters using the formalism of dynamical nucleation theory (DNT). To this end, individual evaporation rate constants are computed for water clusters (H(2)O)(i), where i=2-10 for temperatures ranging from 243 to 333 K. These calculations employ a parallel sampling technique utilizing a Global Arrays toolkit. The resulting evaporation rate constants for each cluster are then fitted to Arrhenius equations to obtain activation energies. We discuss DNT evaporation rate constants and their relation to potentials of mean force, activation energies, and how to account for nonseparability of the reaction coordinate in the reactant state partition function.

Ab initio and analytical intermolecular potential for ClO-H2O.

In recent years, the ClO free radical has been found to play an important role in the ozone removal processes in the atmosphere. In this work, the authors present a potential energy surface scan of the ClO.H2O system with high-level ab initio methods. Because of the existence of low-lying excited states of the ClO.H2O complex and their potential impact on the chemical behavior of the ClO radical in the atmosphere, the authors perform the potential energy surface scan at the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory of both the first excited and ground states. Analytical potentials for both ground and excited states, with the ClO and H2O units held fixed at their optimized geometries and with anisotropic atomic polarizabilities modeling the physics of the unpaired electron in the ClO radical, were built based on a Thole-type model. The two minima of the ClO.H2O complex are recovered by the analytical potential.

Hybrid approach for free energy calculations with high-level methods: application to the SN2 reaction of CHCl3 and OH- in water.

We present an approach to calculate the free energy profile along a condensed-phase reaction path based on high-level electronic structure methods for the reactive region. The bulk of statistical averaging is shifted toward less expensive descriptions by using a hierarchy of representations that includes molecular mechanics, density functional theory, and coupled cluster theories. As an application of this approach we study the reaction of CHCl3 with OH- in aqueous solution.

Sensitivity analysis of thermodynamic properties of liquid water: a general approach to improve empirical potentials.

A sensitivity analysis of bulk water thermodynamics is presented in an effort to understand the relation between qualitative features of molecular potentials and properties that they predict. The analysis is incorporated in molecular dynamics simulations and investigates the sensitivity of the Helmholtz free energy, internal energy, entropy, heat capacity, pressure, thermal pressure coefficient, and static dielectric constant to components of the potential rather than the parameters of a given functional form. The sensitivities of the properties are calculated with respect to the van der Waals repulsive and the attractive parts, plus short- and long-range Coulomb parts of three four site empirical water potentials: TIP4P, Dang-Chang and TTM2R. The polarization sensitivity is calculated for the polarizable Dang-Chang and TTM2R potentials. This new type of analysis allows direct comparisons of the sensitivities for different potentials that use different functional forms. The analysis indicates that all investigated properties are most sensitive to the van der Waals repulsive, the short-range Coulomb and the polarization components of the potentials. When polarization is included in the potentials, the magnitude of the sensitivity of the Helmholtz free energy, internal energy, and entropy with respect to this part of the potential is comparable in magnitude to the other electrostatic components. In addition similarities in trends of observed sensitivities for nonpolarizable and polarizable potentials lead to the conclusion that the complexity of the model is not of critical importance for the calculation of these thermodynamic properties for bulk water. The van der Waals attractive and the long-range Coulomb sensitivities are relatively small for the entropy, heat capacity, thermal pressure coefficient and the static dielectric constant, while small changes in any of the potential contributions will significantly affect the pressure. The analysis suggests a procedure for modification of the potentials to improve predictions of thermodynamic properties and we demonstrate this general approach for modifying potentials for one of the potentials.

On NO3--H2O interactions in aqueous solutions and at interfaces.

The constrained molecular-dynamics technique was employed to investigate the transport of a nitrate ion across the water liquid/vapor interface. We developed a nitrate-ion-water polarizable potential that accurately reproduces the solvation properties of the hydrated nitrate ion. The computed free-energy profile for the transfer of the nitrate ion across the air/water interface increases monotonically as the nitrate ion approaches the Gibbs dividing surface from the bulk liquid side. The computed density profiles of 1M KNO(3) salt solution indicate that the nitrate and potassium ions are both found below the aqueous interface. Upon analyzing the results, we conclude that the probability of finding the nitrate anion at the aqueous interface is quite small.

The OH radical-H2O molecular interaction potential.

The OH radical is one of the most important oxidants in the atmosphere due to its high reactivity. The study of hydrogen-bonded complexes of OH with the water molecules is a topic of significant current interest. In this work, we present the development of a new analytical functional form for the interaction potential between the rigid OH radical and H(2)O molecules. To do this we fit a selected functional form to a set of high level ab initio data. Since there is a low-lying excited state for the H(2)O.OH complex, the impact of the excited state on the chemical behavior of the OH radical can be very important. We perform a potential energy surface scan using the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ level of electronic structure theory for both excited and ground states. To model the physics of the unpaired electron in the OH radical, we develop a tensor polarizability generalization of the Thole-type all-atom polarizable rigid potential for the OH radical, which effectively describes the interaction of OH with H(2)O for both ground and excited states. The stationary points of (H(2)O)(n)OH clusters were identified as a benchmark of the potential.

Ion-induced nucleation: the importance of chemistry.

Experiments have shown that ions can substantially increase vapor-to-liquid nucleation rates. However, interpretation of these experiments is complicated by ambiguities arising from the manner in which the ions are produced. Several studies have concluded that water has a general preference for anions over cations. We show that specification of the ion's sign alone is insufficient to provide an understanding of the aqueous ionic cluster thermodynamics and that classical ion-induced nucleation theory does not treat the cluster physics properly to describe ion-induced nucleation accurately.

Multicomponent dynamical nucleation theory and sensitivity analysis.

Vapor to liquid multicomponent nucleation is a dynamical process governed by a delicate interplay between condensation and evaporation. Since the population of the vapor phase is dominated by monomers at reasonable supersaturations, the formation of clusters is governed by monomer association and dissociation reactions. Although there is no intrinsic barrier in the interaction potential along the minimum energy path for the association process, the formation of a cluster is impeded by a free energy barrier. Dynamical nucleation theory provides a framework in which equilibrium evaporation rate constants can be calculated and the corresponding condensation rate constants determined from detailed balance. The nucleation rate can then be obtained by solving the kinetic equations. The rate constants governing the multistep kinetics of multicomponent nucleation including sensitivity analysis and the potential influence of contaminants will be presented and discussed.

Hydroxyl radical at the air-water interface.

Interaction of the hydroxyl radical with the liquid water surface was studied using classical molecular dynamics computer simulations. From a series of scattering trajectories, the thermal and mass accommodation coefficients of OH on liquid water at 300 K were determined to be 0.95 and 0.83, respectively. The calculated free energy profile for transfer of OH across the air-water interface at 300 K exhibits a minimum in the interfacial region, with the free energy of adsorbtion (DeltaGa) being about 1 kcal/mol more negative than the hydration free energy (DeltaGs). The propensity of the hydroxyl radical for the air-water interface manifests itself in partitioning of OH radicals between the bulk water and the surface. The enhancement of the surface concentration of OH relative to its concentration in the aqueous phase suggests that important OH chemistry may be occurring in the interfacial layer of water droplets, aqueous aerosol particles, and thin water films adsorbed on solid surfaces. This has profound consequences for modeling heterogeneous atmospheric chemical processes.

H+H2 thermal reaction: a convergence of theory and experiment.

New experimental and theoretical rate constants for two isotopologs of the simplest chemical reaction, H+H2-->H2+H, are presented. The theoretical results are obtained using accurate quantum dynamics with a converged Born-Oppenheimer potential energy surface and include non-Born-Oppenheimer corrections. The new experiments are carried out using a shock tube and complement earlier investigations over a very large T range, 167 to 2112 K. Experiment and theory now agree perfectly, within experimental error, bringing this 75-year-old scientific problem to completion.