A retarded coupling approach to intermolecular interactions

A wide range of physical phenomena such as optical binding and resonance energy transfer involve electronic coupling between adjacent molecules. A quantum electrodynamical description of these intermolecular interactions reveals the presence of retardation effects. The clarity of the procedure associated with the construction of the quantum amplitudes and the precision of the ensuing results for observable energies and rates are widely acknowledged. However, the length and complexity of the derivations involved in such quantum electrodynamical descriptions increase rapidly with the order of the process under study. Whether through the use of time-ordering approaches, or the more expedient state-sequence method, time-consuming calculations cannot usually be bypassed. A simple and succinct method is now presented, which provides for a direct and still entirely rigorous determination of the quantum electrodynamical amplitudes for processes of arbitrarily high order. Using the approach, new results for optical binding in two- and three-particle systems are secured and discussed

Intermolecular interactions in N-(ferrocenylmethyl)anthracene-9-carboxamide

The title compound, [Fe(C₅H₅)(C₂₁H₁₆NO)], was synthesized from the coupling reaction of anthracene-9-carboxylic acid and ferrocenylmethylamine. The ferrocenyl (Fc) group and the anthracene ring system both lie approximately orthogonal to the amide moiety. An amide-amide interaction (along the a axis) is the principal interaction [N...O = 2.910 (2) Å]. A C-H...π(arene) interaction [C...centroid = 3.573 (2) Å] and a C-H...O interaction [C...O = 3.275 (3) Å] complete the hydrogen bonding; two short (Fc)C...C(anthracene) contacts are also present

Ab initio investigation of intermolecular interactions in solid benzene

A computational strategy for the evaluation of the crystal lattice constants and cohesive energy of the weakly bound molecular solids is proposed. The strategy is based on the high level ab initio coupled-cluster determination of the pairwise additive contribution to the interaction energy. The zero-point-energy correction and non-additive contributions to the interaction energy are treated using density functional methods. The experimental crystal lattice constants of the solid benzene are reproduced, and the value of 480 meV/molecule is calculated for its cohesive energy