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Performance of 3D-space-based atoms-in-molecules methods for electronic delocalization aromaticity indices
Several definitions of an atom in a molecule (AIM) in three-dimensional (3D) space, including both fuzzy and disjoint domains, are used to calculate electron sharing indices (ESI) and related electronic aromaticity measures, namely, Iringand multicenter indices (MCI), for a wide set of cyclic planar aromatic and nonaromatic molecules of different ring size. The results obtained using the recent iterative Hirshfeld scheme are compared with those derived from the classical Hirshfeld method and from Bader's quantum theory of atoms in molecules. For bonded atoms, all methods yield ESI values in very good agreement, especially for C-C interactions. In the case of nonbonded interactions, there are relevant deviations, particularly between fuzzy and QTAIM schemes. These discrepancies directly translate into significant differences in the values and the trends of the aromaticity indices. In particular, the chemically expected trends are more consistently found when using disjoint domains. Careful examination of the underlying effects reveals the different reasons why the aromaticity indices investigated give the expected results for binary divisions of 3D spaceM.S. is grateful for the nancial help furnished by the
Spanish MICINN Project No. CTQ2008-03077/BQU and by the Catalan DIUE
through project No. 2009SGR63
Polarization and Charge Transfer in the Hydration of Chloride Ions
A theoretical study of the structural and electronic properties of the
chloride ion and water molecules in the first hydration shell is presented. The
calculations are performed on an ensemble of configurations obtained from
molecular dynamics simulations of a single chloride ion in bulk water. The
simulations utilize the polarizable AMOEBA force field for trajectory
generation, and MP2-level calculations are performed to examine the electronic
structure properties of the ions and surrounding waters in the external field
of more distant waters. The ChelpG method is employed to explore the effective
charges and dipoles on the chloride ions and first-shell waters. The Quantum
Theory of Atoms in Molecules (QTAIM) is further utilized to examine charge
transfer from the anion to surrounding water molecules.
From the QTAIM analysis, 0.2 elementary charges are transferred from the ion
to the first-shell water molecules. The default AMOEBA model overestimates the
average dipole moment magnitude of the ion compared with the estimated quantum
mechanical value. The average magnitude of the dipole moment of the water
molecules in the first shell treated at the MP2 level, with the more distant
waters handled with an AMOEBA effective charge model, is 2.67 D. This value is
close to the AMOEBA result for first-shell waters (2.72 D) and is slightly
reduced from the bulk AMOEBA value (2.78 D). The magnitude of the dipole moment
of the water molecules in the first solvation shell is most strongly affected
by the local water-water interactions and hydrogen bonds with the second
solvation shell, rather than by interactions with the ion.Comment: Slight revision, in press at J. Chem. Phy
The atomic orbitals of the topological atom
The effective atomic orbitals have been realized in the framework of Baderâs atoms in molecules theory for a general wavefunction. This formalism can be used to retrieve from any type of calculation a
proper set of orthonormalized numerical atomic orbitals, with occupation numbers that sum up to the
respective Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules (QTAIM) atomic populations. Experience shows
that only a limited number of effective atomic orbitals exhibit signiïŹcant occupation numbers. These
correspond to atomic hybrids that closely resemble the core and valence shells of the atom. The
occupation numbers of the remaining effective orbitals are almost negligible, except for atoms with
hypervalent character. In addition, the molecular orbitals of a calculation can be exactly expressed
as a linear combination of this orthonormalized set of numerical atomic orbitals, and the Mulliken
population analysis carried out on this basis set exactly reproduces the original QTAIM atomic populations of the atoms. Approximate expansion of the molecular orbitals over a much reduced set of
orthogonal atomic basis functions can also be accomplished to a very good accuracy with a singular
value decomposition procedure
A quantitative definition of hypervalency
From the inception of Lewisâ theory of chemical bonding, hypervalency has remained a point of difficulty that has not been fully resolved by the currently accepted qualitative definition of this term. Therefore, in this work, a quantitative measure of hypervalency has been developed. The only required input is the atomic charge map, which can be obtained from either quantum calculations or from experiment. Using this definition, it is found that well-known species such as O3, CH2N2 and ClO4-, are indeed hypervalent, whilst others such as XeF4, PCl5 and SO42-, are not. Quantitative analysis of known species of general formulae XFnm-, XClnm-, and XOnm- shows that there are no fundamental differences in chemical bonding for hypervalent and non-hypervalent species. Nevertheless, hypervalency is associated with chemical instability, as well as a high degree of covalent rather than ionic bonding. The implications for accepted Lewis structure conventions are discussed
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