Dielectric response of periodic systems from quantum Monte Carlo calculations

We present a novel approach that allows us to calculate the dielectric response of periodic systems in the quantum Monte Carlo formalism. We employ a many-body generalization for the electric-enthalpy functional, where the coupling with the field is expressed via the Berry-phase formulation for the macroscopic polarization. A self-consistent local Hamiltonian then determines the ground-state wave function, allowing for accurate diffusion quantum Monte Carlo calculations where the polarization's fixed point is estimated from the average on an iterative sequence, sampled via forward walking. This approach has been validated for the case of an isolated hydrogen atom and then applied to a periodic system, to calculate the dielectric susceptibility of molecular-hydrogen chains. The results found are in excellent agreement with the best estimates obtained from the extrapolation of quantum-chemistry calculations.

A new six-dimensional analytical potential up to chemically significant energies for the electronic ground state of hydrogen peroxide

Thomas Rizzo

We report calculations of the electronic ground state potential energy surface (PES) of hydrogen peroxide covering, in an almost global fashion, all six internal degrees of freedom by two different ab initio techniques. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations using the Becke 3 parameter Lee-Yang-Parr (B3LYP) hybrid functional and multiconfigurational second order perturbation theory (CASPT2) calculations, both using large basis sets, are performed for a wide range of geometries (8145 DFT and 5310 CASPT2 single-point energies). We use a combined data set of mostly DFT with additional CASPT2 ab initio points and the complete CASPT2 surface to fit a total of four different 6D analytical representations. The resulting potentials contain 70-76 freely adjusted parameters and represent the ground state PES up to 40000 cm(-1) above the equilibrium energy with a standard deviation of 100-107 cm(-1) without any important artifacts. One of the model surfaces is further empirically refined to match the bond dissociation energy D-0 for HOOH --> 2OH. The potentials are designed for energy regions accessible by vibrational fundamental and overtone spectroscopy including the dissociation channel into hydroxyl radicals. Characteristic properties of the model surfaces are investigated by means of stationary point analyses, torsional barrier heights, harmonic frequencies, low-dimensional cuts and minimum energy paths for dissociation. Overall good agreement with high-level ab initio calculations, especially for the CASPT2 based potentials, is achieved. The drastic change in geometry at intermediate O-O distances, which reflects the transition from covalent to hydrogen bonding, is reproduced quantitatively. We calculate fully 6D anharmonic zero point energies and ground state torsional splittings with the diffusion quantum Monte Carlo method in perfect agreement, within statistical error bars, with experiment for the CASPT2 based potentials. Variational vibrational calculations in the (4+2)D adiabatic approximation yield energy levels and torsional splittings from the ground state up to predissociative states, satisfactorily reproducing the experimental transition wavenumbers. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(99)30205-1].

1999

Nitranilic acid hexahydrate, a novel benchmark system of the Zundel cation in an intrinsically asymmetric environment: spectroscopic features and hydrogen bond dynamics characterised by experimental and theoretical methods

Nitranilic acid (2,5-dihydroxy-3,6-dinitro-2,5-cyclohexadiene-1,4-dione) as a strong dibasic acid in acidic aqueous media creates the Zundel cation, H5O2+. The structural unit in a crystal comprises (H5O2)(2)(+)(2,5-dihydroxy-3,6-dinitro-1,4-benzoquinonate)(2-) dihydrate where the Zundel cation reveals no symmetry, being an ideal case for studying proton dynamics and its stability. The Zundel cation and proton transfer dynamics are studied by variable-temperature X-ray diffraction, IR and solid-state NMR spectroscopy, and various quantum chemical methods, including periodic DFT calculations, ab initio molecular dynamics simulation, and quantization of nuclear motion along three fully coupled internal coordinates. The Zundel cation features a short H-bond with the O center dot center dot center dot O distance of 2.433(2) angstrom with an asymmetric placement of hydrogen. The proton potential is of a single well type and, due to the non-symmetric surroundings, of asymmetric shape. The formation of the Zundel cation is facilitated by the electronegative NO2 groups. The employed spectroscopic techniques supported by calculations confirm the presence of a short H-bond with a complex proton dynamics.

Royal Soc Chemistry2014

A new six-dimensional analytical potential up to chemically significant energies for the electronic ground state of hydrogen peroxide

Thomas Rizzo

1999