No abstract

A method of "natural population analysis" has been developed to calculate atomic charges and orbital populations of molecular wave functions in general atomic orbital basis sets. The natural analysis is an alternative to conventional Mulliken population analysis, and seems to exhibit improved numerical stability and to better describe the electron distribution in compounds of high ionic character, such as those containing metal atoms. We calculated ab initio SCF-MO wave functions for compounds of type CH 3 X and LiX (X = F, OH, NH 2 , CH 3 , BH 2 , BeH, Li, H) in a variety of basis sets to illustrate the generality of the method, and to compare the natural populations with results of Mulliken analysis, density integration, and empirical measures of ionic character. Natural populations are found to give a satisfactory description of these molecules, providing a unified treatment of covalent and extreme ionic limits at modest computational cost.

From the information contained in the (exact or approximate) first-order density matrix, we describe a method for extracting a unique set of atomic hybrids and bond orbitals for a given molecule, thereby constructing its "Lewis structure" in an a priori manner. These natural hybrids are optimal in a certain sense, are efficiently computed, and seem to agree well with chemical intuition (as summarized, for example, in Bent's Rule) and with hybrids obtained by other procedures. Using simple INDO-SCF-MO wave functions, we give applications of the natural hybrid orbital analysis to molecules exhibiting a variety of bonding features, including lone pairs, multiple bonds, strained rings, and "bent bonds", multiple resonance structures, hydrogen bonds, and three-center bonds. Three examples are described in greater detail: (i) "orbital following" during ammonia umbrella inversion, (ii) the dimerization of water molecules, and (iii) the hydrogen-bridged bonds of diborane.

We describe principal features of the newly released version, NBO 6.0, of the natural bond orbital analysis program, that provides novel ' 'link-free' ' interactivity with host electronic structure systems, improved search algorithms and labeling conventions for a broader range of chemical species, and new analysis options that significantly extend the range of chemical applications. We sketch the motivation and implementation of program changes and describe newer analysis options with illustrative applications.

We have carried out a natural bond orbital analysis of hydrogen bonding in the water dimer for the near-Hartree–Fock wave function of Popkie, Kistenmacher, and Clementi, extending previous studies based on smaller basis sets and less realistic geometry. We find that interactions which may properly be described as ‘‘charge transfer’’ (particularly the n-σ*OH interaction along the H-bond axis) play a critical role in the formation of the hydrogen bond, and without these interactions the water dimer would be 3–5 kcal/mol repulsive at the observed equilibrium distance. We discuss this result in relationship to Klemperer’s general picture of the bonding in van der Waals molecules, and to previous theoretical analyses of hydrogen bonding by the method of Kitaura and Morokuma.