Scattering data, measured for rare gas-rare gas systems under high angular and energy resolution conditions, have been used to probe the reliability of a recently proposed interaction potential function, which involves only one additional parameter with respect to the venerable Lennard-Jones (LJ) model and is hence called Improved Lennard-Jones (ILJ). The ILJ potential eliminates most of the inadequacies at short- and long-range of the LJ model. Further reliability tests have been performed by comparing calculated vibrational spacings with experimental values and calculated interaction energies at short-range with those obtained from the inversion of gaseous transport properties. The analysis, extended also to systems involving ions, suggests that the ILJ potential model can be used to estimate the behavior of unknown systems and can help to assess the different role of the leading interaction components. Moreover, due to its simple formulation, the physically reliable ILJ model appears to be particularly useful for molecular dynamics simulations of both neutral and ionic systems.

Integral cross-section measurements for the system water-H(2) in molecular-beam scattering experiments are reported. Their analysis demonstrates that the average attractive component of the water-H(2) intermolecular potential in the well region is about 30% stronger than dispersion and induction forces would imply. An extensive and detailed theoretical analysis of the electron charge displacement accompanying the interaction, over several crucial sections of the potential energy surface (PES), shows that water-H(2) interaction is accompanied by charge transfer (CT) and that the observed stabilization energy correlates quantitatively with CT magnitude at all distances. Based on the experimentally determined potential and the calculated CT, a general theoretical model is devised which reproduces very accurately PES sections obtained at the CCSD(T) level with large basis sets. The energy stabilization associated with CT is calculated to be 2.5 eV per electron transferred. Thus, CT is shown to be a significant, strongly stereospecific component of the interaction, with water functioning as electron donor or acceptor in different orientations. The general relevance of these findings for water's chemistry is discussed.

We describe and analyze in depth a series of molecular beam scattering experiments, first reported by Aquilanti et al. (Angew. Chemie Int. Ed. 2005, 44, 2356.), proving that a measurable bond stabilization component beyond the van-der-Waals forces is present in the prototypal hydrophobic interaction of water with the noble gases (Ng). The experimental integral cross-section data, exhibiting a fully resolved "glory" interference pattern in the velocity dependence, are here quantitatively analyzed and characterized employing a recently proposed model potential. The stabilization component of the water-Ng bond has recently been attributed, through very accurate theoretical calculations and an unambiguous, model-free analysis of the electron density displacement, to a net electron transfer taking place from Ng to H(2)O. We review the theoretical analysis and discuss additional computational results, comparing them to experiment, that clarify the effect of charge transfer on the interaction energies.

A weak halogen bond, together with charge transfer from a noble gas to Cl2, characterizes the intermolecular interaction between a noble gas atom and Cl2 in a collinear configuration.

We report new high resolution molecular beam experiments aimed at characterizing the intermolecular interaction in the NH(3)-Ng (Ng = He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe) weakly bound complexes. Integral cross section data are obtained over a sufficiently wide velocity range and with rotationally hot NH(3) molecules to produce (except for the NH(3)-He case) a well resolved "glory" quantum interference pattern. Data analysis, carried out by employing a recently proposed potential model, allows unique information on the absolute scale of the intermolecular interaction to be obtained both at long range and at the equilibrium distance. An extensive and internally consistent comparison with the behavior of the corresponding Kr-Ng systems is exploited in order to identify those cases where an interaction component due to charge transfer effects provides an appreciable intermolecular bond stabilization that is clearly distinct from and must be added to the standard van der Waals plus induction picture. The results of the present investigation extend the phenomenology of perturbative charge transfer effects in gas phase complexes involving hydrogenated molecules.

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ABSTRACT:We present an analysis of the Whittaker-Hill equation in view of its usefulness in quantum mechanics when periodic potentials are involved. The transformation due to Ince leads to polynomial solutions which have not attracted much attention so far in the applications. With respect to Mathieu equation, here we have an additional parameter, which permits to describe a variety of phenomena, including the treatment of the torsional motion of flexible molecules. Examples are discussed, with particular attention payed to the case of H 2 O 2 and similar molecules.

Exciton dissociation and charge recombination processes in organic semiconductors, with thermal effects taken into account, are described in this paper. Here, we analyzed the mechanisms of polaron-excitons dissociation into free charge carriers and the consequent recombination of those carriers under thermal effects on two parallel π-conjugated polymers chains electronically coupled. Our results suggest that exciton dissociation in a single molecule give rise to localized, polaron-like charge carrier. Besides, we concluded that in the case of interchain processes, the bimolecular polaron recombination does not lead to an usual exciton state. Rather, this type of recombination leads to an oscillating dipole between the two chains. The recombination time obtained here for these processes are in agreement with the experimental results. Finally, our results show that temperature effects are essential to the relaxation process leading to polaron formation in a single chain, as in the absence of temperature, this process was not observed. In the case of two chains, we conclude that temperature effects also help the bimolecular recombination process, as observed experimentally.