A comprehensive study of the OH and OD stretching fundamentals in clusters of methanol and its isotopomers CH(3)OD, CD(3)OH, and CD(3)OD provides detailed insights into the hydrogen-bond mediated coupling as a function of cluster size. The combination of infrared and Raman supersonic jet spectroscopy enables the observation and assignment of all hydrogen-bonded OH stretching modes of isolated methanol trimer and methanol tetramer. A consistent explanation for the spectral complexity observed more than a decade ago in methanol trimer in terms of low-frequency methyl umbrella motions is provided. Previous explanations based on cluster isomerism or anharmonic resonances are ruled out by dedicated jet experiments. The first experimental lower bound for concerted quadruple proton transfer in S(4) symmetric methanol tetramer is derived and compared with theoretical predictions. The observed isotope effects offer insights into the anharmonicity of the localized OH bond. The performance of harmonic B3LYP and MP2 calculations in predicting hydrogen-bond-induced spectral shifts and couplings is investigated.

No abstract

Noncovalent interactions are particularly intriguing when they involve chiral molecules, because the interactions change in a subtle way upon replacing one of the partners by its mirror image. The resulting phenomena involving chirality recognition are relevant in the biosphere, in organic synthesis, and in polymer design. They may be classified according to the permanent or transient chirality of the interacting partners, leading to chirality discrimination, chirality induction, and chirality synchronization processes. For small molecules, high-level quantum chemical calculations for such processes are feasible. To provide reliable connections between theory and experiment, such phenomena are best studied in vacuum isolation at low temperature, using rotational, vibrational, electronic, and photoionization spectroscopy. We review these techniques and the results which have become available in recent years, with special emphasis on dimers of permanently chiral molecules and on the influence of conformational flexibility. Analogies between the microscopic mechanisms and macroscopic phenomena and between intra- and intermolecular cases are drawn.

The subtle trans-gauche equilibrium in the ethanol molecule is affected by hydrogen bonding. The resulting conformational complexity in ethanol dimer manifests itself in three hydrogen-bonded OH stretching bands of comparable infrared intensity in supersonic helium expansions. Admixture of argon or nitrogen promotes collisional relaxation and is shown to enhance the lowest frequency transition. Global and local harmonic frequency shift calculations at MP2 level indicate that this transition is due to a gauche-gauche dimer, but the predictions are sensitive to basis set and correlation level. Energetically, the homochiral gauche-gauche dimer is predicted to be the most stable ethanol dimer conformation. The harmonic MP2 predictions are corroborated by perturbative anharmonicity contributions and CCSD(T) energies. Thus, a consistent picture of the subtle hydrogen bond energetics and vibrational dynamics of the ethanol dimer is starting to emerge for the first time.

A new approach to the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) absorption spectroscopy of molecular clusters in pulsed supersonic jets is developed to the point where it is competitive with high-sensitivity laser absorption techniques for intermediate and large molecular systems. A combination of rapid spectral acquisition and of a bu †ered jet chamber enables the use of intense gas pulses which cover complete interferometer scans. Applications to and demonstrate the capabilities of this technique. Investigations of (N 2 O) n , (CH 3 OH) n (HCl) n the association of bulky alcohols and of clusters within clusters illustrate some ongoing research.

The interaction between two HF molecules as a function of all six internal coordinates is reported as calculated for 3284 selected points in configuration space at counterpoise-corrected explicitly correlated levels and fitted to an analytical expression, which is described in detail. The unweighted rms deviation for all 3284 points is 21 cm−1. Empirical refinements are applied through mixing and scaling of the ab initio data, guided by the comparison of multidimensional nuclear quantum energy levels with experimental data. The resulting semiempirical pair potentials (labeled SC-2.9 and SO-3) contain 67 and 61 freely adjusted parameters and are combined with a four parameter monomer potential of generalized Pöschl–Teller type. Various minimum energy paths and cuts are investigated. Major improvements over earlier HF dimer potentials are demonstrated via multidimensional solutions of the nuclear Schrödinger equation. Comparison with other high level ab initio calculations and with various experimental data reveals very good overall consistency. The new potential suggests strong Coriolis coupling in the librational degrees of freedom. Best estimates of stationary points, of the dimer dissociation energy (De=19.1±0.2 kJ/mol), of the electronic barrier to hydrogen bond exchange (4.2±0.2 kJ/mol), of the electronic barrier to linearity (3.9±0.2 kJ/mol), and of the electronic barrier to hydrogen exchange (175±10 kJ/mol) are inferred. Based on accurate electric dipole functions for the monomer and distortion contributions calculated with a large basis at SCF level, a simple analytical six-dimensional electric dipole hypersurface is presented.

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 D0 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.

Theoreticians and experimentalists should work together more closely to establish reliable rankings and benchmarks for quantum chemical methods. Comparison to carefully designed experimental benchmark data should be a priority. Guidelines to improve the situation for experiments and calculations are proposed.