PNNL

Abstract

The scaled forms of the newly introduced generalized potential energy functions (PEFs) describing intermolecular interactions [J. Chem. Phys. xx, yyyyy (2011)] have been used to fit the ab-initio minimum energy paths (MEPs) for the halide- and alkali metal-water systems X-(H2O), X=F, Cl, Br, I, and M+(H2O), M=Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs. These generalized forms produce fits to the ab-initio data that are between one and two orders of magnitude better in the ?2 than the original forms of the PEFs. They were found to describe both the long-range, minimum and repulsive wall of the potential energy surface quite well. Overall the 4-parameter extended Morse (eM) and generalized Buckingham exponential-6 (gB-e6) potentials were found to best fit the ab-initio data. Furthermore, a single set of parameters of the reduced form was found to describe all candidates within each class of interactions. The fact that in reduced coordinates a whole class of interactions can be represented by a single PEF, yields the simple relationship between the molecular parameters associated with energy (well depth, e), structure (equilibrium distance, rm) and spectroscopy (anharmonic frequency, ?):€? = A· (e /µ)1/ 2 /rm + B·e /rm 3 , where A and B are constants depending on the underlying PEF. This more general case of Badger’s rule has been validated using the experimentally measured frequencies of the hydrogen bonded OH stretching vibrations in the halide-water series.