Electron correlation in the interacting quantum atoms partition via coupled-cluster lagrangian densities.

The electronic energy partition established by the Interacting Quantum Atoms (IQA) approach is an important method of wavefunction analyses which has yielded valuable insights about different phenomena in physical chemistry. Most of the IQA applications have relied upon approximations, which do not include either dynamical correlation (DC) such as Hartree-Fock (HF) or external DC like CASSCF theory. Recently, DC was included in the IQA method by means of HF/Coupled-Cluster (CC) transition densities (Chávez-Calvillo et al., Comput. Theory Chem. 2015, 1053, 90). Despite the potential utility of this approach, it has a few drawbacks, for example, it is not consistent with the calculation of CC properties different from the total electronic energy. To improve this situation, we have implemented the IQA energy partition based on CC Lagrangian one- and two-electron orbital density matrices. The development presented in this article is tested and illustrated with the H2 , LiH, H2 O, H2 S, N2 , and CO molecules for which the IQA results obtained under the consideration of (i) the CC Lagrangian, (ii) HF/CC transition densities, and (iii) HF are critically analyzed and compared. Additionally, the effect of the DC in the different components of the electronic energy in the formation of the T-shaped (H2 )2 van der Waals cluster and the bimolecular nucleophilic substitution between F(-) and CH3 F is examined. We anticipate that the approach put forward in this article will provide new understandings on subjects in physical chemistry wherein DC plays a crucial role like molecular interactions along with chemical bonding and reactivity. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Hydrogen bond cooperativity and anticooperativity within the water hexamer.

The hydrogen bond (HB), arguably the most important non-covalent interaction in chemistry, is getting renewed attention particularly in materials engineering. We address herein HB non-additive features by examining different structures of the water hexamer (cage, prism, book, bag and ring). To that end, we rely on the interacting quantum atoms (IQA) topological energy partition, an approach that has been successfully used to study similar effects in smaller water clusters (see Chem. - Eur. J., 19, 14304). Our IQA interaction energies, , are used to classify the strength of HBs in terms of the single/double character of the donor and acceptor H2O molecules involved in the interaction. The strongest hydrogen bonds on this new scale entail double donors and acceptors that show larger values of than those observed in homodromic cycles, paradigms of cooperative effects. Importantly, this means that besides the traditional HB anticooperativity ascribed to double acceptors and donors, the occurrence of these species is also related to HB strengthening. Overall, we hope that the results of this research will lead to a further understanding of the HB non-additivity in intramolecular and intermolecular interactions.

Properties of atoms in electronically excited molecules within the formalism of TDDFT.

The topological analysis of the electron density for electronic excited states under the formalism of the quantum theory of atoms in molecules using time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) is presented. Relaxed electron densities for electronic excited states are computed by solving a Z-vector equation which is obtained by means of the Sternheimer interchange method. This is in contrast to previous work in which the electron density for excited states is obtained using DFT instead of TDDFT, that is, through the imposition of molecular occupancies in accordance with the electron configuration of the excited state under consideration. Once the electron density of the excited state is computed, its topological characterization and the properties of the atoms in molecules are obtained in the same manner that for the ground state. The analysis of the low-lying π→π* singlet and triplet vertical excitations of CO and C6H6 are used as representative examples of the application of this methodology. Altogether, it is shown how this procedure provides insights on the changes of the electron density following photoexcitation and it is our hope that it will be useful in the study of different photophysical and photochemical processes.

Hydrogen-bond cooperative effects in small cyclic water clusters as revealed by the interacting quantum atoms approach.

The cooperative effects of hydrogen bonding in small water clusters (H2 O)n (n=3-6) have been studied by using the partition of the electronic energy in accordance with the interacting quantum atoms (IQA) approach. The IQA energy splitting is complemented by a topological analysis of the electron density (ρ(r)) compliant with the quantum theory of atoms-in-molecules (QTAIM) and the calculation of electrostatic interactions by using one- and two-electron integrals, thereby avoiding convergence issues inherent to a multipolar expansion. The results show that the cooperative effects of hydrogen bonding in small water clusters arise from a compromise between: 1) the deformation energy (i.e., the energy necessary to modify the electron density and the configuration of the nuclei of the isolated water molecules to those within the water clusters), and 2) the interaction energy (Eint ) of these contorted molecules in (H2 O)n . Whereas the magnitude of both deformation and interaction energies is enhanced as water molecules are added to the system, the augmentation of the latter becomes dominant when the size of the cluster is increased. In addition, the electrostatic, classic, and exchange components of Eint for a pair of water molecules in the cluster (H2 O)n-1 become more attractive when a new H2 O unit is incorporated to generate the system (H2 O)n with the last-mentioned contribution being consistently the most important part of Eint throughout the hydrogen bonds under consideration. This is opposed to the traditional view, which regards hydrogen bonding in water as an electrostatically driven interaction. Overall, the trends of the delocalization indices, δ(Ω,Ω'), the QTAIM atomic charges, the topology of ρ(r), and the IQA results altogether show how polarization, charge transfer, electrostatics, and covalency contribute to the cooperative effects of hydrogen bonding in small water clusters. It is our hope that the analysis presented in this paper could offer insight into the different intra- and intermolecular interactions present in hydrogen-bonded systems.

Quantum molecular dynamics of the topological properties of the electron density: charge transfer in H3(+) and LiF.

This paper presents a method to analyze the time evolution of electron density descriptors defined by the quantum theory of atoms in molecules. The wave packet nuclear dynamics was followed solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The time evolution of the nuclear wave packets was combined with the electronic wave functions to follow the time dependence of the average values of topological electron density descriptors. The method was applied to the reactive collision of H(+) + H(2) under different initial conditions and the photodissociation of LiF for either diabatic or adiabatic processes, with emphasis on the information provided by the time evolution of the atomic charges. These examples illustrate how this approach allows for a detailed analysis of the electronic structure in the time domain.

Theoretical analysis of intermolecular interactions of selected residues of triosephosphate isomerase from Trypanosoma cruzi with its inhibitor 3-(2-benzothiazolylthio)-1-propanesulfonic acid.

The interaction between selected amino acid residues of the homodimeric enzyme triosephosphate isomerase from Trypanosoma cruzi with the inhibitor 3-(2-benzothiazolylthio)-1-propanesulfonic acid (BTT) was investigated by means of high level quantum chemical methods. The amino acids phe75A, arg71A and tyr102B from the enzyme monomers A and B were selected using experimental X-ray structural data. The ab initio intermolecular energies for the association of the inhibitor with the individual amino acids were calculated in two forms, namely, with a supermolecular approach and using the symmetry adapted perturbation theory. The latter also provided the contributions to the interaction energies, which were interpreted in terms of the usual van der Waals forces. The electron density for the specific interactions between BTT and the amino acids and the charge redistribution due to complex formation were also analyzed. It was found that for phe75A and tyr102B the dispersion energy is the dominant contribution to the complex stabilization followed by the induction and electrostatic energies. In addition, whereas the face-edge complex of BTT with phe75A exhibits a C-H pi bond similar to that observed for the benzene dimer, the complex with arg71A shows an important charge redistribution on the amino acid in regions far removed from those where the intermolecular specific interactions occur.