Using Diffusion Monte Carlo Wave Functions to Analyze the Vibrational Spectra of H7O3+ and H9O4.

An approach for evaluating spectra from ground state probability amplitudes (GSPA) obtained from diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) simulations is extended to improve the description of excited state energies and allow for coupling among vibrational excited states. This approach is applied to studies of the protonated water trimer and tetramer, and their deuterated analogs. These ions provide models for solvated hydronium, and analysis of these spectra provides insights into spectral signatures of proton transfer in aqueous environments. In this approach, we obtain a separable set of internal coordinates from the DMC ground state probability amplitude. A basis is then developed from products of the DMC ground state wave function and low-order polynomials in these internal coordinates. This approach provides a compact basis in which the Hamiltonian and dipole moment matrix are evaluated and used to obtain the spectrum. The resulting spectra are in good agreement with experiment and in many cases provide comparable agreement to the results obtained using much larger basis sets. In addition, the compact basis allows for interpretation of the spectral features and how they evolve with cluster size and deuteration.

Spectral signatures of proton delocalization in H+(H2O)n=1-4 ions.

Couplings involving large amplitude vibrations in H+(H2O)n (n = 1-4) are explored using several theoretical approaches. These include harmonic treatments, analysis of harmonically coupled anharmonic oscillator (HCAO) models of the OH stretching vibrations, vibrational perturbation theory (VPT2) in internal coordinates, and diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC). It is found that couplings between shared proton stretches and HOH bends can lead to normal modes that are significantly mixed in character. Couplings between the various OH stretching vibrations are much weaker, and the OH stretches are well-described by harmonically coupled anharmonic oscillator models. Anharmonic couplings and the role of these large amplitude vibrations are further explored using DMC and VPT2. Based on the results of these calculations, it is found that all of the H+(H2O)n ions considered in this study display several different types of large amplitude vibrational motions even in their ground states. In the case of H7O3+, degenerate VPT2 calculations indicate that there are large couplings between the shared proton stretch and various lower frequency vibrations that correspond to motions that break the ionic hydrogen bonds. This leads to vibrational eigenstates that have contributions from several zero-order states.

Role of Torsion-Vibration Coupling in the Overtone Spectrum and Vibrationally Mediated Photochemistry of CH3OOH and HOOH.

The yield of vibrationally excited OH fragments resulting from the vibrationally mediated photodissociation of methyl hydroperoxide (CH3OOH) excited in the vicinity of its 2νOH and 3νOH stretching overtones is compared with that resulting from excitation of the molecule to states with three quanta in the CH stretches and to the state with two quanta in the OH stretch and one in the OOH bend (2νOH + νOOH). We find that the OH fragment vibrational state distribution depends strongly on the vibrational state of CH3OOH prior to photodissociation. Specifically, dissociation from the CH stretch overtones and the stretch/bend combination band involving the OH stretch and OOH bend produced significantly less vibrationally excited OH fragments compared to that produced following excitation of CH3OOH to an overtone in the OH stretch. While the absence of vibrationally excited OH photoproducts following excitation of the CH overtone is not surprising, the lack of vibrationally excited OH following excitation to the 2νOH+νOOH combination band is unexpected given that photodissociation following excitation to the lower-energy 2νOH state produces OH products in v = 1 as well as in its ground state. This trend persists even when the electronic photodissociation wavelength is changed from 532 to 355 nm and thus suggests that the observed disparity arises from differences in the nature of the initially populated vibrational states. This lack of vibrationally excited OH products likely reflects the enhanced intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution associated with the stretch/bend combination level compared to the pure OH stretch overtone. Consistent with this hypothesis, photodissociation from the stretch/bend combination level of the smaller HOOH molecule produces more vibrationally excited OH fragments compared to that resulting from the corresponding state of CH3OOH. These results are investigated using second-order vibrational perturbation theory based on an internal coordinate representation of the normal modes. Consistent with the observations, the first-order correction to the wave function shows stronger coupling of the 2νOH+νOOH state to states with torsion excitation compared to the other bands considered in this study.

Spectroscopic snapshots of the proton-transfer mechanism in water.

The Grotthuss mechanism explains the anomalously high proton mobility in water as a sequence of proton transfers along a hydrogen-bonded (H-bonded) network. However, the vibrational spectroscopic signatures of this process are masked by the diffuse nature of the key bands in bulk water. Here we report how the much simpler vibrational spectra of cold, composition-selected heavy water clusters, D+(D2O)n, can be exploited to capture clear markers that encode the collective reaction coordinate along the proton-transfer event. By complexing the solvated hydronium "Eigen" cluster [D3O+(D2O)3] with increasingly strong H-bond acceptor molecules (D2, N2, CO, and D2O), we are able to track the frequency of every O-D stretch vibration in the complex as the transferring hydron is incrementally pulled from the central hydronium to a neighboring water molecule.

Microhydration of contact ion pairs in M(2+)OH(-)(H2O)(n=1-5) (M = Mg, Ca) clusters: spectral manifestations of a mobile proton defect in the first hydration shell.

Vibrational predissociation spectra of D2-"tagged" Mg(2+)OH(-)(H2O)n=1-6 and Ca(2+)OH(-)(H2O)n=1-5 clusters are reported to explore how the M(2+)OH(-) contact ion pairs respond to stepwise formation of the first hydration shell. In both cases, the hydroxide stretching frequency is found to red-shift strongly starting with addition of the third water molecule, quickly becoming indistinguishable from nonbonded OH groups associated with solvent water molecules by n = 5. A remarkably broad feature centered around 3200 cm(-1) and spanning up to ∼1000 cm(-1) appears for the n ≥ 4 clusters that we assign to a single-donor ionic hydrogen bond between a proximal first solvent shell water molecule and the embedded hydroxide ion. The extreme broadening is rationalized with a theoretical model that evaluates the range of local OH stretching frequencies predicted for the heavy particle configurations available in the zero-point vibrational wave function describing the low-frequency modes. The implication of this treatment is that extreme broadening in the vibrational spectrum need not arise from thermal fluctuations in the ion ensemble, but can rather reflect combination bands based on the OH stretching fundamental that involve many quanta of low-frequency modes whose displacements strongly modulate the OH stretching frequency.