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Ab initio frozen density functional calculations of proton transfer reactions in solution

Journal Article · · Journal of Physical Chemistry
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/jp961068x· OSTI ID:420814
; ;  [1]
  1. Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
The recently developed frozen density functional theory (FDFT) is extended to ab initio free energy calculations of chemical reactions in solution. This method treats the solute-solvent system as a supermolecule but constrains the electron density of the solvent molecules. Unlike hybrid quantum mechanical/molecular mechanics techniques, FDFT represents the solvent quantum mechanically. The quality of the solute-solvent interaction potential is examined by generating clusters of a reacting system and several solvent molecules and comparing the supermolecule DFT energies to the corresponding FDFT energies. The FDFT potential surfaces for solute-solvent systems provide a good approximation of the supermolecule DFT surfaces and require, in some cases, several orders of magnitude less computation time (in particular if one treats many solvent molecules quantum mechanically). The ab initio free energy surface for the F{sup -} + HF {yields} FH + F{sup -} proton transfer reaction in solution is calculated using the corresponding `classical` empirical valence bond (EVB) potential surface as a reference potential. The encouraging results indicate that FDFT can be used to study chemical reactions in solution, capturing the quantum mechanical aspects of the solvent, which is not possible using hybrid quantum mechanical/molecular mechanics approaches. 38 refs., 7 figs.
DOE Contract Number:
FG03-94ER61945
OSTI ID:
420814
Journal Information:
Journal of Physical Chemistry, Journal Name: Journal of Physical Chemistry Journal Issue: 38 Vol. 100; ISSN JPCHAX; ISSN 0022-3654
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English