An MP2 and density functional study of the oxides of nitrogen

by Munakata, H.; Kakumoto, T.; Baker, J.

Equilibrium geometries, harmonic vibrational frequencies, atomization energies and heats of formation have been calculated for seven neutral oxides of nitrogen and compared with experimental values. We used standard Hartree-Fock and MP2 wavefunctions, together with local (SVWN), non-local (BP, BLYP) and hybrid HF-DFT (ACM or B3-PW91) density functionals. A good quality triple-zeta double polarization (TZ2P) gaussian basis was used throughout. Results using the ACM functional are by far the best, further emphasizing the quality and practical utility of hybrid density functionals for the prediction of molecular geometries and energetics. Local DFT predicts strongly exothermic heats of formation for all the nitrogen oxides except NO, in direct contradiction to experiment. Our ACM calculations predict that N2O5 has a C-2 equilibrium structure with the NO2 groups twisted with respect to the central ONO plane by 31.6 degrees, in excellent agreement with gas phase electron diffraction data.

Journal
Journal of Molecular Structure-Theochem
Volume
391
Issue
3
Year
1997
Start Page
231-240
URL
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0166-1280(96)04788-4
ISBN/ISSN
0166-1280
DOI
10.1016/s0166-1280(96)04788-4