James S. M. Anderson

How Ambiguous Is the Local Kinetic Energy

The local kinetic energy and the closely related local electronic stress tensor are commonly used to elucidate chemical bonding patterns, especially for covalent bonds. We use three different approaches-transformation properties of the stress tensor, quasiprobability distributions, and the virial theorem from density-functional theory-to clarify the inherent ambiguity in these quantities, discussing the implications for analyses based on the local kinetic energy and stress tensor. An expansive-but not universal-family of local kinetic energy forms that includes the most common choices and is suitable for both chemical-bonding and atoms-in-molecule analysis is derived. A family of local electronic stress tensors is also derived. Several local kinetic energy functions that are mathematically justified, but unlikely to be conceptually useful, are derived. The implications of these forms for atoms-in-molecule analysis are discussed.

Relationships between the third-order reactivity indicators in chemical density-functional theory

Relationships between third-order reactivity indicators in the closed system [N, v(r)], open system [mu, v(r)], and density [rho(r)] pictures are derived. Our method of derivation unifies and extends known results. Among the relationships is a link between the third-order response of the energy to changes in the density and the quadratic response of the density to changes in external potential. This provides a link between hyperpolarizability and the systems sensitivity to changes in electron density. The dual descriptor is a unifying feature of many of the formulas we derive.

In pursuit of negative Fukui functions: examples where the highest occupied molecular orbital fails to dominate the chemical reactivity

AbstractIn our quest to explore molecules with chemically significant regions where the Fukui function is negative, we explored reactions where the frontier orbital that indicates the sites for electrophilic attack is not the highest occupied molecular orbital. The highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) controls the location of the regions where the Fukui function is negative, supporting the postulate that negative values of the Fukui function are associated with orbital relaxation effects and nodal surfaces of the frontier orbitals. Significant negative values for the condensed Fukui function, however, were not observed. FigureThe −10−5isosurface of

Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules: Results for the SR-ZORA Hamiltonian

{f^{-}}\left( \mathbf{r} \right)

Kinetic and electron-electron energies for convex sums of ground state densities with degeneracies and fractional electron number

(opaque silver surface) traces the nodal regions of the HOMO (translucent colored lobes, with different colors for different phases) of the phenoxide anion

Relativistic (SR-ZORA) quantum theory of atoms in molecules properties

Modified ANO-RCC basis sets are used to determine twelve molecular graphs of the Ehrenfest force for H2, CH4, CH2O, CH3NO, C2H2, C2H4, C3H3NO, N4H4, H2O, (H2O)2, (H2O)4 and (H2O)6. The molecular graphs include all types of topological critical points and a mix of bonding types is chosen to include sigma-, π- and hydrogen-bonding. We then compare a wide range of point properties: charge density, trace of the Hessian, eigenvalues, ellipticity, stiffness, total local energy and the eigenvectors are calculated at the bond critical points (BCPs) and compared for the Ehrenfest, QTAIM and stress tensor schemes. QTAIM is found to be the only partitioning scheme that can differentiate between shared- and closed-shell chemical bond types. Only the results from the Ehrenfest force partitioning, however, are demonstrated to be physically intuitive. This is demonstrated for the water molecule, the water-dimer and the water clusters (H2O)4 and (H2O)6. In particular, both the stiffness and the trace of the Hessians of the appropriate quantities of the sigma-bond BCPs for the water clusters are found to depend on the quantum topology dimension of the molecular graph. The behavior of all the stress tensor point properties is found to be erratic. This is explained by the ambiguity in the theoretical definition of the stress tensor. As a complementary approach the Ehrenfest force provides a new indicator of the mixed chemical character of the hydrogen-bond BCP, which arises from the collinear donor sigma-bond donating a degree of covalent character to the hydrogen-bond. This indicator takes the form of the relative orientation of the shallowest direction of the Ehrenfest potential of the hydrogen-bond BCPs and the corresponding direction for the collinear sigma-bond BCP.

A reference-free stockholder partitioning method based on the force on electrons

The quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) is generalized to include relativistic effects using the popular scalar-relativistic zeroth-order regular approximation (SR-ZORA). It is usually assumed that the definition of the atom as a volume bounded by a zero-flux surface of the electron density is closely linked to the form of the kinetic energy, so it is somewhat surprising that the atoms corresponding to the relativistic kinetic-energy operator in the SR-ZORA Hamiltonian are also bounded by zero-flux surfaces. The SR-ZORA Hamiltonian should be sufficient for qualitative descriptions of molecular electronic structure across the periodic table, which suggests that QTAIM-based analysis can be useful for molecules and solids containing heavy atoms.

Negative Condensed-to-Atom Fukui Functions: A Signature of Oxidation-Induced Reduction of Functional Groups

AbstractA justification for the likely presence of negative Fukui functions in molecules with small band gaps is given, and a computational study performed to check whether molecules with small band gaps have negative Fukui functions to a chemically significant extent is reported. While regions with negative Fukui functions were observed, significantly negative values for the atom-condensed Fukui functions were not observed. FigureThe silver surface encapsulates the negative regions of the Fukui function, which occur in nodal regions of the HOMO (translucent colored lobes, with different colors for different phases) for this phenalenyl biradical.