Xiubin Zhang

An ab initio potential surface describing abstraction and exchange for H+CH4

We report an ab initio-based global potential energy surface for H+CH4 that describes the abstraction and exchange reactions. The PES, which is invariant with respect to any permutation of five H atoms, is a fit to 20,728 electronic energies calculated using the partially spin-restricted coupled-cluster method (RCCSD(T)) with a moderately large basis (aug-cc-pVTZ). A first set of quasiclassical trajectory calculations using this PES are reported for the H+CD4-->HD+CD3 reaction at collision energies of 0.65 and 1.52 eV and are compared to experiment and recent direct dynamics calculations done with density functional theory.

Quasiclassical trajectory study of the reaction H+CH4(ν3=0,1)→CH3+H2 using a new ab initio potential energy surface

Detailed quasiclassical trajectory calculations of the reaction H+CH4(nu3 = 0,1)-->CH3 + H2 using a slightly updated version of a recent ab initio-based CH5 potential energy surface [X. Zhang et al., J. Chem. Phys. 124, 021104 (2006)] are reported. The reaction cross sections are calculated at initial relative translational energies of 1.52, 1.85, and 2.20 eV in order to make direct comparison with experiment. The relative reaction cross section enhancement ratio due to the excitation of the C-H antisymmetric stretch varies from 2.2 to 3.0 over this energy range, in good agreement with the experimental result of 3.0 +/- 1.5 [J. P. Camden et al., J. Chem. Phys. 123, 134301 (2005)]. The laboratory-frame speed and center-of-mass angular distributions of CH3 are calculated as are the vibrational and rotational distributions of H2 and CH3. We confirm that this reaction occurs with a combination of stripping and rebound mechanisms by presenting the impact parameter dependence of these distributions and also by direct examination of trajectories.

Quasiclassical trajectory study of formaldehyde unimolecular dissociation: H2CO→H2+CO, H+HCO

We report quasiclassical trajectory calculations of the dynamics of the two reaction channels of formaldehyde dissociation on a global ab initio potential energy surface: the molecular channel H(2)CO-->H(2) + CO and the radical H(2)CO-->H + HCO. For the molecular channel, it is confirmed that above the threshold of the radical channel a second, intramolecular hydrogen abstraction pathway is opened to produce CO with low rotation and vibrationally hot H(2). The low-j(CO) and high-nu(H(2) ) products from the second pathway increase with the total energy. The competition between the molecular and radical pathways is also studied. It shows that the branching ratio of the molecular products decreases with increasing energy, while the branching ratio of the radical products increases. The results agree well with very recent velocity-map imaging experiments of Suits and co-workers and solves a mystery first posed by Moore and co-workers. For the radical channel, we present the translational energy distributions and HCO rotation distributions at various energies. There is mixed agreement with the experiments of Wittig and co-workers, and this provides an indirect confirmation of their speculation that the triplet surface plays a role in the formation of the radical products.

Signatures of H2CO photodissociation from two electronic states.

Even in small molecules, the influence of electronic state on rotational and vibrational product energies is not well understood. Here, we use experiments and theory to address this issue in photodissociation of formaldehyde, H2CO, to the radical products H + HCO. These products result from dissociation from the singlet ground electronic state or the first excited triplet state (T1) of H2CO. Fluorescence spectra reveal a sudden decrease in the HCO rotational energy with increasing photolysis energy accompanied by substantial HCO vibrational excitation. Calculations of the rotational distribution using an ab initio potential energy surface for the T1 state are in very good agreement with experiment and strongly support dominance of the T1 state in the dynamics at the higher photolysis energies.

New insights on reaction dynamics from formaldehyde photodissociation

We review the photodissociation dynamics of formaldehyde with an emphasis on recent calculations that make use of a global ab initio-based potential energy surface for the S(0) state. These calculations together with recent experiments reveal striking departures from conventional transition state theory for the formation of the molecular products H(2) + CO. The evidence for this departure is reviewed in detail by examining properties of the new potential surface and results of quasiclassical trajectory dynamics calculations using this surface. We also review very recent work on the dynamics governing the formation of radical products, H + HCO. These products can be formed on the T(1) surface as well as the S(0) one, and we present some results contrasting the dynamics on these two surfaces. This work makes use of a new semi-global ab initio-based T(1) potential energy surface.

Normal-mode analysis without the Hessian: A driven molecular-dynamics approach

We point out that normal modes and frequencies of molecules and molecular complexes can be obtained directly from a harmonically driven molecular dynamics calculation. We illustrate this approach for HOD and H 5 O 2 + and then discuss its potential advantages over the standard Hessian-based approach for large molecules.