Showing papers in "Molecular Physics in 2015"

Advances in molecular quantum chemistry contained in the Q-Chem 4 program package

Abstract: A summary of the technical advances that are incorporated in the fourth major release of the Q-Chem quantum chemistry program is provided, covering approximately the last seven years. These include developments in density functional theory methods and algorithms, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) property evaluation, coupled cluster and perturbation theories, methods for electronically excited and open-shell species, tools for treating extended environments, algorithms for walking on potential surfaces, analysis tools, energy and electron transfer modelling, parallel computing capabilities, and graphical user interfaces. In addition, a selection of example case studies that illustrate these capabilities is given. These include extensive benchmarks of the comparative accuracy of modern density functionals for bonded and non-bonded interactions, tests of attenuated second order Moller–Plesset (MP2) methods for intermolecular interactions, a variety of parallel performance benchmarks, and tests of the accuracy of implicit solvation models. Some specific chemical examples include calculations on the strongly correlated Cr_2 dimer, exploring zeolite-catalysed ethane dehydrogenation, energy decomposition analysis of a charged ter-molecular complex arising from glycerol photoionisation, and natural transition orbitals for a Frenkel exciton state in a nine-unit model of a self-assembling nanotube.

A new equation for calculation of chemical hardness of groups and molecules

Abstract: Chemical hardness is considered to be a useful theoretical descriptor in many experimental and theoretical studies and this concept has several important applications in chemistry. In this study, an equation for atomic hardness is proposed. Following the equation for atomic hardness which is based on charges, ionisation energies and electron affinities of atoms, a new equation is obtained for the calculation of the chemical hardness of groups and molecules using the atomic hardness equation and the principle of chemical hardness equalisation. Molecular chemical hardness may be calculated using α and β parameters of atoms in a molecule or group through the use of the obtained molecular hardness equation. Furthermore, the advantage of this equation over other equations in the literature is that using this equation the chemical hardness of the charged groups and molecules can also be calculated. Besides, the relationship between molecular hardness and charge of molecule is examined using the results obtained...

The A in SAFT: developing the contribution of association to the Helmholtz free energy within a Wertheim TPT1 treatment of generic Mie fluids

Abstract: An accurate representation of molecular association is a vital ingredient of advanced equations of state (EOSs), providing a description of thermodynamic properties of complex fluids where hydrogen bonding plays an important role. The combination of the first-order thermodynamic perturbation theory (TPT1) of Wertheim for associating systems with an accurate description of the structural and thermodynamic properties of the monomer fluid forms the basis of the statistical associating fluid theory (SAFT) family of EOSs. The contribution of association to the free energy in SAFT and related EOSs is very sensitive to the nature of intermolecular potential used to describe the monomers and, crucially, to the accuracy of the representation of the thermodynamic and structural properties. Here we develop an accurate description of the association contribution for use within the recently developed SAFT-VR Mie framework for chain molecules formed from segments interacting through a Mie potential [T. Lafitte, A. Apos...

Local structure analysis in ab initio liquid water

Abstract: Within the framework of density functional theory, the inclusion of exact exchange and non-local van der Waals/dispersion (vdW) interactions is crucial for predicting a microscopic structure of ambient liquid water that quantitatively agrees with experiment. In this work, we have used the local structure index (LSI) order parameter to analyse the local structure in such highly accurate ab initio liquid water. At ambient conditions, the LSI probability distribution, P(I ), was unimodal with most water molecules characterised by more disordered high-density-like local environments. With thermal excitations removed, the resultant bimodal P(I ) in the inherent potential energy surface (IPES) exhibited a 3:1 ratio between high-density- and low-density-like molecules, with the latter forming small connected clusters amid the predominant population. By considering the spatial correlations and hydrogen bond network topologies among water molecules with the same LSI identities, we demonstrate that the signatures o...

SAFT-γ force field for the simulation of molecular fluids: 4. A single-site coarse-grained model of water applicable over a wide temperature range

Abstract: In this work, we develop coarse-grained (CG) force fields for water, where the effective CG intermolecular interactions between particles are estimated from an accurate description of the macroscopic experimental vapour–liquid equilibria data by means of a molecular-based equation of state. The statistical associating fluid theory for Mie (generalised Lennard-Jones) potentials of variable range (SAFT-VR Mie) is used to parameterise spherically symmetrical (isotropic) force fields for water. The resulting SAFT-γ CG models are based on the Mie (8-6) form with size and energy parameters that are temperature dependent; the latter dependence is a consequence of the angle averaging of the directional polar interactions present in water. At the simplest level of CG where a water molecule is represented as a single bead, it is well known that an isotropic potential cannot be used to accurately reproduce all of the thermodynamic properties of water simultaneously. In order to address this deficiency, we propose tw...

Coupled-cluster reference values for the GW27 and GW100 test sets for the assessment of GW methods

Abstract: The vertical ionisation energies of the molecules of the GW27 (27 molecules) and GW100 (100 molecules) test sets are computed in a polarised triple-zeta-valence basis set in the framework of coupled-cluster theory with single, double, and non-iterative triple substitutions. The molecular geometries were kept fixed to those of the two test sets. To demonstrate the usefulness of the coupled-cluster reference values, they are compared with quasi-particle energies obtained in the G0W0 approximation for functionals commonly used in Kohn–Sham density-functional theory (DFT). Furthermore, an approximation is assessed, in which only exchange contributions are added to the DFT orbital energies.

Explicitly correlated MRCI-F12 potential energy surfaces for methane fit with several permutation invariant schemes and full-dimensional vibrational calculations

Abstract: A data-set of nearly 100,000 symmetry unique multi-configurational ab initio points for methane were generated at the (AE)-MRCI-F12(Q)/CVQZ-F12 level, including energies beyond 30,000 cm−1 above the minimum and fit into potential energy surfaces (PESs) by several permutation invariant schemes. A multi-expansion interpolative fit combining interpolating moving least squares (IMLS) fitting and permutation invariant polynomials (PIP) was able to fit the complete data-set to a root-mean-square deviation of 1.0 cm−1 and thus was used to benchmark the other fitting methods. The other fitting methods include a single PIP expansion and two neural network (NN) based approaches, one of which combines NN with PIP. Full-dimensional variational vibrational calculations using a contracted-iterative method (and a Lanczos eigensolver) were used to assess the spectroscopic accuracy of the electronic structure method. The results show that the NN-based fitting approaches are able to fit the data-set remarkably accurately w...

The cc-pV5Z-F12 basis set: reaching the basis set limit in explicitly correlated calculations

Abstract: We have developed and benchmarked a new extended basis set for explicitly correlated calculations, namely cc-pV5Z-F12. It is offered in two variants, cc-pV5Z-F12 and cc-pV5Z-F12(rev2), the latter of which has additional basis functions on hydrogen not present in the cc-pVnZ-F12 (n = D,T,Q) sequence. A large uncontracted ‘reference’ basis set is used for benchmarking. cc-pVnZ-F12 (n = D–5) is shown to be a convergent hierarchy. Especially the cc-pV5Z-F12(rev2) basis set can yield the valence CCSD (coupled cluster with all single and double substitutions) component of total atomisation energies, without any extrapolation, to an accuracy normally associated with aug-cc-pV{5,6}Z extrapolations. Hartree-Fock self-consistent field (SCF) components are functionally at the basis set limit, while the MP2 limit can be approached to as little as 0.01 kcal/mol without extrapolation. The determination of (T) appears to be the most difficult of the three components and cannot presently be accomplished without extrapola...

A corresponding-states framework for the description of the Mie family of intermolecular potentials

Abstract: The Mie (λr, λa) intermolecular pair potential has been suggested as an alternative to the traditional Lennard–Jones (12–6) potential for modelling real systems both via simulation and theory as its implementation leads to an accuracy and flexibility in the determination of thermophysical properties that cannot be obtained when potentials of fixed range are considered. An additional advantage of using variable-range potentials is noted in the development of coarse-grained models where, as the superatoms become larger, the effective potentials are seen to become softer. However, the larger number of parameters that characterise the Mie potential (λr, λa, σ, ϵ) can hinder a rational study of the particular effects that each individual parameter have on the observed thermodynamic properties and phase equilibria, and higher degeneracy of models is observed. Here a three-parameter corresponding states model is presented in which a cohesive third parameter α is proposed following a perturbation expansion and as...

On the exact formulation of multi-configuration density-functional theory: electron density versus orbitals occupation

Abstract: The exact formulation of multi-configuration density-functional theory is discussed in this work. As an alternative to range-separated methods, where electron correlation effects are split in the coordinate space, the combination of configuration interaction methods with orbital occupation functionals is explored at the formal level through the separation of correlation effects in the orbital space. When applied to model Hamiltonians, this approach leads to an exact site-occupation embedding theory (SOET). An adiabatic connection expression is derived for the complementary bath functional and a comparison with density matrix embedding theory is made. Illustrative results are given for the simple two-site Hubbard model. SOET is then applied to a quantum chemical Hamiltonian, thus leading to an exact complete active space site-occupation functional theory (CASSOFT) where active electrons are correlated explicitly within the CAS and the remaining contributions to the correlation energy are described with an ...

The calculated rovibronic spectrum of scandium hydride, ScH

Abstract: The electronic structure of six low-lying electronic states of scandium hydride, X 1Σ+, a 3Δ, b 3Π, A 1Δ, c 3Σ+ and B 1Π, is studied using multi-reference configuration interaction as a function of bond length. Diagonal and off-diagonal dipole moment, spin–orbit coupling and electronic angular momentum curves are also computed. The results are benchmarked against experimental measurements and calculations on atomic scandium. The resulting curves are used to compute a line list of molecular rovibronic transitions for 45ScH.

A systematic study of chloride ion solvation in water using van der Waals inclusive hybrid density functional theory

Abstract: In this work, the solvation and electronic structure of the aqueous chloride ion solution was investigated using density functional theory (DFT) based ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD). From an analysis of radial distribution functions, coordination numbers, and solvation structures, we found that exact exchange (Exx) and non-local van der Waals (vdW) interactions effectively weaken the interactions between the Cl− ion and the first solvation shell. With a Cl–O coordination number in excellent agreement with experiment, we found that most configurations generated with vdW-inclusive hybrid DFT exhibit sixfold coordinated distorted trigonal prism structures, which is indicative of a significantly disordered first solvation shell. By performing a series of band structure calculations on configurations generated from AIMD simulations with varying DFT potentials, we found that the solvated ion orbital energy levels (unlike the band structure of liquid water) strongly depend on the underlying molecular struct...

A molecular dynamics simulation on the convective heat transfer in nanochannels

Abstract: The understanding of the flow and heat transfer processes for fluid through micro- and nanochannels becomes imperative due to its wide application in micro- and nano-fluidic devices. In this paper, the method to simulate the convective heat transfer process in molecular dynamics is improved based on a previous study. With this method, we simulate a warm dense fluid flowing through a cold parallel-plate nanochannel with constant wall temperature. The characteristics of the velocity and temperature fields are analysed. The temperature difference between the bulk average temperature of fluid and the wall temperature decreases in an exponential form along the flow direction. The Nusselt number for the laminar flow in parallel-plate nanochannel is smaller than its corresponding value at macroscale. It could be attributed to the temperature jump at the fluid–wall interface, which decreases the temperature gradient near the wall. The results also reveal that the heat transfer coefficient is related to the surfac...

Benchmarking the completely renormalised equation-of-motion coupled-cluster approaches for vertical excitation energies

Abstract: The vertical excitation energies for a comprehensive test set of about 150 singlet excited states of 28 medium-sized organic molecules computed using two variants of the completely renormalised (CR) equation-of-motion (EOM) coupled-cluster (CC) method with singles, doubles, and non-iterative triples, abbreviated as δ-CR-EOMCCSD(T), and the analogous two variants of the newer, left-eigenstate δ-CR-EOMCC(2,3) approach are benchmarked against the previously published CASPT2, CC3, and EOMCCSDT-3 results, as well as the suggested theoretical best estimate (TBE) values. The δ-CR-EOMCC approaches are also used to identify and characterise about 50 additional excited states, including several states having substantial two-electron excitation components, which have not been found in the previous work and which can be used in future benchmark studies. It is demonstrated that the non-iterative triples corrections to the EOMCCSD excitation energies defining the relatively inexpensive, single-reference, black-box δ-CR...

Water: one molecule, two surfaces, one mistake

Abstract: In order to rigorously evaluate the energy and dipole moment of a certain configuration of molecules, one needs to solve the Schrodinger equation. Repeating this for many different configurations allows one to determine the potential energy surface (PES) and the dipole moment surface (DMS). Since the early days of computer simulation, it has been implicitly accepted that for empirical potentials the charges used to fit the PES should also be used to describe the DMS. This is a mistake. Partial charges are not observable magnitudes. They should be regarded as adjustable fitting parameters. Optimal values used to describe the PES are not necessarily the best to describe the DMS. One could use two fits: one for the PES and the other for the DMS. This is a common practice in the quantum chemistry community, but not used so often by the community performing computer simulations. This idea affects all types of modelling of water (with the exception of ab initio calculations) from coarse-grained to non-polarisab...

Controlled synthesis and analysis of He–H+3 in a 3.7 K ion trap

Abstract: Complexes of the triatomic hydrogen ion with helium were synthesised in a low-temperature 22-pole rf ion trap at He number densities of up to 1016 cm−3. Absolute ternary rate coefficients for sequentially attaching He atoms have been determined from the growth of complexes with increasing storage time. The number of helium-tagged ions is significantly reduced when increasing the nominal temperature from 4 to 25 K. Competition between attachment and dissociation via collisions leads to stationary Hen–H+3 (n up to 9) distributions. State-specific excitation of the trapped H+3 ions via IR transitions significantly reduces the formation of complexes. Tuning the laser to Δv2 = 1 transitions in the range of 2726 cm−1 leads to LIICG lines, i.e., to spectra caused by laser-induced inhibition of complex growth. In addition, almost 100 lines have been found between 2700 and 2765 cm−1, which are attributed to laser-induced dissociation of the in situ formed He–H+3 complex ions. These lines are not yet assigned; howe...

Decorated graphyne and its boron nitride analogue as versatile nanomaterials for CO detection

Abstract: The sensitivity of a new two-dimensional (2D) carbon allotrope built from sp- and sp2-hybridised carbon atoms, graphyne (GY), as well as its boron nitride analogue (BN-yne) towards CO molecule has been theoretically investigated. Indeed, a theoretical understanding of the interaction between gas molecules and extended carbon-based network structures is crucial for developing new materials that could have a wide range of applications. Here, we report our first-principles calculations to explore the impact of metal decoration on the GY and BN-yne upon the CO adsorption. We predict that Ca and Li decorations significantly enhance the CO-sensing ability of the GY and BN-yne compared to that of their pristine sheets. Owing to strong interactions between CO and the decorated GY and BN-yne, dramatic changes in the electronic properties of the sheets together with large band gap variations were observed. The present study sheds a deep insight into the sensing properties of the novel carbon-based 2D structures bey...

The importance of OH radical–neutral low temperature tunnelling reactions in interstellar clouds using a new model

Abstract: Recent laboratory experiments using a pulsed Laval nozzle apparatus have shown that reactions between a neutral molecule and the radical OH can occur efficiently at low temperatures despite activation energy barriers if there is a hydrogen-bonded complex in the entrance channel which allows the system to tunnel efficiently under the barrier. Since OH is a major radical in the interstellar medium, this class of reactions may well be important in the chemistry that occurs in the gas phase of interstellar clouds. Using a new gas-grain chemical network with both gas-phase reactions and reactions on the surfaces of dust particles, we studied the role of OH–neutral reactions in dense interstellar clouds at 10, 50, and 100 K. We determined that at least one of these reactions can be significant, especially at the lowest temperatures studied, where the rate constants are large. It was found in particular that the reaction between CH3OH and OH provides an effective and unambiguous gas-phase route to the production...

Atomistic molecular dynamics simulations of H 2O diffusivity in liquid and supercritical CO 2

Abstract: Molecular dynamics simulations were employed for the calculation of diffusion coefficients of pure CO2 and of H2O in CO2 over a wide range of temperatures (298.15 K < T < 523.15 K) and pressures (5.0 MPa < P < 100.0 MPa), that are of interest to CO2 capture-and-sequestration processes. Various combinations of existing fixed-point-charge force-fields for H2O (TIP4P/2005 and Exponential-6) and CO2 (elementary physical model 2 [EPM2], transferable potentials for phase equilibria [TraPPE], and Exponential-6) were tested. All force-field combinations qualitatively reproduce the trends of the experimental data for infinitely diluted H2O in CO2; however, TIP4P/2005–EPM2, TIP4P/2005–TraPPE and Exponential-6–Exponential-6 were found to be the most consistent. Additionally, for H2O compositions ranging from infinite dilution to , the Maxwell–Stefan diffusion coefficient is shown to have a weak non-linear composition dependence.

Conformational, electronic and antioxidant properties of lucidone, linderone and methyllinderone: DFT, QTAIM and NBO studies

Abstract: Theoretical studies on lucidone, linderone and methyllinderone were performed to investigate factors that contribute to structural stability and to elucidate the antioxidant properties and mechanisms. The study was performed in different media utilising the density functional theory with different functionals and the 6-311+ G(d,p) basis set. The antioxidant activity has been considered through the electron transfer and metal chelation mechanisms. The results show that the stability of the tautomers and conformers is due to the presence of several intramolecular hydrogen bonds. The ionisation potential values suggest that the antiradical activity increases with the increase in the number of OCH3 groups substituted on the cyclopentene-1,3-dione ring. In vacuo, the spin density of the Fe(II) cation upon ligand coordination decreases to 3.0−3.5, whereas the ligand spin density approaches 1, indicating that it is oxidised to a radical cation. The metal ion affinity (MIA) is influenced by the position and numbe...

Compressive sampling in configuration interaction wavefunctions

Abstract: The problem is considered of generating approximate quantum-mechanical wavefunctions that have as many as possible coefficients held exactly to zero for a given desired accuracy. Two approaches are adopted. In the first, perturbation theory within the Davidson diagonalisation algorithm is used to mask off small coefficients in the wavefunction against a predefined target energy threshold. Second, sparsity is introduced by penalty-function optimisation, with a norm-based compressive-sampling penalty function that decreases with increasing sparsity. The first approach is found to be robust and reliable, whereas the second does not succeed in keeping the wavefunction sparse.

Efficient implementation of the analytic second derivatives of Hartree–Fock and hybrid DFT energies: a detailed analysis of different approximations

Abstract: In this paper, various implementations of the analytic Hartree–Fock and hybrid density functional energy second derivatives are studied. An approximation-free four-centre implementation is presented, and its accuracy is rigorously analysed in terms of self-consistent field (SCF), coupled-perturbed SCF (CP-SCF) convergence and prescreening criteria. The CP-SCF residual norm convergence threshold turns out to be the most important of these. Final choices of convergence thresholds are made such that an accuracy of the vibrational frequencies of better than 5 cm−1 compared to the numerical noise-free results is obtained, even for the highly sensitive low frequencies (<100–200 cm−1). The effects of the choice of numerical grid for density functional exchange–correlation integrations are studied and various weight derivative schemes are analysed in detail. In the second step of the work, approximations are introduced in order to speed up the computation without compromising its accuracy. To this end, the accura...

Nuclear quantum effects in liquid water from path-integral simulations using an ab initio force-matching approach

Abstract: We have applied path integral simulations, in combination with new ab initio based water potentials, to investigate nuclear quantum effects in liquid water. Because direct ab initio path integral simulations are computationally expensive, a flexible water model is parameterised by force-matching to density functional theory-based molecular dynamics simulations. Static and dynamic properties of liquid water at ambient conditions are presented and the role of nuclear quantum effects, exchange-correlation functionals and dispersion corrections are discussed in regards to reproducing the experimental properties of liquid water.

Wavefunction stability analysis without analytical electronic Hessians: application to orbital-optimised second-order Møller–Plesset theory and VV10-containing density functionals

Abstract: Wavefunction stability analysis is commonly applied to converged self-consistent field (SCF) solutions to verify whether the electronic energy is a local minimum with respect to second-order variations in the orbitals. By iterative diagonalisation, the procedure calculates the lowest eigenvalue of the stability matrix or electronic Hessian. However, analytical expressions for the electronic Hessian are unavailable for most advanced post-Hartree–Fock (HF) wave function methods and even some Kohn–Sham (KS) density functionals. To address such cases, we formulate the Hessian-vector product within the iterative diagonalisation procedure as a finite difference of the electronic gradient with respect to orbital perturbations in the direction of the vector. As a model application, following the lowest eigenvalue of the orbital-optimised second-order Moller–Plesset perturbation theory (OOMP2) Hessian during H2 dissociation reveals the surprising stability of the spin-restricted solution at all separations, with a...

Nanopore wall effect on surface tension of methane

Abstract: Local pressure is known to be anisotropic across the interfaces separating fluids in equilibrium. Tangential pressure profiles show characteristic negative peaks as a result of surface tension forces parallel to the interface. Nearby attractive forces parallel to the interface are larger than the repulsive forces and, hence, constitute the surface tension. In this work, using molecular dynamics simulations of methane inside nano-scale pores, we show this surface tension behaviour could be significantly influenced by confinement effects. The layering structure, characterised by damped oscillations in local liquid density and tangential pressures, extends deep into the pore and can be a few nanometers thick. The surface tension is measured numerically using local pressures across the interface. Results show that the tension is smaller under confinement and becomes a variable in small pores, mainly controlled by the thickness of the liquid density layering (or liquid saturation) and the pore width. If the li...

Hybrid variational–perturbation method for calculating ro-vibrational energy levels of polyatomic molecules

Abstract: A procedure for calculation of rotational–vibrational states of medium-sized molecules is presented. It combines the advantages of variational calculations and perturbation theory. The vibrational problem is solved by diagonalising a Hamiltonian matrix, which is partitioned into two sub-blocks. The first, smaller sub-block includes matrix elements with the largest contribution to the energy levels targeted in the calculations. The second, larger sub-block comprises those basis states which have little effect on these energy levels. Numerical perturbation theory, implemented as a Jacobi rotation, is used to compute the contributions from the matrix elements of the second sub-block. Only the first sub-block needs to be stored in memory and diagonalised. Calculations of the vibrational–rotational energy levels also employ a partitioning of the Hamiltonian matrix into sub-blocks, each of which corresponds either to a single vibrational state or a set of resonating vibrational states, with all associated rotat...

Time scales of supercooled water and implications for reversible polyamorphism

Abstract: Deeply supercooled water exhibits complex dynamics with large density fluctuations, ice coarsening and characteristic time scales extending from picoseconds to milliseconds. Here, we discuss implications of these time scales as they pertain to two-phase coexistence and to molecular simulations of supercooled water. Specifically, we argue that it is possible to discount liquid–liquid criticality because the time scales imply that correlation lengths for such behaviour would be bounded by no more than a few nanometres. Similarly, it is possible to discount two-liquid coexistence because the time scales imply a bounded interfacial free energy that cannot grow in proportion to a macroscopic surface area. From time scales alone, therefore, we see that coexisting domains of differing density in supercooled water can be no more than nanoscale transient fluctuations.

All-electron segmented contraction basis sets of triple zeta valence quality for the fifth-row elements

Abstract: All-electron contracted Gaussian basis set of triple zeta valence quality plus polarisation functions (TZP) for the elements Cs, Ba, La, and from Hf to Rn is presented. Douglas–Kroll–Hess (DKH) basis set for fifth-row elements is also reported. We have recontracted the original TZP basis set, i.e., the values of the contraction coefficients are re-optimised using the second-order DKH Hamiltonian. By addition of diffuse functions (s, p, d, f, and g symmetries), which are optimised for the anion ground states, an augmented TZP basis set is constructed. Using the B3LYP hybrid functional, the performance of the TZP–DKH basis set is assessed for predicting atomic ionisation energy as well as spectroscopy constants of some compounds. Despite its compact size, this set demonstrates consistent, efficient, and reliable performance and will be especially useful in calculations of molecular properties that require explicit treatment of the core electrons.

Performance of SOPPA-based methods in the calculation of vertical excitation energies and oscillator strengths

Abstract: We present two new modifications of the second-order polarization propagator approximation (SOPPA), SOPPA(SCS-MP2) and SOPPA(SOS-MP2), which employ either spin-component-scaled or scaled opposite-spin MP2 correlation coefficients instead of the regular MP2 coefficients. The performance of these two methods, the original SOPPA method as well as SOPPA(CCSD) and RPA(D) in the calculation of vertical electronic excitation energies and oscillator strengths is investigated for a large benchmark set of 28 medium-sized molecules with 139 singlet and 71 triplet excited states. The results are compared with the corresponding CC3 and CASPT2 results from the literature for both the TZVP set and the larger and more diffuse aug-cc-pVTZ basis set. In addition, the results with the aug-cc-pVTZ basis set are compared with the theoretical best estimates for this benchmark set. We find that the original SOPPA method gives overall the smallest mean deviations from the reference values and the most consistent results.

Transport coefficients and the Stokes–Einstein relation in molten alkali halides with polarisable ion model

Abstract: A polarisable ion model is parameterised for the whole series of molten alkali halides by using first-principles calculations based on density functional theory. Viscosity, electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity are determined using molecular dynamics simulations via the Green–Kubo formulae and confronted to experimental results. The calculated transport coefficients are generally in much better agreement than those obtained with the empirical Fumi–Tosi potentials. The inclusion of polarisation effects significantly decreases the viscosity and thermal conductivity, while it increases the electrical conductivity. The individual dynamics of the ions is analysed using the Stokes–Einstein relation. The anion behaviour is always well represented using the slip boundary condition, while for cations there is an apparent shift from slip to stick condition when the ionic radius decreases. This difference is interpreted by subtle changes in their coordinating environment, which are maximised in the case o...