Molecular beam electric deflection measurements have been used to determine electric susceptibilities for small unsolvated alanine-based peptides. The electric susceptibility provides information about the charge distribution within the peptide and can be used to distinguish between zwitterionic and canonical forms. Measured electric susceptibilities for WAn peptides (n = 1-5) are similar to th...

The cyclopropene radical cation (c-C3H₄⁺) is an important but poorly characterized three-membered-ring hydrocarbon. We report on a measurement of the high-resolution photoelectron and photoionization spectra of cyclopropene and several deuterated isotopomers, from which we have determined the rovibrational energy level structure of the X⁺ (2)B2 ground electronic state of c-C3H₄⁺ at low energies...

N-alkoxyheterocycles can act as powerful one-electron acceptors in photochemical electron-transfer reactions. One-electron reduction of these species results in formation of a radical that undergoes N-O bond fragmentation to form an alkoxy radical and a neutral heterocycle. The kinetics of this N-O bond fragmentation reaction have been determined for a series of radicals with varying substituen...

An improved density matrix functional [correction to Buijse and Baerends functional (BBC)] is proposed, in which a hierarchy of physically motivated repulsive corrections is employed to the strongly overbinding functional of Buijse and Baerends (BB). The first correction C1 restores the repulsive exchange-correlation (xc) interaction between electrons in weakly occupied natural orbitals (NOs) a...

To understand the tribological properties of Ne and Kr on Pb(111), the potential energy surfaces for sliding motion of Ne, Kr, and Xe monolayers on the Pb(111) surface are examined through density functional calculations, using either local density or self-consistent nonlocal van der Waals functionals. The calculated adsorption energy for Xe/Pb(111) agrees well with experiment, validating the p...

We have investigated the lowest energy structures and interaction energies of the oxygen nitrous oxide complex (O2-N2O) using explicitly correlated coupled cluster theory. We find that the intermolecular potential energy surface of O2-N2O is very flat, with two minima of comparable energy separated by a low energy first order saddle point. Our results are able to conclusively distinguish betwee...

Carbenes represent a special class of reactive compounds that possess a lone pair of electrons on a carbon atom. Among the myriad examples of carbenes in the literature, cyclobutylidene stands out as a unique nonclassical compound that includes transannular interaction between opposing C1 and C3 carbon atoms within a four-membered ring. On its lowest potential energy surface (X[combining tilde]...

An ab initio investigation of the potential energy surfaces and vibrational energies and wave functions of the anion, neutral, and cation Cu(H(2)O) complexes is presented. The equilibrium geometries and harmonic frequencies of the three charge states of Cu(H(2)O) are calculated at the MP2 level of theory. CCSD(T) calculations predict a vertical electron detachment energy for the anion complex o...

A potential energy surface for the lowest quartet electronic state ((4)A(')) of lithium trimer is developed and used to study spin-polarized Li+Li(2) collisions at ultralow kinetic energies. The potential energy surface allows barrierless atom exchange reactions. Elastic and inelastic cross sections are calculated for collisions involving a variety of rovibrational states of Li(2). Inelastic co...