Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol.105, No.5, 1933-1939, 1996
Approaches to Bifurcating Reaction-Path
The intrinsic reaction path (IRP) often becomes unstable relative to some nontotally symmetric direction orthogonal to the path through a valley-ridge inflection point. We investigate geometric characters of the potential energy surface around the valley-ridge inflection boundary, and propose some ideas to determine a bifurcating reaction path, or to give a two-dimensional potential energy surface which connects bifurcating point and product regions. As a demonstration, bifurcating reaction paths are calculated for the isomerization reaction of methoxy radical (H3CO-->H2COH) by the unrestricted Hartne-Fock (UHF) method.
Keywords:POTENTIAL-ENERGY SURFACES;INTRINSIC REACTION COORDINATE;TRANSITION-STATE THEORY;QUADRATIC STEEPEST DESCENT;GRADIENT EXTREMALS;CHEMICAL-REACTIONS;SYMMETRY RULES;POLYATOMIC SYSTEMS;REACTION DYNAMICS;BRANCHING POINTS