Journal of Physical Chemistry A, Vol.106, No.5, 731-742, 2002
Ab initio study of lower energy phenol -water(1 <= n <= 4) complexes: Interpretation of two distinct infrared patterns in spectra of phenol-water tetramer
The lower energy portion of the potential energy surface of the interaction between phenol and four water molecules is thoroughly studied at a variety of computational levels including HF, MP2, and B3LYP in conjunction with 6-31G(d) basis set and MP2/6-31+G(d). The aim of the present work is 2-fold: first, to juxtapose this potential energy surface with those of the phenol-water(n=1-3) Complexes, whose bottoms are occupied by the structures exhibiting 2D ring-type arrangement of water molecules, and second, to offer a new sound theoretical interpretation of the experimental results obtained by the Stanley and Castleman and by the Mikami and Ebata groups via demonstrating a firm existence of the lower energy phenol-water(4) isomer characterized by a three-dimensional arrangement of its water molecules. We show that it is precisely that isomer which is capable to provide a complete explanation of the puzzled "window" region in the IR stretching spectra of the phenol-water(4) complex. Its three-dimensionality originates due that one of its water molecules form a pi hydrogen bond with pi cloud of the phenol ring. We explain a sort of "magic" of the number four of water molecules interacting with phenol in terms of that the ability of the phenolic OH-group to accept a hydrogen bond from water molecule becomes nearly exhausted when three water molecules form a two-dimensional ring and, therefore, competes with the ability of the T cloud of the phenol ring to form a pi hydrogen bonding leading to a three-dimensional pattern.