Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol.116, No.6, 2572-2585, 2002
Simulation of proton transfer along ammonia wires: An "ab initio" and semiempirical density functional comparison of potentials and classical molecular dynamics
Protonated ammonia clusters of the composition (NxH3x+1)(+) with x=2,3,4 are investigated by using the gradient corrected, three-parameter functional by Becke based on the functional by Lee, Yang, and Parr (B3LYP/6-31G(**)) and self-consistent charges density functional tight-binding (SCC-DFTB) methods for calculating the potential energy surface and forces in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. They are used for classical molecular dynamics simulations at temperatures ranging from 5 K to 600 K. Results from the two methods are compared for proton transfer in N2H7+. The number of proton transfer events as a function of temperature is similar, although at low temperatures, SCC-DFTB cuts off more rapidly than B3LYP/6-31G(**). Calculated vibrational spectra agree well for the intermolecular N-N and intramolecular N-H stretch excitations. Both approaches lead to broad, relatively unstructured bands extending over about 1500 cm(-1) for the proton transfer coordinate. Simulations at the SCC-DFTB/MD level for larger (NxH3x+1)(+) (xless than or equal to4) clusters are presented and discussed. They show significant structural reorganization within the cluster. Consecutive proton hops within a few tenths of a fs are observed. A N2H7+ cluster immersed in a water shell containing 25 water molecules was studied by the mixed quantum mechanical/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) method with SCC-DFTB for the QM part. The presence of water appears to impede proton transfer. Including corrections for basis set superposition error in the MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ and B3LYP/6-31G(**) calculations has a small effect. It increases the barrier heights from 0.78 kcal/mol to 1.28 kcal/mol (MP2) and from 0.10 kcal/mol to 0.27 kcal/mol (B3LYP), respectively.