Microsolvation of the Cyanyl Radical: Competition Between Hydrogen Bonding and Electrostatic Non-Covalent Interactions

Author

Jacob Bloom

Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Colladay, Donald

Keywords

Computational Chemistry, Cyanyl, Cyanide, Water Microsolvation

Area of Concentration

Physics

Abstract

A theoretical study of microsolvated cyanyl radical with water has been carried out. Cyanyl radical and water are of interest to both astrophysics and biochemistry. A theoretical study of the microsolvated system should prove fruitful for future study in these fields. Furthermore, this work illustrates the competition between hydrogen bonding and electrostatic non-covalent interactions. This study utilized density functional theory for both cyanyl radical and cyanide with up to three waters. The zero and one water energies were benchmarked using coupled cluster theory with single, double, and perturbative triple excitation approximations. Relative energies, hydration energies, frequencies, dipole moments, and adiabatic electron affinities were computed for the cyanyl radical and cyanide systems.

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