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The structural properties and thermochemistry of UF6 and UF5 have been investigated using both Hartree-Fock and density functional theory (DFT) approximations. Within the latter approach, the local spin-density approximation, the generalized gradient approximation, and hybrid density functionals were considered. To describe the uranium atom we employed small-core (60 electrons) and large-core (78 electrons) relativistic effective core potentials (RECPs), as well as the all-electron approximation based on the two-component third-order Douglas-Kroll-Hess Hamiltonian. For structural properties, we obtained very good agreement with experiment with DFT and both large and small-core RECPs. The best match with experiment is given by the hybrid functionals with the small-core RECP. The bond dissociation energy (BDE) was obtained from the relative energies of the fragments [UF6 --> UF5 + F], corrected for zero-point energy and spin-orbit interaction. Very good agreement was found between the BDE obtained from all-electron calculations and those calculated with the small-core RECP, while those from the large-core RECP are off by more than 50%. In order to obtain good agreement with experiment in the BDE it is imperative to work with hybrid density functionals and a small-core RECP.

We have studied the electric field near water clusters and in ice Ih using first principles calculations. We employed Mo/ller–Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) for the calculations of the clusters up to and including the hexamer, and density functional theory (DFT) with a gradient dependent functional [Perdew–Wang (PW91)] for ice Ih as well as the clusters. The electric field obtained from the first principles calculations was used to test the predictions of an induction model based on single center multipole moments and polarizabilities of an isolated water molecule. We found that the fields obtained from the induction model agree well with the first principles results when the multipole expansion is carried out up to and including the hexadecapole moment, and when polarizable dipole and quadrupole moments are included. This implies that accurate empirical water interaction potential functions transferable to various environments such as water clusters and ice surfaces could be based on a single center m...

We have developed a new method for finding and representing dividing surfaces which can, for example, be used to identify “atoms” in molecules or condensed phases based on Bader’s definition. Given the total electron density of the system, the dividing surface is taken to be the zero-flux surface, i.e., the surface on which the normal component of the gradient vanishes. Our method for finding this surface involves creating an “elastic sheet” represented by a swarm of fictitious particles which interact with each other so as to give a nearly uniform distribution of points on the sheet. Two kinds of forces act on the particles: (1) the component of the gradient of the density normal to the elastic sheet, and (2) an interparticle force which only acts in the local tangent plane of the sheet. Starting with a spherical surface and applying an optimization algorithm that minimizes the forces leads to convergence of the particles to the zero-flux surface. The elastic sheet tends to round off regions where the zero-flux surface has sharp cusps or points, but this appears not to be a serious problem in cases we have studied. The elastic sheet method is robust and can converge in situations where currently used methods fail. We demonstrate the method with a study of water clusters and a Si interstitial in a Si crystal.

We have calculated molecular multipole moments for water molecules in clusters and in ice Ih by partitioning the charge density obtained from first principles calculations. Various schemes for dividing the electronic charge density among the water molecules were used. They include Bader’s zero flux surfaces and Voronoi partitioning schemes. A comparison was also made with an induction model including dipole, dipole-quadrupole, quadrupole-quadrupole polarizability and first hyperpolarizability as well as fixed octopole and hexadecapole moments. We have found that the different density partitioning schemes lead to widely different values for the molecular multipoles, illustrating how poorly defined molecular multipoles are in clusters and condensed environments. For instance, the magnitude of the molecular dipole moment in ice Ih ranges between 2.3 D and 3.1 D depending on the partitioning scheme used. Within each scheme, though, the value for the molecular dipole moment in ice is larger than in the hexamer. The magnitude of the molecular dipole moment in the clusters shows a monotonic increase from the gas phase value to the one in ice Ih, with the molecular dipole moment in the water ring hexamer being smaller than the one in ice Ih for all the partitioning schemes used.

We have used an induction model including dipole, dipole–quadrupole, quadrupole–quadrupole polarizability and first hyperpolarizability as well as fixed octopole and hexadecapole moments to study the electric field in ice. The self-consistent induction calculations gave an average total dipole moment of 3.09 D, a 67% increase over the dipole moment of an isolated water molecule. A previous, more approximate induction model study by Coulson and Eisenberg [Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 291, 445 (1966)] suggested a significantly smaller average value of 2.6 D. This value has been used extensively in recent years as a reference point in the development of various polarizable interaction potentials for water as well as for assessment of the convergence of water cluster properties to those of bulk. The reason for this difference is not due to approximations made in the computational scheme of Coulson and Eisenberg but rather due to the use of less accurate values for the molecular multipoles in these earlier calculations.

We present a systematic comparison of the lattice structures, electronic density of states, and band gaps of actinide dioxides, AnO(2) (An=Th, Pa, U, Np, Pu, and Am) predicted by the Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof screened hybrid density functional (HSE) with the self-consistent inclusion of spin-orbit coupling (SOC). The computed HSE lattice constants and band gaps of AnO(2) are in consistently good agreement with the available experimental data across the series, and differ little from earlier HSE results without SOC. ThO(2) is a simple band insulator (f(0)), while PaO(2), UO(2), and NpO(2) are predicted to be Mott insulators. The remainders (PuO(2) and AmO(2)) show considerable O2p/An5f mixing and are classified as charge-transfer insulators. We also compare our results for UO(2), NpO(2), and PuO(2) with the PBE+U, self interaction correction (SIC), and dynamic mean-field theory (DMFT) many-body approximations.