Spectroscopy and potential energy surface of the H2-CO2 van der Waals complex: experimental and theoretical studies.

A 4-D ab initio potential energy surface is calculated for the intermolecular interaction of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, using the CCSD(T) method with a large basis set. The surface has a global minimum with a well depth of 212 cm(-1) and an intermolecular distance of 2.98 A for a planar configuration with both the O-C-O and H-H axes perpendicular to the intermolecular axis. Bound state calculations are performed for the H(2)-CO(2) van der Waals complex with H(2) in both the para and ortho spin states, and the binding energy of paraH(2)-CO(2)(50.4 cm(-1)) is found to be significantly less than that of orthoH(2)-CO(2)(71.7 cm(-1)). The surface supports 7 bound intermolecular vibrational states for paraH(2)-CO(2) and 19 for orthoH(2)-CO(2), and the lower rotational levels with J< or = 4 follow an asymmetric rotor pattern. The calculated infrared spectrum of paraH(2)-CO(2) agrees well with experiment. For orthoH(2)-CO(2), the ground state rotational levels allowed by symmetry are found to have (K(a), K(c))=(even, odd) or (odd, even). This somewhat unexpected fact enables the previously observed experimental spectrum to be assigned for the first time, in good agreement with theory, and indicates that the orientation of hydrogen is perpendicular to the intermolecular axis in the ground state of the orthoH(2)-CO(2) complex.