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Lecture

Electronic Structure Methods

In course

CH-431: Physical and computational organic chemistry

This course introduces modern computational electronic structure methods and their broad applications to organic chemistry. It also discusses physical organic concepts to illustrate the stability and reactivity of organic molecules. ...

Description

This lecture covers the basis sets errors in computational chemistry, including the truncation error in Hartree-Fock energy, basis set superposition error, and counterpoise correction. It explains the differences between restricted and unrestricted Hartree-Fock methods, as well as the importance of post-Hartree-Fock methods in treating electron correlation. The lecture also delves into configuration interaction, coupled cluster methods, and perturbation theory for electron correlation. Multiconfigurational methods and composite approaches for approximating highly accurate results are discussed, along with the pros and cons of various ab initio methods.

Instructor

Anne-Clémence Corminboeuf

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Chemistry

Computational chemistry: Topics in computational chemistry

Related concepts (32)

Configuration interaction

Configuration interaction (CI) is a post-Hartree–Fock linear variational method for solving the nonrelativistic Schrödinger equation within the Born–Oppenheimer approximation for a quantum chemical multi-electron system. Mathematically, configuration simply describes the linear combination of Slater determinants used for the wave function. In terms of a specification of orbital occupation (for instance, (1s)2(2s)2(2p)1...), interaction means the mixing (interaction) of different electronic configurations (states).

Multi-configurational self-consistent field

Multi-configurational self-consistent field (MCSCF) is a method in quantum chemistry used to generate qualitatively correct reference states of molecules in cases where Hartree–Fock and density functional theory are not adequate (e.g., for molecular ground states which are quasi-degenerate with low-lying excited states or in bond-breaking situations). It uses a linear combination of configuration state functions (CSF), or configuration determinants, to approximate the exact electronic wavefunction of an atom or molecule.

Electronic correlation

Electronic correlation is the interaction between electrons in the electronic structure of a quantum system. The correlation energy is a measure of how much the movement of one electron is influenced by the presence of all other electrons. Within the Hartree–Fock method of quantum chemistry, the antisymmetric wave function is approximated by a single Slater determinant. Exact wave functions, however, cannot generally be expressed as single determinants.

Ab initio quantum chemistry methods

Ab initio quantum chemistry methods are computational chemistry methods based on quantum chemistry. The term ab initio was first used in quantum chemistry by Robert Parr and coworkers, including David Craig in a semiempirical study on the excited states of benzene. The background is described by Parr. Ab initio means "from first principles" or "from the beginning", implying that the only inputs into an ab initio calculation are physical constants.

Computational chemistry

Computational chemistry is a branch of chemistry that uses computer simulation to assist in solving chemical problems. It uses methods of theoretical chemistry, incorporated into computer programs, to calculate the structures and properties of molecules, groups of molecules, and solids. It is essential because, apart from relatively recent results concerning the hydrogen molecular ion (dihydrogen cation, see references therein for more details), the quantum many-body problem cannot be solved analytically, much less in closed form.

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