Solvation models, Polarizable Continuum Model (PCM)
go back to Main Page, Computational Resources, Chemistry & More, Computational Codes, GAUSSIAN, G09
Calculation of solvent effects
Some tests performed on some organic and inorganic species, show that using the default settings (for Gaussian03 defaults + SPHEREONH) the relative energies of a system are on average around 1.5 kcal/mol different between one and the other version of the program. The differences found range between 0.8 and 3.9 kcal/mol.
Some of the species tested are:
g09 g03 ([Fe]-H2+) + N(CH3)3 0 0 ([Fe]-H2+) + N(CH3)3 -1.7 -0.6 ([Fe]-H-H-N(CH3)3+) -2.6 1.3 ([Fe]-H) + (+H-N(CH3)3) 5.0 8.1 ---- (BF4-) + N(CH3)3 + (Fe-H2+) 0 0 (BF4-N(CH3)3-) + (Fe-H2+) -3.3 -1.9 ([Fe]-H2···BF4) + (N(CH3)3) -13.3 -12.1 ([Fe]-H2··BF4··N(CH3)3) -17.3 -14.7 ([Fe]-H-H-N(CH3)3··BF4) -19.7 -16.2 (BF4-···H-N(CH3)3) + (Fe-H2+) -18.1 -15.8
energies in kcal/mol.[Fe] is an iron transition metal complex.
According to these results, at least for some systems, the relative energies are significantly different.
Optimization in solvent
- Optimized structures in gas phase of 300-400 basis sets can be re-optimized in solvent in a period of 7 hours- 1 day at cesca (cadi nodes). In some cases the optimization is achieved in few cycles (16), in most cases between 20-40 but and in very few other cases up to 500 cycles are needed.
- Frequency calculations on these structures can be performed in a period of around 3 hours at cadi.
- The relative energies in kcal/mol of some of the single points (SP) and optimized species (OPT) are:
(in kcal/mol) SP OPT (BF4-) + N(CH3)3 + (Fe-H2+) 0 0 (BF4-N(CH3)3-) + (Fe-H2+) -3.3 -3.7 ([Fe]-H2···BF4) + (N(CH3)3) -13.3 -15.4 ([Fe]-H2··BF4··N(CH3)3) -17.3 -19.3 ([Fe]-H-H-N(CH3)3··BF4) -19.7 -21.5 (BF4-···H-N(CH3)3) + (Fe-H2+) -18.1 -20.6
Over the tests performed, the difference between the relative energies of the optimized species and the relative energies of the single points are in average: 0.6 kcal/mol.The differences range between +1.1 to -2.5 kcal/mol.
- Optimizations without previous gas phase optimization (from un-optimized species), need aprox. the same number of cycles to optimize it in gas phase or in solvent. For a system with 560 basis sets, 143 cycles, 8 days + 18 hours in cadi are needed for the optimization in solvent and 141 cycles, 7 days and 11 hours also in cadi for the optimization in gas phase.
This is a 17% more time for the optimization in solution.