Chemical Physics Letters, Vol.687, 227-232, 2017
Partition functions of thermally dissociating diatomic molecules and related momentum problem
The anharmonicity and ro-vibrational coupling in ro-vibrational partition functions of diatomic molecules are analyzed for the high temperatures of the thermal dissociation regime. The numerically exact partition functions and thermal energies are calculated. At the high temperatures the proper integration of momenta is important if the partition function of the molecule, understood as bounded system, is to be obtained. The problem of proper treatment of momentum is crucial for correctness of high temperature molecular simulations as the decomposition of simulated molecule have to be avoided; the analysis of O-2, H-2(+), and NH3 molecules allows to show importance of beta D-e value. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Partition functions;Ro-vibrational coupling;Anharmonicity;Bounded molecules;Integration of momenta;Molecular simulations