Journal of Physical Chemistry A, Vol.114, No.10, 3630-3641, 2010
The Vibrational Spectrum of Parabanic Acid by Inelastic Neutron Scattering Spectroscopy and Simulation by Solid-State DFT
The incoherent inelastic neutron scattering spectrum of parabanic acid was measured and simulated using solid-state density functional theory (DFT). This molecule was previously the subject of low-temperature X-ray and neutron diffraction Studies. While the simulated spectra from several density functionals account for relative intensities and factor group splitting regardless Of functional choice, the hydrogen-bending vibrational energies for the out-of-plane modes are poorly described by all methods. The disagreement between calculated and observed out-of-plane hydrogen bending mode energies is examined along with geometry optimization differences of bond lengths, bond angles, and hydrogen-bonding interactions for different functionals. Neutron diffraction suggests nearly symmetric hydrogen atom positions in the crystalline solid for both heavy-atom and N-H bond distances but different hydrogen-bonding angles. The spectroscopic results suggest a significant factor group splitting for the out-of-plane bending motions associated with the hydrogen atoms (N-H) for both the symmetric and asymmetric bending modes, as is also Supported by DFT Simulations. The differences between the quality of the crystallographic and spectroscopic Simulations by isolated-molecule DFT, cluster-based DFT (that account for only the hydrogen-bonding interactions around a single molecule), and solid-state DFT are considered in detail, with parabanic acid serving as an excellent case Study due to its small size and the availability Of high-quality Structure data. These calculations show that hydrogen bonding results in a change in the bond distances and bond angles of parabanic acid from the free molecule Values.