An atomic charge-charge flux-dipole flux atom-in-molecule decomposition for molecular dipole-moment derivatives and infrared fundamental intensities.

The molecular dipole moment and its derivatives are determined from atomic charges, atomic dipoles, and their fluxes obtained from AIM formalism and calculated at the MP2(FC)/6-311++G(3d,3p) level for 16 molecules: 6 diatomic hydrides, CO, HCN, OCS, CO2, CS2, C2H2, C2N2, H2O, H2CO, and CH4. Root-mean-square (rms) errors of 0.052 D and 0.019 e are found for the dipole moments and their derivatives calculated using AIM parameters when compared with those obtained directly from the MP2(FC)/6-311++G(3d,3p) calculations and 0.097 D and 0.049 e when compared to the experimental values. The major deviations occur for the NaH, HF, and H2O molecules. Parallel polar tensor elements for the diatomic and linear polyatomic molecules, except H2, HF, LiH, and NaH, have values resulting from cancellations of substantial contributions from atomic charge fluxes and atomic dipole fluxes. These fluxes have a large negative correlation coefficient, -0.97. IR fundamental intensity sums for CO, HCN, OCS, CO2, CS2, C2H2, C2N2, H2CO, and CH4 calculated using AIM charges, charge fluxes, and atomic dipole fluxes have rms errors of 14.9 km mol(-1) when compared with sums calculated directly from the molecular wave function and 36.2 km mol(-1) relative to experimental values. The classical model proposed here to calculate dipole-moment derivatives is compared with the charge-charge flux-overlap model long used by spectroscopists for interpreting IR vibrational intensities. The utility of the AIM atomic charges and dipoles was illustrated by calculating the forces exerted on molecules by a charged particle. AIM quantities were able to reproduce forces due to a +0.1 e particle over a 3-8-A separation range for the CO and HF molecules in collinear and perpendicular arrangements. These results show that IR intensities do contain information relevant to the study of intermolecular interactions.