Thermal averaging of the indirect nuclear spin-spin coupling constants of ammonia: the importance of the large amplitude inversion mode.

Analytic internal-coordinate representations are reported for two accurate ab initio spin-spin coupling surfaces of the ammonia molecule, (1)J ((15)N,H) and (2)J(H,H). Calculations were carried out at the level of the second-order polarization propagator approximation involving coupled-cluster singles and doubles amplitudes (CCSD) and using a large specialized basis set, for a total of 841 different geometries corresponding to 2523 distinct points on the (1)J ((15)N,H) and (2)J(H,H) surfaces. The results were fitted to power series expansions truncated after the fourth-order terms. While the one-bond nitrogen-hydrogen coupling depends more on the internuclear distance, the geminal hydrogen-hydrogen coupling exhibits a pronounced dependence on the bond angle. The spin-spin parameters are first vibrationally averaged, using vibrational wave functions obtained variationally from the TROVE computer program with a CCSD(T) based potential energy surface, for ammonia and its various deuterated isotopologues. The vibrationally averaged quantities are then thermally averaged to give values of the couplings at absolute temperatures of 300 and 600 K. We find that the nuclear-motion corrections are rather small. The computed one-bond couplings and their minute isotope effects are in excellent agreement with the experimental values.