Optimal geometries and harmonic vibrational frequencies of the global minima of water clusters (H2O)n, n = 2-6, and several hexamer local minima at the CCSD(T) level of theory.

We report the first optimum geometries and harmonic vibrational frequencies for the ring pentamer and several water hexamer (prism, cage, cyclic and two book) at the coupled-cluster including single, double, and full perturbative triple excitations (CCSD(T))/aug-cc-pVDZ level of theory. All five examined hexamer isomer minima previously reported by Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) are also minima on the CCSD(T) potential energy surface (PES). In addition, all CCSD(T) minimum energy structures for the n = 2-6 cluster isomers are quite close to the ones previously obtained by MP2 on the respective PESs, as confirmed by a modified Procrustes analysis that quantifies the difference between any two cluster geometries. The CCSD(T) results confirm the cooperative effect of the homodromic ring networks (systematic contraction of the nearest-neighbor (nn) intermolecular separations with cluster size) previously reported by MP2, albeit with O-O distances shorter by ~0.02 Å, indicating that MP2 overcorrects this effect. The harmonic frequencies at the minimum geometries were obtained by the double differentiation of the CCSD(T) energy using an efficient scheme based on internal coordinates that reduces the number of required single point energy evaluations by ~15% when compared to the corresponding double differentiation using Cartesian coordinates. Negligible differences between MP2 and CCSD(T) frequencies are found for the librational modes, while uniform increases of ~15 and ~25 cm(-1) are observed for the bending and "free" OH harmonic frequencies. The largest differences between CCSD(T) and MP2 are observed for the harmonic hydrogen bonded frequencies, for which the former produces larger absolute values than the latter. Their CCSD(T) redshifts from the monomer values (Δω) are smaller than the MP2 ones, due to the fact that CCSD(T) produces shorter elongations (ΔR) of the respective hydrogen bonded OH lengths from the monomer value with respect to MP2. Both the MP2 and CCSD(T) results for the hydrogen bonded frequencies were found to closely follow the relation -Δω = s · ΔR, with a rate of s = 20.2 cm(-1)/0.001 Å for hydrogen bonded frequencies with IR intensities >400 km/mol. The CCSD(T) harmonic frequencies, when corrected using the MP2 anharmonicities obtained from second order vibrational perturbation theory, produce anharmonic CCSD(T) estimates that are within <60 cm(-1) from the measured infrared (IR) active bands of the n = 2-6 clusters. Furthermore, the CCSD(T) harmonic redshifts (with respect to the monomer) trace the measured ones quite accurately. The energetic order between the various hexamer isomers on the PES (prism has the lowest energy) previously reported at MP2 was found to be preserved at the CCSD(T) level, whereas the inclusion of anharmonic corrections further stabilizes the cage among the hexamer isomers.