Quantum chemical interaction energy surfaces of ethylene and propene dimers

Ab initio studies of nonbonding interactions for ethylene and propene dimers were conducted at the MP2/6-311+G(2df,2pd) level. The dimers were attractive in all of the orientations studied; however, the attraction was <0.1 kcal/mol for ethylene D2h and C2h dimers, for which the pi-electron clouds or H atoms interact closely. A previously introduced transferable potential model, NIPE [Jalkanen, J.-P.; Pakkanen, T. A.; Yang, Y.; Rowley, R. L. J. Chem. Phys. 2003, 118, 5474], which is based on quantum chemical calculations of small alkane molecules, was tested against the propene and ethylene dimer data. Comparisons of results showed that interaction energies for orientations dominated by interactions between the propene methyl groups or two hydrogens were accurately predicted with the NIPE model. Interactions involving the double bond were not predicted as well, because the original NIPE regression data set did not contain any information about pi-electron systems. An extension of the NIPE model to include pi-electron interactions is proposed. Additional interaction sites are used with the same energy function as atomic interactions. This addition provides a more accurate description of the interaction energies of both ethylene and propene and extends the transferability of the NIPE model to alkenes.