Theoretical characterization of hydrogen polyoxides: HOOH, HOOOH, HOOOOH, and HOOO

We have investigated the polyoxides HOOH, HOOOH, HOOOOH, and HOOO employing the CCSD(T) methodology, and the correlation consistent basis sets. For all molecules, we have computed fundamental vibrational frequencies, structural parameters, rotational constants, and rotation-vibration corrections. For HOOOH, we have obtained a good agreement between our results and microwave and infrared spectra measurements, although for the symmetric OO stretch some important differences were found. Heats of formation were computed using atomization energies, and our recommendation is as follows: DeltaH(o)(f,298)(HOOOH) = -21.50 kcal/mol and DeltaH(o)(f,298)(HOOOOH) = -10.61 kcal/mol. In the case of HOOO, to estimate the heat of formation, we have constructed three isodesmic reactions to cancel high order correlation effects. The results obtained confirmed that the latter effects are very important for HOOO. The new DeltaH(o)(f,298)(HOOO) obtained is 5.5 kcal/mol. We have also calculated the zero-point energies of DO and DOOO to correct the experimental lower limit determined for the DeltaH(o)(f,298)(HOOO). The Delta(DeltaZPE) decreases the binding energy of HOOO by 0.56 kcal/mol. Employing the latter value, the new experimental lower limit for DeltaH(o)(f,298)(HOOO) is 3.07 kcal/mol, just 2.4 kcal/mol lower than our determination. We expect that the fundamental vibrational frequencies and rotational constants determined for HOOOOH and DOOOOD contribute to its identification in the gas phase. The vibrational spectrum of HOOOOH shows some overlapping with that of HOOOH thus indicating that one may encounter some difficulties in its characterization. We discuss the consequences of the thermochemical properties determined in this work, and suggest that the amount of HOOO present in the atmosphere is smaller than that proposed recently in this journal ( J. Phys. Chem A 2007, 111, 4727).