DFT and local-MP2 periodic study of the structure and stability of two proton-ordered polymorphs of ice

The equilibrium geometry and the formation energy of two periodic polymorphs of Ice have been theoretically studied: the former (Ice XI, crystal group Cmc2(1)) is experimentally observed as the most stable structure at low temperature and pressure; the latter (crystal group Pna2(1)) is the simplest proton-ordered model of ordinary ice. With the Crystal code, the problem is solved using Hartree-Fock (HF), pure Kohn-Sham (PW91), or hybrid (B3LYP) one-electron Hamiltonians. The B3LYP results are those in best agreement with the experiment. Using the B3LYP-optimized geometry and starting from the corresponding HF Crystal solution, the energetics of the two polymorphs have been investigated at an ab initio MP2 level using the Cryscor code, based on a local-correlation approach: these calculations have allowed us not only to confirm the excellent B3LYP results as concerns the formation energy and the relative stability of the two structures but also to analyze the role in this respect of the intra- and intermolecular contributions to the correlation energy. Since both Crystal and Cryscor adopt a basis set of localized Gaussian-type functions and since very small energy differences are involved, utter attention has been paid to correcting for the basis set superposition error in the calculation of formation energies.