Intermolecular forces and molecular dynamics simulation of 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB) using symmetry...

The dimer potential energy surface (PES) of 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB) has been explored using symmetry adapted perturbation theory based on a Kohn-Sham density functional theory description of the monomers [SAPT(DFT)]. An intermolecular potential energy function was parametrized using a grid of 880 ab initio SAPT(DFT) dimer interaction energies, and the function was used to identify stationary points on the SAPT(DFT) dimer PES. It is shown that there exists a variety of minima with a range of bonding configurations and ab initio analyses of the interaction energy components, along with radial cross sections of the PES near each minimum, are presented. Results of isothermal-isostress molecular dynamics simulations are reported, and the simulated structure, thermal expansion, sublimation enthalpy, and bulk modulus of the TATB crystal, based on the SAPT(DFT) interaction potential, are in good agreement with experiment.