The experimental and theoretical QTAIMC study of the atomic and molecular interactions in dinitrogen tetroxide

The atomic and molecular interactions in a crystal of dinitrogen tetraoxide, alpha-N2O4, have been studied in terms of the quantum topological theory of molecular structure using high-resolution, low-temperature X-ray diffraction data. The experimental electron density and electrostatic potential have been reconstructed with the Hansen-Coppens multipole model. In addition, the three-dimensional periodic electron density of crystalline alpha-N2O4 has been calculated at the B3LYP/cc-pVDZ level of theory with and without the geometry optimization. The application of the quantum theory of atoms in molecules and crystals (QTAIMC) recovered the two types of intermolecular bond paths between O atoms in crystalline alpha-N2O4, one measuring 3.094, the other 3.116 A. The three-dimensional distribution of the Laplacian of the electron density around the O atoms showed that the lumps in the negative Laplacian fit the holes on the O atoms in the adjacent molecules, both atoms being linked by the intermolecular bond paths. This shows that the Lewis-type molecular complementarity contributes significantly to intermolecular bonding in crystalline N2O4. Partial overlap of atomic-like basins created by zero-flux surfaces in both the electron density and the electrostatic potential show that attractive electrostatic interaction exists between O atoms even though they carry the same net formal charge. The exchange and correlation contributions to the potential energy density were also computed by means of the model functionals, which use the experimental electron density and its derivatives. It was found that the intermolecular interactions in alpha-N2O4 are accompanied by the correlation energy-density `bridges' lowering the local potential energy along the intermolecular O...O bond paths in the electron density, while the exchange energy density governs the shape of bounded molecules.