ABINITIO STUDY OF INTERMOLECULAR POTENTIAL OF H2O TRIMER

Nonadditive contribution to the interaction energy in water trimer is analyzed in terms of Heitler-London exchange, SCF deformation, induction and dispersion nonadditivities. Nonadditivity originates mainly from the SCF deformation effect which is due to electric polarization. However, polarization does not serve as a universal mechanism for nonadditivity in water. In the double-donor configuration, for example, the Heitler-London exchange contribution is the most important and polarization yields the wrong sign. Correlation effects do not contribute significantly to the nonadditivity. A detailed analysis of the pair potential is also provided. The present two-body potential and its components are compared to the existing ab initio potentials (MCY) as well as to empirical ones (RWK2,TIP,SPC). The ways to improve these potentials are suggested.