This book provides non-specialists with a basic understanding of the underlying concepts of quantum chemistry. It is both a text for second- or third-year undergraduates and a reference for researchers who need a quick introduction or refresher. All chemists and many biochemists, materials scientists, engineers, and physicists routinely use spectroscopic measurements and electronic structure computations in their work. This book is designed to help the novice user of these tools achieve a basic understanding of the underlying concepts of quantum chemistry. The emphasis on explaining ideas rather than enumerating facts or presenting procedural details makes this an excellent foundational text.
This new edition features extensive changes to increase clarity and to accommodate new material, including additional problems and a comprehensive list of resources while preserving the book's concise and accessible nature. The groundwork is laid in the first two chapters which deal with molecular symmetry and the postulates of quantum mechanics, respectively. Symmetry is woven through the narrative of the next three chapters dealing with simple models of translational, vibrational, and rotational motion that underlie molecular spectroscopy, statistical thermodynamics, and the electronic and vibrational structure of solids. The next two chapters deal with the electronic structure of the hydrogen atom and hydrogen molecular-ion. Having been armed with a basic knowledge of these prototypical systems, the reader is ready to learn the gist of the Hartree-Fock model and related ideas used to underpin methods dealing with many-electron systems. These somewhat abstract ideas are illustrated with the Hückel model of planar hydrocarbons in the next chapter. There follows a qualitative outline of how to proceed beyond the Hartree-Fock model and cope with the complexities of many-electron atoms and molecules. The book concludes with an introduction to computational quantum chemistry; it explains the bare minimum of technical choices that must be made to do meaningful density functional theory computations using software packages.
Auteur
Ajit Thakkar was born in India in the year that she promulgated her constitution and became a republic. Ajit left home at 17 to explore the West. A circuitous, bumpy, and year-long journey led him to Queen's University in Kingston, Canada. He enrolled in and followed an engineering degree program for two years but a life-altering summer job as a research assistant to a theoretical chemist motivated him to switch to chemistry. He earned his theoretical chemistry PhD in 1976. After four post-doctoral years, he began an independent academic career at the University of Waterloo. Another four years later, he moved to the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton where he remains. He is currently a Professor Emeritus. Several academic awards and honors have come his way over the years for his nearly 300 published research papers on the theoretical and computational prediction of molecular properties and interactions. More than twenty of his former research students now hold university positions in countries ranging from Namibia to the USA. His service to the scientific community includes a longish period (2007-21) as the Editor of a journal that changed name from Journal of Molecular Structure (THEOCHEM) to Computational and Theoretical Chemistry during his tenure. He remains associated with the journal as an Editor Emeritus. He now has more time to pursue his other passions: travel, photography, philosophy, and grandchildren.
Contenu
A note to the studentPrefaceAcknowledgementsAuthor biography1 Molecular symmetry2 Basic quantum mechanics
3 Translation and vibration
3.2 A harmonic oscillator
4 Symmetry and degeneracy
5 Rotational motion6 Electronic motion: the hydrogen atom7 A molecular prototype: the hydrogen molecular-ion8 A mean field model for many-electron systems9 The Hückel model10 Handling electron correlation11 Computational quantum chemistryA Systems with time-independent potentialsB Perturbation theoryC Solving matrix Hartree-Fock equationsD Reference materialE Problem hints and solutionsF Resources for study and exploration