Perfluoroalkanes: Conformational Analysis and Liquid-State Properties from ab Initio and Monte Carlo Calculations

Classical OPLS-AA force-field parameters are developed for perfluoroalkanes primarily by fitting to conformational profiles from gas-phase ab initio calculations (LMP2/cc-pVTZ(-f)//HF/6-31G*) and to experimental data for pure liquids. The ab initio C−C−C−C profile of n-C4F10 (perfluorobutane) is similar to those from prior high-level calculations and indicates the presence of gauche (g) and ortho (o) minima and of anti (a) minima slightly offset from 180°. Ab initio torsional profiles for n-C5F12 (perfluoropentane) and (CF3)2CFCF2CF3 (perfluoro-2-methylbutane) also show three sets of energy minima. Special OPLS-AA torsional parameters for these three molecules closely match ab initio and experimental geometries, conformational energies (ΔEmin), and conformational energy barriers. These specialized force fields were merged to provide a generalized force field for linear, branched, and cyclic perfluoroalkanes. The resultant parameters yield key ΔEmin values within 0.6 kcal/mol of the ab initio results for t...