Conductivity in polyacetylene. IV. Ab initio calculations for a two-site model for electron transfer between allyl anion and allyl

Electron exchange between allyl molecules is studied using quantum chemical ab initio methods in order to model interchain electron transfer (ET) in polyacetylene. The reaction path, reorganization energy for ET (λ), and the electronic factor (Δ) are calculated using the UMP2, CASSCF, CASPT2, and CASSI methods. Changes in bond lengths are very small and their contribution to the internal reorganization energy almost negligible. Only changes in the bond angle leave significant contributions to the reorganization energy. The calculated potential energy surfaces can be represented as interacting parabolic-well potentials only in the case of CASSI. The UMP2, CASSCF, and CASPT2 methods give the localization of the electron even in the symmetric case and incorrect energy surfaces, with a cusp at the symmetry point. The electronic factor Δ is calculated using the two different methods, Koopmans' theorem and CASSI, with the same basis set. They are quantitatively very close for all intermolecular distances under study. However, Δ is sensitive to the basis set and cannot be calculated accurately in the present case. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.