- Here, we are building spiroselenurane. This window shows the completed molecule.
- We have already placed an iso-indene ring into the Builder window and changed the appropriate
atoms from carbon to oxygen and selenium. We are about to add a second iso-indene ring to the structure
at the selenium atom. When we click on it, the second ring will appear, and the selenium atom will
become part of both rings. Afterwards, we will adjust the angle of the two rings and then add the
methyl groups.
- The current fragment appears in the Builder¡¯s display area. We have selected the connection
point as the selenium atom by moving the hot spot in the iso-indene ring.
- Although we are adding a ring to our structure, we can also display other Builder palettes
as desired.
Setting Up Gaussian 03 Calculations
GaussView¡¯s Gaussian Calculation Setup window allows you to set up Gaussian 03 jobs
in a simple and straightforward manner. All of the features of Gaussian 03 are supported by
the interface, enabling you to prepare input for any job type.

- The Gaussian Calculation Setup window¡¯s Method panel allows you to select the theoretical
method, basis set, and charge and spin multiplicity. Other panels allow you to specify the type of
calculation (Job Type), Title section (Title), job resource locations and settings (Link 0). Each
panel presents context sensitive options appropriate to the selected calculation type.
- Specifying input options for PCM calculations is quite simple. In this panel, we specify the
desired Self-Consistent Reaction Field method (IEFPCM in this case), and select the solvent from
a pop-up menu.
- Once all panels are ready, you can use the Submit button to start the job immediately or the
Edit button to examine the generated input file in a text editor
Visualizing Gaussian Results
GaussView can graphically display a variety of Gaussian calculation results, including
the following:
- Molecular orbitals
- Atomic charges
- Surfaces from the electron density, electrostatic potential, NMR shielding density, and other
properties. Surfaces may be displayed in solid, translucent and wire mesh modes.
- Surfaces can be colored by a separate property.
- Animation of the normal modes corresponding to vibrational frequencies.
- Animation of the steps in geometry optimizations, potential energy surface scans, intrinsic reaction
coordinate (IRC) paths, and molecular dynamics trajectories from BOMD and ADMP calculations.
Displaying Surfaces
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The NMR shielding densities for the methine proton (surface 1) and the phenyl proton (surface
2) in in-[3(4,10)][7]metacyclophane, plotted on an isosurface of current density magnitude.
Shielding density increases from red (deshielding) to blue (shielding). The molecule itself
is displayed to the right. See R. A. Pascal Jr., C. G. Winans and D. Van Engen, J. Am. Chem.
Soc., 111, 3007 (1989).
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The electrostatic potential painted charge density surface for 21-thiaporphyrin,
a potential anti-cancer photochemotherapy agent. See E. P. Zovinka and D. R. Sunseri, J. Chem.
Ed., 79, 1331 (2002). Using a translucent surface makes it easier to correlate structure and
properties.
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Viewing Spectra
 GaussView
can display a variety of computed spectra, including IR, Raman, NMR and VCD. Here we see the VCD spectra
for two conformations of spiropentyl acetate, a chiral derivative of spiropentane. See F. J. Devlin,
P. J. Stephens, C. Österle, K. B. Wiberg, J. R. Cheeseman, and M. J. Frisch, J. Org. Chem. 67,
8090 (2002).
Visualizing and Manipulating Molecular Orbitals
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GaussView 3.0 can display multiple views of the same molecular structure simultaneously.
Here we examine 6 molecular orbitals in separate windows (orbitals 65-69, starting at the upper
left and moving across and then down).
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| The MO Editor (right) allows you to reorder orbitals.
We are using this dialog to select orbitals for a CASSCF calculation. Clicking on an orbital
highlights it and makes it part of the active space. Electrons may also be moved between orbitals
by dragging them. For example, we have moved an electron from the HOMO (orbital 66) to the (new)
LUMO (orbital 68). GaussView automatically adjusts the spin multiplicity as necessary. The Gaussian
Calculation Setup window can receive information from the MO Editor and add the corresponding
keywords and input to the Gaussian job file. |
Animating Optimizations and Reaction Paths
GaussView 3.0 introduces several new animation capabilities in addition to displaying molecular
vibrations corresponding to normal modes present in earlier versions. These new animation sequences
can be viewed with GaussView, and the individual frames can be saved for import into animation/movie
editing software.
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Steps from a geometry optimization of benzene. We began with a distorted, nonplanar, nonsymmetric
structure which optimized quickly to the actual geometry. The entire optimization sequence
can be animated in GaussView when the calculation is complete.
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This sequence displays a series structures from an Intrinsic Reaction Path (IRC) calculation
of the 1,2 hydrogen shift reaction in which formaldehyde transforms into trans hydroxycarbene.
This job type begins at a transition structure and follows the potential energy surface path
down to the reactants and products. In this case, the first (leftmost) frame shows a structure
that is close to formaldehyde, structures very similar to the transition structure appear in
frames 4 and 5, and a structure tending toward the product appears in the final frame. Animating
the reaction path from an IRC calculation makes it easy to identify the specific reactants
and products that are connected by a given transition state structure.
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Setting Up Jobs for Periodic Systems
Gaussian 03 can perform Periodic Boundary Conditions (PBC) calculations in order to model
periodic systems in condensed phases such as polymers, surfaces and crystals. GaussView 3.0
provides a rich PBC facility for creating the molecule specifications for such calculations, and the
program takes care of creating the appropriate Gaussian 03 input from your graphically defined
unit cell.

Here we are building a face-centered cubic unit cell for diamond crystal. We begin
by specifying the current (empty) model as a three-dimensional periodic system in the PBC Editor¡¯s
Symmetry panel. We also choose to constrain the structure to the appropriate space group for diamond,
selecting the latter from the pop-up menu. The bounding box then appears in the model window (lower
left corner of the dialog).
Since diamond crystal is so highly symmetric, building its unit cell is very simple.
We simply place a carbon atom at the origin, and the other atoms required by symmetry are added auto-matically
(see the window at the far right)

All of the atoms in the unit cell now appear in the table. Our next step is to add bonds between
the atoms in the cell and to atoms in adjacent cells (see the window at the left).
Once our unit cell is complete, we can choose to view multiple replicas of it. Here, we display
3 cells in each direction. The reference cell¡¯s boundaries are visible at the lower left.
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It is equally easy and convenient to set up unit cells for one
and two dimensional periodic systems. The window at the left shows a unit cell for a trans polyacetylene
polymer, and the first window on the right displays the simplest one for a graphite surface.
The window at the far right illustrates a larger unit cell created by combining nine of the smaller
cells (three replicas in each direction). |
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