Ab initio intermolecular potential energy surface and thermophysical properties of nitrous oxide

We present an analytical intermolecular potential energy surface (PES) for two rigid nitrous oxide (N2O) molecules derived from high-level quantum-chemical ab initio calculations. Interaction energies for 2018 N2O-N2O configurations were computed utilizing the counterpoise-corrected supermolecular approach at the CCSD(T) level of theory using basis sets up to aug-cc-pVQZ supplemented with bond functions. A site-site potential function with seven sites per N2O molecule was fitted to the pair interaction energies. We validated our PES by computing the second virial coefficient as well as shear viscosity and thermal conductivity in the dilute-gas limit. The values of these properties are substantiated by the best experimental data. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.