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The Science of Everything Podcast

Episode 120: Computational Chemistry Part 2

The Science of Everything Podcast

James Fodor

Natural Sciences, Science, Social Sciences

4.8750 Ratings

🗓️ 31 July 2021

⏱️ 73 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Building on the previous discussion of Hartree-Fock Theory, I discuss the inclusion of basis functions to produce the Roothaan equations, and the method of solving these using self-consistent field methods. I then provide an introduction into techniques to incorporate electron correlation by adding Slater determinants, focusing on the Configuration Interaction method. I then provide a brief overview of semi-empirical methods, Density Functional Theory, and molecular mechanics. Recommended pre-listening is Episode 119: Computational Chemistry Part 1. If you enjoyed the podcast please consider supporting the show by making a PayPal donation or becoming a Patreon supporter. https://www.patreon.com/jamesfodor https://www.paypal.me/ScienceofEverything

Transcript

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0:00.0

Oh, wow, oh, oh, wow, oh, wow, oh, wow.

0:13.0

Oh, wow.

0:15.0

Oh, my. Hello, you're listening to The Science of Everything podcast episode 120 Computational Chemistry Part 2.

0:41.4

I'm your host, James Fodor.

0:43.2

This episode, we will continue from the previous episode, which of course is the prerequisite,

0:48.3

and talk about computational chemistry, particularly we're going to continue on from where we left off last time and talk about

0:55.2

how you can actually make proximate estimates of what your wave functions are going to be, which

1:00.9

you can then use to solve the Hartree-Folk equation. So we'll talk about the basis functions that are

1:05.0

used for that purpose. I will then go on to talk about methods for incorporating electron

1:10.4

correlation in order to increase the accuracy of these methods and some of the techniques that are used there.

1:16.4

Then, once we're done with that, I'll talk about some of the other approaches to estimating molecular structure and energies.

1:25.1

Particularly, I'll talk about semi-emperical methods and density functional theory,

1:28.3

which are kind of like two different takes to ab initio calculations on how to work out molecular structure and energies.

1:34.3

And finally, at the very end, I will talk about at a higher level, something called molecular mechanics or molecular dynamics,

1:42.3

which is a method of simulating larger molecules

1:44.8

using classical mechanics. So there's quite a bit to get through. And as I said, the episode

1:50.1

119 part one of this two-part series is an absolute prerequisite in the sense that you probably

1:55.0

won't be able to follow what I'm talking about if you haven't listened to that. So strong warning

1:58.0

there. If you haven't done so, please go back and listen to that first.

2:01.7

That being said, let us get started by just briefly reviewing where we got up to last time.

2:07.2

So remember, the whole sort of premise of what we're trying to do here is to solve for the molecular

2:11.2

wave function of some molecule, you know, a bunch of different atoms bonded together.

...

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