The nuclear magnetic shielding as a function of internuclear separation

Ab initio calculations of nuclear magnetic shielding surfaces for 23Na in the NaH molecule, 39Ar in ArNe, 21Ne in NeHe, and 39Ar in Ar...NaH are carried out over a wide range of internuclear separations, using a local origin method (LORG) which damps out the long-range errors due to incomplete basis sets. The R dependence of the intermolecular shielding in the attractive region of the potential in these systems and in Ar...Ar and Ar...Na+ are consistent with the long-range limiting forms associated with the shielding hyperpolarizability in conjunction with a mean square electric field approximation. The Cl and F shieldings over the range of nuclear displacements spanning the classical turning points of the ground vibrational states of ClF and F2 are found to be remarkably superposable upon scaling by the factors 〈a03/r3〉⋅Re. This holds as well for ClH compared with FH. The shielding of 23Na and 7Li in NaH and LiH molecules are almost superposable. These and the scaling of the intermolecular shielding in rare gas pairs indicate some general similarities of shielding surfaces. The systematic variation in the signs and magnitudes of the first derivative of X nuclear shielding at the equilibrium geometry in XHn molecules of the first and second row of the Periodic Table are shown to be consistent with a general shape for the shielding function σ(R), which we have found in rare gas pairs and for 23Na in NaH.