First Principles Calculation of the Mechanical Compression of Two Organic Molecular Crystals

The mechanical compression curves for the organic molecular crystals 1,1-diamino-2,2-dinitroethylene and beta-octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (beta-HMX) are calculated using the Hartree-Fock approximation to the solutions of the many-body Schrödinger equation for a periodic system as implemented in the computer program CRYSTAL. No correction was made for basis set superposition error. The equilibrium lattice parameters are reproduced to within 1% of reported experimental values. Pressure values on the isotherm also agree well with reported experimental values. To obtain accurate results, the relaxation of all the atomic coordinates as well as the lattice parameters under a fixed volume constraint was required.