A self-consistent reaction field model of solvation using distributed multipoles. I. Energy and energy derivatives.

The self-consistent reaction field model developed previously by the authors in the case of single center multipole expansion of the electronic structure of the solute has been extended to the case of a distributed multipole expansion. Three different expansions have been tested and two of them have proved to be rapidly convergent. The performances of the code are illustrated by the density functional theory treatment of few test systems: guanine, cytosine, and cytosine hydrated with one and three water molecules. A robust fast computer code has been tested to get the electronic structure, the electrostatic contribution to the solute-solvent free energy of interaction, and the optimized molecular geometry in solution. Copyright 2004 American Institute of Physics