On the link between the reaction force constant and conceptual DFT

ContextThe reaction force constant (κ$$\kappa $$), introduced by Professor Alejandro Toro-Labbé, plays a pivotal role in characterizing the reaction pathway by assessing the curvature of the potential energy profile along the intrinsic reaction coordinate. This study establishes a novel link between κ$$\kappa $$ and the reactivity descriptors of conceptual density functional theory (c-DFT). Specifically, we derive expressions that relate the reaction force constant to nuclear softness and variations in chemical potential. Our findings indicate that regions of the reaction pathway where κ$$\kappa $$ is negative match with significant electronic structure rearrangements, while positive κ$$\kappa $$ regions match mostly with geometric rearrangements. This correlation between κ$$\kappa $$ and c-DFT reactivity descriptors enhances our understanding of the underlying forces driving chemical reactions and offers new perspectives for analyzing reaction mechanisms.MethodsThe internal reaction path for the proton transfer in SNOH, chemical potential, and nuclear softness were computed using DFT with B3LYP exchange-correlation functional and 6-311++G(d,2p) basis set.