Computational and Theoretical Study of Electronic, Spectroscopic and Chemical Properties of (ZnO)n (n≤4) nanoclusters

In this article; structural stability, electronic and spectroscopic properties of zinc oxide nanoclusters up to four atoms are studied by hybrid Density Functional Theory. The stable structures of these nanoclusters have been fully optimized with Gaussian 09W program package at B3LYP/LanL2DZ level. The vibrational frequencies, IR intensities, binding energy, HOMO–LUMO energy gap, symmetry, and dipole moment are also computed for the most stable isomer of each cluster. The reactivity descriptors such as electronegativity, chemical hardness and softness index of the lowest-energy isomers are estimated for these nanoclusters to study their relative stabilities. (ZnO)4/2 isomer has the most reactivity, because it is the softest and most unstable isomer.