CCL:G: Dipole moment of charged species in Gaussian



Hello

The definition of the dipole moment of a charged species is well defined. The only problem with it (and with all higher multipoles) is, that its value depends on the origin of the coordinate system. Thus for comparison purposes the origin of the coordinate system of different molecules should be comparable. A very common choice is the centre of mass; another possibility is the center of nuclear charge, which is the standard origin in Gaussian09, if one does not specify the 'Nosymm' keyword. You can also turn the problem on its head and define the origin as that point where the dipole is zero...

I'm assuming that you want to compare the absolute value of the dipole between different molecules. In case you also want to compare the components, you also should use comparable orientations of the coordinate systems (e.g the coordinate system where e.g. the inertia (or polarizability or ...) tensor is diagonal). This, however, is independent of being charged or uncharged.

Heribert