Ab initio study on the structures, energies, and vibrational frequencies of acetone complexes with metal monocations and dications

The structures, interaction energies, and vibrational frequencies of acetone and its complexes with proton and various metal monocations/dications such as H⁺, Li⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Rb⁺, Cs⁺, Be²⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, and Zn²⁺ have been investigated from the ab initio calculations. The linear or bent structure for the cation-acetone complexes has been found to be deeply influenced by the amount of charge transfer. The amount of red-shift of CO stretching frequencies of acetone is almost equivalent regardless of the kind of alkali metal monocations. This behavior can be attributed to the electrostatic nature of the interactions rather than orbital interactions. This phenomenon has been supported by the highest occupied molecular orbitals of the acetone complexes investigated, charge transfer based on natural bond orbital (NBO) atomic charges, and the inversely proportional behavior of the interaction energies to the interatomic distances r(M⁺O).