DFT study of the geometry and energy order of the low singlet and triplet states of [d4-eta5-CpMo(CO)2X] 16-electron complexes (X = halogen, CN, H, and CH3)

DFT methods have been used to investigate the dependence of the geometry and energy order of the low energy states of d(4)-eta(5)-CpMo(CO)(2)X] 16-electron complexes on X (X = halogen, CN, H and CH(3)). The calculations use a double-zeta plus polarization valence basis set on all atoms and utilize relativistic ECPs on Mo and the heavier halogens. In every case two singlet and two triplet electronic states have been considered and minimized at the B3LYP level. For X = Cl, additional calculations were carried out at the BPW91, CCSD(T), and CASSCF levels. In the C(s) point group, the singlet states are from the (1a')(2)(1a')(2) and (1a')(2)(2a')(2) configurations of the valence d(4) electrons of the metal, and are denoted (1)A'-a and (1)A'-b, respectively. The triplet species are for the lowest (3)A' and (3)A' states from the (1a')(2)(2a')(1)(1a')(1) and (1a')(2)(1a')(1)(2a')(1) d(4) configurations. For all substituents, the geometry of both the singlet and triplet states is found to distort substantially from the uniform 3-leg piano-stool structural motif, a behavior that can be related to Jahn-Teller effects. When X is a halogen or a methyl, (1)A'-b is predicted to be lower than (1)A'-a, while the reverse order of these two singlet states is calculated for X = H and CN. For all substituents (3)A' is substantially higher than (3)A'. In turn, the energy of (3)A' is calculated to be comparable to the lower singlet state of each complex. Attempts are made to rationalize some of these results using qualitative MO theory.