Conformation-specific Raman bands and electronic conjugation in substituted thioanisoles

Nonresonant Raman spectra and conformational stability are studied for thioanisole (TA) and substituted analogues [4-XTA, X = NO(2) (1), CN (2), H (3), CH(3) (4), and NH(2) (5)] at the 4-position. The ring-substituent (SCH(3)) vibrational modes of out-of-plane bending and torsional types are calculated to have strong Raman scattering activities only for the vertical conformers. Agreement between observed and calculated Raman spectra is analyzed numerically. The conformational stability of the SCH(3) rotation changes systematically to the electron-withdrawing character of the substituents. The rotational barrier is calculated satisfactorily by B3LYP/6-31++G(d,p) calculations, whereas the second- to fourth-order M?ller-Presset perturbation theory and coupled-cluster with single- and double-excitation calculations tend to overestimate conformational energy barriers with respect to coplanar forms. The coplanar form is obtained for 1 and 2, whereas the vertical conformer is favorable for 4 and 5. The origin of the conformational energy difference, DeltaE, is demonstrated on the basis of canonical molecular orbitals and natural bond orbitals (NBOs) of the ground state. The natural bond orbital interaction between a nonbonding n(S) orbital of the S atom and a pi orbital of the benzene ring is shown to stabilize the coplanar form predominantly. A linear relationship is obtained between the energy of the highest occupied molecular orbitals and DeltaE. The n(S)-pi interaction energy, E(2), based on the NBO representation and the Hammet constants also change linearly with respect to DeltaE.     

Evaluation of the origin of rotational barrier in NH2X (X = NO, NS)

The origin of rotational barrier in N-thionitrosamine NH₂NS (TNA) has been examined with the aid of topological theory of atoms in molecules (AIM) and natural bond orbital (NBO) analyses and has been compared with N-nitrosamine NH₂NO (NA). Frequency calculations show that the rotational barrier for TNA is greater than NA. This can be attributed to the more charge transfer from nitrogen of amino group to sulfur in TNA than from nitrogen to oxygen in NA. NBO analysis reveals pyramidalization of nitrogen atom of NH₂ group leads to decrease of delocalization energy contribution and increase of Lewis energy contribution on total energy.     

Role of the Fermi surface in adsorbate-metal interactions: an energy decomposition analysis

We present the result of a fragment-based energy decomposition analysis on some molecule-surface interactions. The analysis allows us to quantify the Pauli repulsion, its relief, and the attractive orbital interaction energy. In a metal, the existence of incompletely occupied energy bands causes significant relief of the Pauli repulsion due to escape of antibonding electrons to unoccupied states at the Fermi energy. This is the key electronic structure feature of metals that causes metal-molecule bond energies to be stronger and dissociation barriers of chemisorbed molecules to be much lower than those in comparable systems with no or one metal atom. As examples, we discuss the energy decomposition for the activated dissociation of hydrogen on the Cu surface and its unactivated dissociation on Pd, and for the (activated) chemisorption of N2 on W. We show that in all cases the relief of Pauli repulsion is of crucial importance for the chemisorption energy and for the low (or nonexistent) dissociation barriers. The barrier to the chemisorption well for nitrogen on tungsten is clearly related to a late relief of the Pauli repulsion. The relief of Pauli repulsion is important in lowering the barrier to dissociation of H2 on both Cu and Pd, but the difference in barrier heights for Cu and Pd appears to not be due to stronger relief of Pauli repulsion on Pd but primarily to the Pauli repulsion itself being stronger on Cu than on Pd, the relief energy being quite comparable on the two metals.     

Steric repulsions, rotation barriers, and stereoelectronic effects: a real space perspective

Widely used chemical concepts like Pauli repulsion or hyperconjugation, and their role in determining rotation barriers or stereoelectronic effects, are analyzed from the real space perspective of the interacting quantum atoms approach (IQA). IQA emerges from the quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM), but is free from the equilibrium geometry constraint of the former. A framework with both electronically unrelaxed and relaxed wavefunctions is presented that leads to an approximate correspondence between the IQA concepts and those used in the EDA (energy decomposition analysis) or NBO (natural bond orbital) procedures. We show that no net force acts upon the electrons in an electronically relaxed system, so that any reasonable definition of Pauli repulsion must involve unrelaxed state functions. Using antisymmetrized fragments clarifies that Pauli repulsions are energetically connected to the IQA deformation energies, leaving footprints in the finally relaxed states. Similarly, EDA or NBO hyperconjugative stabilizations are found to be naturally related to the IQA electron delocalization patterns. Applications to the rotation barrier of ethane and other simple systems are presented, and the very often forgotten role of electrostatic contributions in determining preferred conformations is highlighted.     

2+3] Cycloaddition of ethylene to transition metal oxo compounds. analysis of density functional results by marcus theory.

Density functional results on the [2+3] cycloaddition of ethylene to various transition metal complexes MO(3)(q) and LMO(3)(q) (q = -1, 0, 1) with M = Mo, W, Mn, Tc, Re, and Os and various ligands L = Cp, CH(3), Cl, and O show that the corresponding activation barriers DeltaE(double dagger) depend in quadratic fashion on the reaction energies DeltaE(0) as predicted by Marcus theory. A thermoneutral reaction is characterized by the intrinsic reaction barrier DeltaE(0) of 25.1 kcal/mol. Both ethylene [2+3] cycloaddition to an oxo complex and the corresponding homolytic M-O bond dissociation are controlled by the reducibility of the transition metal center. Indeed, from the easily calculated M-O bond dissociation energy of the oxo complex one can predict the reaction energy DeltaE(0) and hence, by Marcus theory, the corresponding activation barrier DeltaE. This allows a systematic representation of more than 25 barriers of [2+3] cycloaddition reactions that range from 5 to 70 kcal/mol.     

Investigation of spin-flip reactions of Zr + CH3CN by relativistic density functional theory

To explore the details of the reaction mechanisms of Zr atoms with acetonitrile molecules, the triplet and singlet spin-state potential energy surfaces have been investigated. Density functional theory (DFT) with the relativistic zero-order regular approximation at the PW91/TZ2P level has been applied. The complicated minimum energy reaction path involves four transition states (TS), stationary states 1-5 and one spin inversion (indicated by ?): (3)Zr + NCCH(3) → (3)Zr-η(1)-NCCH(3) ((3)1) → (3)TS(1/2) → (3)Zr-η(2)-(NC)CH(3) ((3)2) → (3)TS(2/3) → (3)ZrH-η(3)-(NCCH(2)) ((3)3) → (3)TS(3/4) → CNZrCH(3) ((3)4) ? (1)TS(4/5) → CN(ZrH)CH(2) ((1)5). The minimum energy crossing point was determined with the help of the DFT fractional-occupation-number approach. The spin inversion leading from the triplet to the singlet state facilitates the activation of a C-H bond, lowering the rearrangement-barrier by 78 kJ/mol. The overall reaction is calculated to be exothermic by about 296 kJ/mol. All intermediate and product species were frequency and NBO analyzed. The species can be rationalized with the help of Lewis type formulas.     

Theoretical studies on the role of pi-electron delocalization in determining the conformation of N-benzylideneaniline with three types of LMO basis sets

To understand the role of pi-electron delocalization in determining the conformation of the NBA (Ph-N==CH-Ph) molecule, the following three LMO (localized molecular orbital) basis sets are constructed: a LFMO (highly localized fragment molecular orbital), an NBO (natural bond orbital), and a special NBO (NBO-II) basis sets, and their localization degrees are evaluated with our suggesting index D(L). Afterward, the vertical resonance energy DeltaE(V) is obtained from the Morokuma's energy partition over each of three LMO basis sets. DeltaE(V) = DeltaE(H) (one electron energy) + DeltaE(two) (two electron energy), and DeltaE(two) = DeltaE(Cou) (Coulomb) + DeltaE(ex) (exchange) + DeltaE(ec) (or SigmaDeltaE(n)) (electron correction). DeltaE(H) is always stabilizing, and DeltaE(Cou) is destabilizing for all time. In the case of the LFMO basis set, DeltaE(Cou) is so great that DeltaE(two) > |DeltaE(H)|. Therefore, DeltaE(V) is always destabilizing, and is least destabilizing at about the theta = 90 degrees geometry. Of the three calculation methods such as HF, DFT, and MPn (n = 2, 3, and 4), the MPn method provides DeltaE(V) with the greatest value. In the case of the NBO basis set, on the contrary, DeltaE(V) is stabilizing due to DeltaE(Cou) being less destabilizing, and it is most stabilizing at a planar geometry. The LFMO basis set has the highest localization degree, and it is most appropriate for the energy partition. In the NBA molecule, pi-electron delocalization is destabilization, and it has a tendency to distort the NBA molecular away from its planar geometry as far as possible.     

The search for bishomoaromatic semibullvalenes and barbaralanes: computational evidence of their identification by UV/Vis and IR spectroscopy and prediction of the existence of a blue bishomoaromatic semibullvalene

Time-dependent B3LYP/6-31G calculations have been performed at the optimized C(2) or C(2v) geometries of several substituted semibullvalenes (1(deloc)) and barbaralanes (2(deloc)), to compare the computed vertical electronic excitation energies with the temperature-dependent, long-wavelength absorptions that have been observed in the UV/vis spectra of some of these compounds by Quast and co-workers. The excellent agreement between the calculated vertical excitation energies and the observed values of lambda(max) provides strong support for the identification of the bishomoaromatic species 1(deloc) and 2(deloc) as the source of these absorptions. Furthermore, the CN stretching frequencies, computed for the C(2) geometry of 1,5-dimethyl-2,6-dicyano-4,8-diphenylsemibullvalene (1f(deloc)), fit the low-frequency absorptions seen in the IR spectrum of 1f, thus furnishing independent evidence that bishomoaromatic geometries of semibullvalenes have, in fact, been observed spectroscopically. B3LYP/6-31G calculations predict that 2,6-dicyano-4,8-diphenylsemibullvalene 1c has a C(2) equilibrium geometry (1c(deloc)) and that the long-wavelength UV/vis absorption (lambda(max) = 585 nm) and CN stretching frequencies (2192 and 2194 cm(-1)) computed for 1c(deloc) should serve to identify this bishomoaromatic semibullvalene when it is synthesized.     

Steric strain versus hyperconjugative stabilization in ethane congeners

Rotation barriers in the group IVB ethane congeners H(3)X-YH(3) (X, Y = C, Si, Ge, Sn, Pb) have been systematically studied and deciphered using the ab initio valence bond theory in terms of the steric strain and hyperconjugation effect. Our results show that in all cases the rotation barriers are dominated by the steric repulsion whereas the hyperconjugative interaction between the X-H bond orbitals and the vicinal Y-H antibond orbitals (and vice versa) plays a secondary role, although indeed the hyperconjugation effect favors staggered structures. By the independent estimations of the hyperconjugative and steric interactions in the process of rotations, we found that the structural effect which mainly refers to the central X-Y bond relaxation makes a small contribution to the rotational barriers. Therefore, we conclude that both the rigid and fully relaxed rotations in the group IVB ethane congeners H(3)X-YH(3) observe the same mechanism which is governed by the conventional steric repulsion.     

Base-pair interactions in the gas-phase proton-bonded complexes of C+G and C+GC

Interactions involved in the formation of gas-phase proton-bonded molecular complexes of cytosine (C) and guanine (G) were theoretically investigated for the case of C(+)G and C(+)GC using B3LYP density functional theory. In this study, particular focus was on the dimeric interaction of proton-bonded C(+)G, where a proton bond and a hydrogen bond are cooperatively involved. The dimer interaction energy in terms of dissociation energy (D(e)) was predicted to be 41.8 kcal/mol. The lowest (frozen) energy structure for the C(+)G dimeric complex was found to be CH(+)...G rather than C...H(+)G in spite of the lower proton affinity of the cytosine moiety, which was more stable by 3.3 kcal/mol. The predicted harmonic vibrational frequencies and bond lengths suggest that the combined contributions of proton and hydrogen bonding may determine the resultant stability of each complex structure. In contrast to the dimer case, in the case of the isolated C(+)GC triplet, the two minimum energy structures of CH(+)...GC and C...H(+)GC were predicted to be almost equivalent in total energy. The dissociation energy (D(e)) for the C(+)G pairing in the C(+)GC triplet was 43.7 kcal/mol. Other energetics are also reported. As for the proton-transfer reaction in the proton-bond axis, the forward proton-transfer barriers for the dimer and trimer complexes were also predicted to be very low, 3.6 and 1.5 kcal/mol (DeltaE(e)(PT)), respectively.     

Direct evidence for nonadiabatic dynamics in atom+polyatom reactions: crossed-jet laser studies of F+D2O-->DF+OD

Quantum-state-resolved reactive-scattering dynamics of F+D(2)O-->DF+OD have been studied at E(c.m.)=5(1) kcal/mol in low-density crossed supersonic jets, exploiting pulsed discharge sources of F atom and laser-induced fluorescence to detect the nascent OD product under single-collision conditions. The product OD is formed exclusively in the v(OD)=0 state with only modest rotational excitation ( =0.50(1) kcal/mol), consistent with the relatively weak coupling of the 18.1(1) kcal/mol reaction exothermicity into "spectator" bond degrees of freedom. The majority of OD products [68(1)%] are found in the ground ((2)Pi(32) (+/-)) spin-orbit state, which adiabatically correlates with reaction over the lowest and only energetically accessible barrier (DeltaE( not equal) approximately 4 kcal/mol). However, 32(1)% of molecules are produced in the excited spin-orbit state ((2)Pi(12) (+/-)), although from a purely adiabatic perspective, this requires passage over a DeltaE( not equal) approximately 25 kcal/mol barrier energetically inaccessible at these collision energies. This provides unambiguous evidence for nonadiabatic surface hopping in F+D(2)O atom abstraction reactions, indicating that reactive-scattering dynamics even in simple atom+polyatom systems is not always isolated on the ground electronic surface. Additionally, the nascent OD rotational states are well fitted by a two-temperature Boltzmann distribution, suggesting correlated branching of the reaction products into the DF(v=2,3) vibrational manifold.     

Methyl rotational barriers in amides and thioamides

The methyl rotational barriers for a series of N-methyl-substituted amides and thioamides have been calculated at the MP2/6-311+G** level. A comparison of the N-methylformamide and methyl formate barriers indicates that the H [bond] C(Me) [bond] N [bond] H eclipsed torsional arrangement destabilizes an amide by about 0.8 kcal/mol. A comparison of thioamides and amides showed the importance of steric repulsion between the sulfur and a methyl hydrogen in the Z-forms of the thioamides. The C [bond] N bond rotation transition states of the N,N-dimethyl amides have much larger methyl rotational barriers than found in the ground states. They can be attributed to the smaller CH(3)(-)N [bond] CH(3) bond angles in the transition states.     

Protonenresonanz-Untersuchungen an N,N-Dialkylaminoboranen. Substituentenabhängigkeit der Rotationsbarriere um die N?B-Bindung 1,2

The substituent dependence of the rotation barriers around the N? B bond in a series of N,N-dialkylaminoboranes was investigated by NMR. It was found that (1) there is a significant dependence on the size of the substituent, which arises from a ‘steric hindrance of mesomerism’ and (2) in certain cases exceptional facilitation of rotation occurs when alkyl groups on the boron atom are replaced by a chlorine atom or a second amino group. The lowering of the rotation barrier by about 10 kcal/mole in bisamino compounds compared with the corresponding monoamino compounds is explained on the basis of a lowering of the double bond character of each N? B bond owing to the participation of two N-atoms in the mesomerism of the ground state. This effect is much larger with amino groups than with chlorine atoms.     

Orbital overlap and chemical bonding

The chemical bonds in the diatomic molecules Li(2)-F(2) and Na(2)-Cl(2) at different bond lengths have been analyzed by the energy decomposition analysis (EDA) method using DFT calculations at the BP86/TZ2P level. The interatomic interactions are discussed in terms of quasiclassical electrostatic interactions DeltaE(elstat), Pauli repulsion DeltaE(Pauli) and attractive orbital interactions DeltaE(orb). The energy terms are compared with the orbital overlaps at different interatomic distances. The quasiclassical electrostatic interactions between two electrons occupying 1s, 2s, 2p(sigma), and 2p(pi) orbitals have been calculated and the results are analyzed and discussed. It is shown that the equilibrium distances of the covalent bonds are not determined by the maximum overlap of the sigma valence orbitals, which nearly always has its largest value at clearly shorter distances than the equilibrium bond length. The crucial interaction that prevents shorter bonds is not the loss of attractive interactions, but a sharp increase in the Pauli repulsion between electrons in valence orbitals. The attractive interactions of DeltaE(orb) and the repulsive interactions of DeltaE(Pauli) are both determined by the orbital overlap. The net effect of the two terms depends on the occupation of the valence orbitals, but the onset of attractive orbital interactions occurs at longer distances than Pauli repulsion, because overlap of occupied orbitals with vacant orbitals starts earlier than overlap between occupied orbitals. The contribution of DeltaE(elstat) in most nonpolar covalent bonds is strongly attractive. This comes from the deviation of quasiclassical electron-electron repulsion and nuclear-electron attraction from Coulomb's law for point charges. The actual strength of DeltaE(elstat) depends on the size and shape of the occupied valence orbitals. The attractive electrostatic contributions in the diatomic molecules Li(2)-F(2) come from the s and p(sigma) electrons, while the p(pi) electrons do not compensate for nuclear-nuclear repulsion. It is the interplay of the three terms DeltaE(orb), DeltaE(Pauli), and DeltaE(elstat) that determines the bond energies and equilibrium distances of covalently bonded molecules. Molecules like N(2) and O(2), which are usually considered as covalently bonded, would not be bonded without the quasiclassical attraction DeltaE(elstat).     

Theoretical study of structures and properties of cyclobutadiene, cyclopentadiene and benzene and their nitrogen isoelectronic equivalents

B3LYP/aug-cc-pvDZ level of theory is applied to study the geometric structures, electronic topologies, heats of formation, hyperconjugations and steric repulsions of 27 kinds of compounds obtained by successive replacement of CH groups with nitrogen atoms in cyclobutadiene, cyclopentadiene and benzene. The results reveal that the total energy linearly decreases along with the replacement of CH groups by nitrogen atoms for the three systems. To estimate the potential of high nitrogen content high energy materials (HNC–HEMs), heats of formation are calculated by G3 method. With the increase of the number of nitrogen atoms in ring, heats of formation increase substantially. The four-membered ring system is found to have the greatest heat of formations, followed by the six-membered ring system, and then by the five-membered ring system. Especially, hexazine and tetraazacyclobutadiene have great heats of formation relative to the other compounds, which implies that they should be applicable as HNC–HEMs. In addition, our studies indicate that the relationship between the total energy or heats of formation of isomers and the position of nitrogen atoms is (ortho) meta < (ortho) para < ortho. NBO analysis shows that it is hyperconjugation, not steric repulsion that plays a key role in the relative stability of isomers.     

Theoretical calculation of the dehydrogenation of ethanol on a Rh/CeO2(111) surface

We applied periodic density-functional theory (DFT) to investigate the dehydrogenation of ethanol on a Rh/CeO2 (111) surface. Ethanol is calculated to have the greatest energy of adsorption when the oxygen atom of the molecule is adsorbed onto a Ce atom in the surface, relative to other surface atoms (Rh or O). Before forming a six-membered ring of an oxametallacyclic compound (Rh-CH2CH2O-Ce(a)), two hydrogen atoms from ethanol are first eliminated; the barriers for dissociation of the O-H and the beta-carbon (CH2-H) hydrogens are calculated to be 12.00 and 28.57 kcal/mol, respectively. The dehydrogenated H atom has the greatest adsorption energy (E(ads) = 101.59 kcal/mol) when it is adsorbed onto an oxygen atom of the surface. The dehydrogenation continues with the loss of two hydrogens from the alpha-carbon, forming an intermediate species Rh-CH2CO-Ce(a), for which the successive barriers are 34.26 and 40.84 kcal/mol. Scission of the C-C bond occurs at this stage with a dissociation barrier Ea = 49.54 kcal/mol, to form Rh-CH(2(a)) + 4H(a) + CO(g). At high temperatures, these adsorbates desorb to yield the final products CH(4(g)), H(2(g)), and CO(g).     

Alkyl group dependence of C-Si reductive eliminations from alkyl(silyl) Pt(II) complexes: a density functional study

C-Si reductive elimination from Pt(R)(SiPh₃)(PMe₃)₂ (R=Me, Pr) was theoretically studied with the density functional theory. For comparisons with the experiment, substitution of PMe₃ with diphenylacetylene was taken into account. The calculated activation barriers in the C-Si elimination step after the ligand exchange were 22.0 and 28.9 kcal mol⁻¹ for R=Me and Pr, respectively, which explains the reactivity difference reported experimentally. In order to analyze the energy difference, we optimized transition states of several model complexes, and examined the influence of the steric repulsion between R and the other ligands. Comparisons of the geometries and the barrier heights reveal that the steric repulsion and the Si-alkyl bond energy are important factors controlling the reaction rate.     

Barriers to internal rotation around the C-N bond in 3-(o-aryl)-5-methyl-rhodanines using NMR spectroscopy and computational studies. Electron density topological analysis of the transition states

We have investigated the pairs of rotational isomers for six 3-(o-aryl)-5-methyl-rhodanines (Z = H, F, Cl, Br, OH, and CH3) using NMR spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Electron density topological and NBO analysis has demonstrated the importance of non-covalent interactions, characterised by (3, -1) bond critical points (BCPs), between the oxygen and sulfur atoms on the thiazolidine ring with the aryl substitutents in stabilizing the transition states. The energetic activation barriers to rotation have also been determined using computational results; rotational barriers for 3-(o-chlorophenyl)-5-methyl-rhodanine (3S) and 3-(o-tolyl)-5-methyl-rhodanine (6S) were determined experimentally based on NMR separation of the diastereoisomeric pairs, and the first-order rate constants used to derive the value of the rotational barrier from the Eyring equation.     

Nitrogen inversion in cyclic amines and the bicyclic effect

The hitherto unsolved problem of the origin of the unusually high nitrogen inversion-rotation (NIR) barriers in 7-azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptanes (the bicyclic effect) was examined using the natural bond orbital (NBO) approach. Reinvestigating the NIR barrier for tropane by DNMR, we found that NIR barriers increase smoothly on going from nitrogen-bridged bicyclic systems of a larger ring size to the smaller ring homologous systems. The experimental NIR barriers are reproduced with good accuracy using the MP2/6-31G level of theory. The NBO analysis for these and other azabicycles led to the conclusion that the height of these barriers is mostly determined by the energy of the sigma-orbitals of the C(alpha)(-)C(beta) bonds as well as the nitrogen lone pair. Thus, the bicyclic effect is actually an extreme case of a common C(alpha-)N-C(alpha) tripyramid geometry-NIR barrier dependence for N-bridged bicyclic amines. By establishing the rate-determining role of the C(alpha-)N-C(alpha) tripyramid fragment for NIR, we have derived the first sufficiently accurate quantitative correlations amine geometry-NIR barrier for monocyclic as well as bicyclic N-H and N-Me amines (i.e., for an amine set which also includes the bicyclic effect systems).     

Toward understanding the nature of internal rotation barriers with a new energy partition scheme: ethane and n-butane

On the basis of an alternative energy partition scheme where density-based quantification of the steric effect was proposed [Liu, S. B. J. Chem. Phys. 2007, 126, 244103], the origin of the internal rotation barrier between the eclipsed and staggered conformers of ethane and n-butane is systematically investigated in this work. Within the new scheme, the total electronic energy is decomposed into three independent components, steric, electrostatic, and fermionic quantum. The steric energy defined in this way is repulsive, exclusive, and extensive and intrinsically linked to Bader's atoms in molecules approach. Two kinds of differences, adiabatic (with optimal structure) and vertical (with fixed geometry), are considered for the molecules in this work. We find that in the adiabatic case the eclipsed conformer possesses a larger steric repulsion than the staggered conformer for both molecules, but in the vertical cases the staggered conformer retains a larger steric repulsion. For ethane, a linear relationship between the total energy difference and the fermionic quantum energy difference is discovered. This linear relationship, however, does not hold for n-butane, whose behaviors in energy component differences are found to be more complicated. The impact of basis set and density functional choices on energy components from the new energy partition scheme has been investigated, as has its comparison with another definition of the steric effect in the literature in terms of the natural bond orbital analysis through the Pauli Exclusion Principle. In addition, profiles of conceptual density functional theory reactivity indices as a function of dihedral angle changes have been examined. Put together, these results suggest that the new energy partition scheme provides insights from a different perspective of internal rotation barriers.