Theoretical study of the electronic structure of diazomethane

The least-energy dissociation path of the ground state of CH₂N₂ was determined fromab initio calculations using in a complementary way basis sets of minimal size (STO-3G) and double-zeta (DZ) quality. The results indicate that the least-energy point of attack of the N₂ molecule on CH₂ (¹ A ₁) is roughly perpendicular to the molecular plane (93 °), the C and N atoms being almost co-linear (angle C-N-N203 ° with outermost N atom pointing away from CH₂). The potential barrier of 1.2 eV found previously on theC _2v dissociation path, disappears completely along the least-energy dissociation path (point groupC _s (out-of-plane)). These findings corroborate the Woodward-Hoffman rules for this process since the outermost orbitals of the two intersecting states found in point groupC _2v (...2b ₁ and ...8a ₁) both correlate to the same irreducible representation (10á) in point groupC _s (out-of-plane).Larger basis set calculations (DZ + polarization functions on all centers, 3d _c and 3d _N developed here), were also carried out on CH₂N₂ (¹ A ₁,³ A ₂ and¹ A ₂) at the¹ A ₁ equilibrium geometry and on CH₂ (³ B ₁) and N₂ (¹ _g ⁺ ) at their respective equilibrium geometries. These calculations, together with consideration of correlation energy differences, yieldD ₀ ⁰ (CH₂N₂,¹ A ₁) = 19 kcal/mole and vertical excitation energies of 67 and 73 kcal/mole for the³ A ₂ and¹ A ₂ states respectively. The latter value is in good agreement with the measured experimental value: 72.4 kcal/mole corresponding to the maximum of intensity in the¹ A ₂¹ A ₁ absorption band.     

Ab initio MRD-CI study of the rydberg states of methylene

Potential curves have been calculated for the low-lying Rydberg states of CH₂ as well as for a number of its valence-shell species by employing the ab initio MRD-CI method. The first Rydberg transition is found to occur with a vertical energy of 6.38 eV (1b₁ → 3s), but the corresponding upper state is believed to be strongly predissociated since it correlates directly with the CH(²II) + H(²S_g) ground state fragments at lower energy. The assignment of the first observed Rydberg transition at 8.757 eV by Herzberg as 1b₁ → 3dπ is confirmed almost quantitatively in the calculations, while the corresponding minimum 1P value is computed to be 10.21 eV compared to the experimental result of 10.3 ± 0.1 eV. The dissociation energy of methylene in its ground state is calculated to be 4.47 eV, and this result also fits in well with experimental evidence, which determines a lower limit for this quantity of D₀ > 4.23 eV. Finally, it is found that none of the Rydberg states nor any of the higher-lying valence-shell species of methylene are of sufficiently low energy to play a significant role in the experimental determination of the ¹A₁-³B₁ splitting of this system.     

Ab initio study of hydrazoic acid

SCF and CI calculations were carried out on the ground^1A state of HN₃. The equilibrium geometry and vibration frequencies were computed. The results point to a planar structure (groupC _s) but to a non-linear (170 °) N-N-N conformation. The calculated vibration frequencies are in fair agreement with experimental assignments.The dissociation path of the molecule to NH and N₂ products was investigated and compared to the isoelectronic reaction of diazomethane. The dissociation energy of hydrazoic acid is estimated to be about –8 kcal/mole, with a potential barrier to dissociation of about 30 kcal/mole.Boursier IRSIA     

Valence bond studies of AH2 molecules

Minimal basis set (STO) molecular orbital and valence-bond calculations are reported for the³ B ₁ and¹ A ₁ states of CH₂. The open-shell molecular orbital calculations used the Roothaan formulation. The valence-bond calculations used the Prosser-Hagstrom biorthogonalisation technique to evaluate the cofactors required in using Löwdin's formulae. Optimisation of geometry and orbital exponents in the molecular orbital calculation on the³ B ₁ state gave a geometry of R_C-H=2.11 a.u. and H-C-H=123.2 °. The energy obtained was ?38.8355 a.u. The molecular orbital and valencebond calculations are compared. In the valence-bond calculations the variation with bond-length and bond-angle of the configuration energies was studied. Valence bond “build-up” studies are also reported. Valence-bond calculations using hybrid orbitals instead of natural atomic orbitals showed that the perfect-pairing approximation is not as good for CH₂ as BeH₂. The nature of the lone-pair and bonding orbitals is found to be significantly different between the³ B ₁ and¹ A ₁ states. In the³ B ₁ state the 2s and 2p orbitals are fairly equally mixed between both types of orbital. However in the¹ A ₁ state the bonding orbitals have mainly 2p character and the lone pair orbitals have mainly 2s character. As was found for H₂O, the bonding hybrid orbitals do not follow the hydrogen nuclei as the bond angle varies but continue to point approximately in their equilibrium directions.     

Analysis of the stability of finite subspaces in density functional theory

We have studied photodissociation of the A state of the H₂S⁺ ion using the quantum-chemical CAS methods, and the 1² A″ (X ² B ₁) and 1⁴ A″ states are involved in photodissociation of the 1² A′ (A ² A ₁) state (the electronic states in dissociation were studied in the C _s symmetry). The CASPT2 S-loss dissociation potential energy curve (PEC) calculations indicate that the 1² A″ and 1² A′ states correlate with the second limit [H₂ + S⁺(² D)] while the 1⁴ A″ state correlates with the first limit [H₂ + S⁺(⁴S)] and that there are a transition state and a local minimum along the 1² A′ PEC and the repulsive 1⁴ A″ PEC crosses the 1² A″ and 1² A′ PECs. The CASPT2 H-loss dissociation PEC calculations indicate that the 1² A″ and 1⁴ A″ states correlate with the first limit [HS⁺(X ³Σ^?) + H] while the 1² A′ state correlates with the second limit [HS⁺(a ¹Δ) + H] and that the repulsive 1⁴ A″ PEC crosses the 1² A′ PEC. For the crossing doublet and quartet states in pairs, we performed CASSCF minimum energy crossing point (MECP) calculations, and the CASSCF spin-orbit couplings and CASPT2 energies at the MECP geometries were calculated. We examined the two previously proposed mechanisms (mechanisms I and II) for dissociation of the A state to the S⁺ ion, based on our calculation results. We suggest processes for dissociation of the A state to the S⁺ ion (processes I and II, based on mechanisms I and II, respectively) and to the SH⁺ ion (process III) and conclude that photodissociation of the A state mainly leads to the S⁺ ion via the most energetically favorable process II: A ² A ₁ (1² A′) (2.38 eV) → barrier at the linearity (2.96 eV) → X ² B ₁ (1² A″) (0.0 eV) → the 1² A″/1⁴ A″ MECP (3.50 eV, large spin-orbit coupling) → H₂ $ (X^{ 1} \Upsigma_{\text{g}}^{ + } ) $  + S⁺(⁴S) (2.92 eV) (the CASPT2 relative energy values to X ² B ₁ are given in parentheses and the largest value is 3.50 eV at the MECP).     

Comparative theoretical study of the dissociation process of the isoelectronic molecules BH3CO,CH2CO,HNCO, CO2 and BH3N2, CH2N2, HN3, N2O

Anab initio study of the electronic structure of several 22-electrons molecules is presented. The equilibrium geometries of their ground state are calculated at the SCF level using the 6–31G basis set and are found to be in good agreement with the experimental geometries. The dissociation process of these molecules leading to the isoelectronic products CO or N₂ on the one hand and BH₃, CH₂, NH and O on the other hand is studied. The least-energy dissociation paths of the ground states determined at the SCF level are compared on the basis of electron density interactions. The dissociation energies corresponding to the two lowest dissociation channels are calculated. In these calculations, the correlation energy is taken into account using a non-variational method developed previously. The calculated values of dissociation energies are in good agreement with the existing experimental values. The results permit to predict values for HNCO, BH₃CO and CH₂N₂ and to confirm the instability of BH₃N₂.Aspirant du Fonds National Belge de la Recherche Scientifique.     

The potential energy surfaces of the ground and excited states of carbon dioxide molecule

Potential energy surfaces (PESs) of the ¹A_l(¹Σ _g ⁺ ), ¹B₂ and ³B₂ electronic states of CO₂ have been computed as a function of the two bond distances and the bond angle. The calculations were based on the complete active space self consistent field (CASSCF) and multiconfigurational second-order perturbation theory (CASPT2) electronic structure models. From our calculations no crossing point between ¹B₂ and ³B₂ states was found, but there is a crossing point located between ¹B₂ and ³A₂ state on the PESs. The energy of the crossing point is lie 0.23 eV above the CO + O (³P), which is in agreement with the value of 0.27 eV on the experiment. This implies that the mechanism of the recombination of an oxygen atom with a carbon monoxide molecule: CO(X ¹Σ⁺, ν) + O(³P)→³CO₂*→¹CO₂*→CO(X ¹Σ⁺, ν = 0) + O(¹ D) may occur through the ³A₂ state crossing the ¹B₂ state. The equilibrium geometries and adiabatic excitation energies of ^1,3B₂, ^1,3A₂ states of CO₂ were reported and discussed in this paper, too.     

Threshold energies for production of CH2(3B1) and CH2(1A1) from ketene photolysis. The CH2(3B1) ↔ CH2(1A1) energy splitting

By measuring the relative CO quantum yields from ketene photolysis as a function of photolysis wavelength we have determined the threshold energy at 25° for CH₂CO(¹A₁) → CH₂(³B₁) + CO(¹Σ⁺) to be 75.7 ± 1.0 kcal/mole. This corresponds to a value of 90.7 ± 1.0 kcal/mole for ΔH_f298⁰[CH₂(³B₁)]. By measuring the relative ratio of CH₂(¹A₁)/CH₂(³B₁) from ketene photolysis as a function of photolysis wavelength we have determined the threshold energy at 25°C for CH₂CO(¹A₁) → CH₂(¹A₁) + CO(¹Σ⁺) to be 84.0 ± 0.6 kcal/mole. This corresponds to a value of 99.0 ± 0.6 kcal/mole for ΔH_f298⁰[CH₂(¹A₁)]. Thus a value for the CH₂(³B₁) ? CH₂(¹A₁) energy splitting of 8.3 ± 1 kcal/mole is determined, which agrees with three other recent independent experimental estimates and the most recent quantum theoretical calculations.     

Unimolecular dissociations of excited C3H6O+: A comparative photoelectron—photoion coincidence study of 1,2-epoxypropane and acetone

The unimolecular fragmentation of internal energy selected 1,2-epoxypropane cations has been studied by fixed-wavelength photoelectron—photoion coincidence spectroscopy. Branching ratios for the prominent fragment ions are reported up to an ionization energy of I = 14 eV. It is shown that 1,2-epoxypropane cations initially formed with none or only little vibrational excitation in the electronic ground state do not dissociate, though their excess energy with respect to the lowest energetic fragmentation pathway is 1.25 eV. As the internal energy is increased, slow fragmentation into several dissociation channels is observed. This is used to explain a comparably slow dissociation process observed in the case of acetone molecular ions initially excited to their electronic à state. CH₂C(OH)CH₃⁺ and/or CH₃CHCHOH⁺ are proposed as precursors for these low-rate unimolecular reactions.     

An ab initio theoretical study of the optical spectrum of CF2

The ab initio calculation methods have been used to calculate the spectral and electronic characteristics of difluorocarbene in the ground electronic state (¹A₁), the lowest-lying singlet (¹B₁) and triplet (³B₁) states. The optimized equilibrium geometries, rotational constants, harmonic vibrational frequencies and energy gaps, electronic charges, dipole moments of these states have been computed with different basis sets. The calculated vibrational frequency of ³B₁ state (v₂=522 cm^?1) and the energy separation (2.26 eV) between ³B₁ and ¹A₁ states are in good agreement with the experimental results (519 cm^?1, 2.46 eV respectively). According to the calculations the previous assignment of vibrational symmetries of ¹B₁ state was corrected, and some experimentally undetermined vibrational frequencies were predicted.     

Bond functions in molecular excited states: MRD CI calculations for the A3Σ+u,B3Πg and W3Δu states of N2

Using double-zeta plus polarization (DZP) basis sets systematically augmented with a variety of bond functions, the term dissociation energies are calculated for the A³Σ⁺_u, B³Π_g and W³Δ_u states of N₂. It is found that the best agreement with literature values is generally with a basis set composition of DZP augmented by a set of s, p and d orbitals at the bond midpoint. The excited state potential energy curves and spectroscopic constants for the B³Π_g state are calculated from this basis and compared with experimental values. Good agreement was obtained, considering the small basis set size, with the spectroscopic constants ω_e, ω_eχ_e, ω_ey_e, B_e and α_e and the dissociation energy D_e (e.g., D_e = 3.38 (3.681, exp.), 4.75 (4.897) and 4.77(4.873) eV for the A, B and W stages, respectively). Poorer agreement was obtained for the term energy T′₀ (7.92 versus 7.35 eV, exp., for the B state). The error in term energy arises largely from an error in the calculated ⁴S → ²D splitting (2.705 versus 2.383 eV, exp.), and shifting the potential curve for the B state by a constant amount leads to much improved agreement relative to the ground state. The counterpoise correction applied to the potential curve of the B state causes a drastic deterioration of the results and shows qualitatively incorrect behaviour, and is therefore not recommended for calculations of this type.     

A theoretical study of the electronic spectrum of CCl2

Ab into configuration interaction calculations for some low-lying electronic states of the dichlorocarbene radical (CCl₂) have been carried out. The UV absorption band at 330 nm (3.76 eV) obtained by the pulse radiolysis experiment is confirmed and assigned to the ¹A₁ – ¹B₁ transition. The calculated transition energy amounts to 318.4 nm (3.90 eV). The first triplet state (³B₁) is found to lie 0.83 eV above the ¹A₁ ground state.     

An ab initio potential energy surface for the reaction N+ + H2 → NH+ + H

Preliminary results of ab initio unrestricted Hartree-Fock calculations for the potential energy surface for the reaction N⁺ + H₂ → NH⁺ + H are reported. For the collinear approach of N⁺ to H₂, the ³Σ^? surface has no activation barrier and has a shallow well (ca. 1 eV). For perpendicular approach (C_2v symmetry) the ³B₂ state is of high energy, the ³A₂ state has a shallow well but as the bond angle increases the ³B₁ state decreases in energy to become the state of lowest energy. Neither the collinear nor the perpendicular approaches give adiabatic pathways to the deep potential well of ³B₁ (HNH)⁺.     

Ab initio SCF and CI study of the electronic spectrum of pyridine N-oxide

Configuration interaction (CI) studies of ground, n *, * * electronically excited states are reported for pyridine N-oxide. The transition energy to the lowest * excited ¹ B ₂ state is calculated at 4.35 eV, compared to the experimental spectrum range of 3.67–4.0 eV. This state lies below the lowest n * excited ¹ A ₂ state calculated at 4.81 eV above the ground state. The only experimentally reported triplet state at 2.92 eV above the ground state is predicted to be the ³ A ₁ (*) state. The calculated energy lies at 3.27 eV. Numerous other high-lying singlet states as well as the triplet states have also been calculated. The intramolecular charge transfer character of the ground and the excited states have been studied in terms of the calculated dipole moment and other physical properties.     

Theoretical study of the electronic spectrum of diimide by AB initio methods

A series of ab initio calculations is reported for the ground and low-lying valence and Rydberg states of diimide N₂H₂. Symmetric bending potential curves for both the cis and trans forms of this system have been obtained at the SCF level of treatment. In addition Cl calculations have been carried out for the trans-diimide ground state equilibrium nuclear conformation, using a configuration selection procedure described elsewhere; an associated energy extrapolation scheme is also employed which enables the effective solution of secular equations with orders of up to 40000. The ensuing Cl wavefunctions are interpreted in the discussion and the corresponding calculated energy differences between the various electronic states are compared with experimental transition energy results for both diimide and for related systems such as trans-azomethane. A more detailed analysis of the observed absorption bands in the ¹B_g-X¹A_g transition in N₂H₂ is also given, making use of calculated potential curve data as well as the pertinent Cl vertical energy difference. The dipole-forbiddenness of the excitation process is thereupon concluded to result in a distinct non-verticality for this electronic band system, causing its absorption maximum to occur at a position some 0.6 eV to the blue of the so-called vertical transition, i.e., that for which maximum vibrational overlap is obtained.     

Laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy of van der Waals complexes of aniline with N2, H2, and CH4 formed in a supersonic free jet

The laser induced fluorescence spectra for the Ã(¹B₂)X̃(¹A₁) transition of van der Waals (vdW) complexes of aniline with N₂, H₂, and CH₄ have been observed. Based on the analysis of the rotational structure of the spectra, it is suggested that two vdW conformers exist for the N₂aniline complex though only one conformer is identified for the other complexes. In the electronically excited state of the CH₄aniline complex, energy level splittings are observed and attributed to the intramolecular rotation of CH₄.     

Electronic structure and photoelectron spectrum Assignment of allene

In this paper a series of ab initio SCF and configuration calculations were reported forthe ground state and excited states X~2E, A~2E,~2B_2 and ~2A_1 of allene.For ground state X~2E Jahn-Teller distorsion was discussed and a twisted angle of 50° and a torsional barriers of 0.21—0.51 eVwere derived.Based on calculated results,the experimental photoelectron spectrum of allene has beenassigned.     

Electronic states of chromium carbene ions characterized by high-resolution translational energy loss spectroscopy

The electronic states of the unsaturated organometallic carbene CrCH₂⁺ are investigated using high-resolution translational energy loss spectroscopy. The observed energy loss feature (1.05 ±0.2 eV) is in good agreement with theoretical calculations which predict two higher lying states, ⁶B₁, and ⁶A₁ at 0.78 and 0.82 eV respectively, above the ⁴B₁ ground state of CrCH₂⁺.     

CEPA calculations on open-shell molecules

Ab initio calculations at SCF and CEPA levels using large Gaussian basis sets have been performed for the two lowest electronic states,X ² Σ⁺ andA ² Π, of HeAr⁺. Spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effects have been added using a semiempirical treatment. The resulting potential curves for the three statesX,A ₁, andA ₂ have been used to evaluate molecular constants such as vibrational intervals ΔG(v + 1/2) and rotational constantsB _v as well as — by means of a Dunham expansion — equilibrium constants such asR _e , ω _e ,B _e etc. Comparison with the experimental data from UV emission spectroscopy shows that the calculated potential curves are slightly too shallow and have too large equilibrium distances:D _e = 242 cm^?1 andR _e = 2.66 Å compared to the experimental values of 262 cm^?1 and 2.585 Å, respectively, for theX ²Σ⁺ ground state. However, the ab initio calculations yield more bound vibrational levels than observed experimentally and allow for a more complete Dunham analysis, in particular for theA ₂ state. The experimental value of 154 cm^?1 for the dissociation energyD _e of this state is certainly too low; our best estimate is 180±5 cm^?1. For theA ₁ state our calculations are predictions since this state has not yet been observed experimentally.     

Theoretical evidence for bound electronic excited states of ozone

Extensive configuration interaction calculations (up to 1532 spin eigenfunctions) have been carried out on ozone with both minimal and extended bases. Vertical and adiabatic excitation energies to 14 excited states are reported, including seven states with vertical excitation energies less than 4 eV. Our calculations indicate that in addition to the ground state there are four other states of ozone (³B₂, ³A₂, ¹A₂ and ³B₁) bound with respect to dissociation to ground state O₂ and O (by 0.4, 0.3, 0.1 and 0.0 eV, respectively). With such small bonding energies, the current results cannot be said to show definitively (except perhaps for ³B₂) these four states to be bound with respect to O₂ + O. However, the theoretical evidence is sufficiently strong as to warrant careful experimental studies. Such bound excited electronic states could play important roles in the chemistry of the upper atmosphere and in the chemistry of oxygen discharge systems. One (or more) of these states may be responsible for the short-lived intermediate (‘ozone precursor’) recently observed in oxygen radiolysis.