A theoretical study of protonation of triatomic silicon–carbon compounds

Ab initio molecular orbital methods are employed to study the low-lying states of C₃H⁺, SiC₂H⁺, Si₂CH⁺, and Si₃H⁺. Special attention is paid to a comparative study between C₃H⁺ and Si₃H⁺. In both cases a ³B₂ state is found to lie the lowest at the HF level, although inclusion of correlation effects favor a linear structure (¹Σ⁺ state) for C₃H⁺, which lies 25 kcal/mol below the ³B₂ state at the MP 4 level, and a bent structure (¹A′ state) for Si₃H⁺, which lies just 2 kcal/mol below the ³B₂ state. The proton affinities of C₃, SiC₂, Si₂C, and Si₃ are estimated at different levels of theory. Both protonation at carbon and silicon atoms are considered for SiC₂ and Si₂C. It is found that C₃ comparatively has a low proton affinity. On the other hand, Si₃ has a relatively high proton affinity compared with the protonation at silicon atom for both SiC₂ and Si₂C. These results are discussed on the basis of electronic structure arguments.