A theoretical investigation of the ground and core hole states of linear and bent NiCO; a prototype for CO adsorbed on nickel

Non-empirical LCAO MO SCF calculations within the Hartree-Fock formalism have been performed on linear and bent conformations of NiCO, for both the states arising from the 3d⁹4s¹ and 3d¹⁰ electronic configurations of Ni, for ground and core ionized species. Binding and relaxation energies are computed for the nickel atom, the free ligand (CO) and the absorbed species (NiCO). Comparison with available experimental data reveals good agreement for the shifts in core binding energies for the bent, 3d⁹4s¹ NiCO system. The main contribution to these binding energy shifts is found to be due to relaxation effects, which may be rationalized in terms of atomic population and bond overlap changes accompanying core ionization.