Ab initio study of the hypermagnesium Mg2O+ and Mg3O+ cations

Theoretical Rotational and Vibrational Spectral Data for the Hypermagnesium Oxide Species Mg2O and Mg2O. Chemphyschem 2024:e202400479. [PMID: 38801234 DOI: 10.1002/cphc.202400479] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0]

While magnesium is astronomically observed in small molecules, it largely serves as a contributor to silicate grains, though how these grains form is not well-understood. The smallest hypermagnesium oxide compounds (Mg2 ${{}_{2}}$ O/Mg2 ${{}_{2}}$ O+ ${{}^{+}}$ ) may play a role in silicate formation, but little vibrational reference data exist. As such, anharmonic spectroscopic data are computed forX ˜ 1 Σ g + ${{{\tilde{\rm {X}}}}^1 {\rm{\Sigma }}_g^+ }$ Mg2 ${{}_{2}}$ O,a ˜ 1 Σ u + ${{{\tilde{\rm {a}}}}^1 {\rm{\Sigma }}_u^+ }$ Mg2 ${{}_{2}}$ O, andX ˜ 2 Σ g + ${{{\tilde{\rm {X}}}}^2 {\rm{\Sigma }}_g^+ }$ Mg2 ${{}_{2}}$ O+ ${{}^{+}}$ using quartic force fields (QFFs). Explicitly-correlated coupled-cluster QFFs for the neutral species perform well, implying that full multireference treatment may not be necessary for such systems if enough electron correlation is included. Equation-of-motion ionization potential (EOMIP) methods forX ˜ 2 Σ g + ${{{\tilde{\rm {X}}}}^2 {\rm{\Sigma }}_g^+ }$ Mg2 ${{}_{2}}$ O+ ${{}^{+}}$ QFFs circumvent previous symmetry breaking issues even in explicitly-correlated coupled-cluster results, motivating the need for EOMIP treatments at minimum for such systems. All three species are found to have high-intensity vibrational frequencies. Even so, the highly intense frequency (X ˜ 1 Σ g + ${{{\tilde{\rm {X}}}}^1 {\rm{\Sigma }}_g^+ }$ Mg2 ${{}_{2}}$ O: 894.7 cm-1/11.18 μm;a ˜ 1 Σ u + ${{{\tilde{\rm {a}}}}^1 {\rm{\Sigma }}_u^+ }$ Mg2 ${{}_{2}}$ O: 915.0 cm-1/10.91 μm) for either neutral state may be astronomically obscured by the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon 11.2 μm band. Mg2 ${{}_{2}}$ O+ ${{}^{+}}$ may be less susceptible to such obfuscation, and itsν 1 ${{\nu }_{1}}$ intensity is computed to be a massive 4793 km mol-1.