Theoretical study of low-lying electronic states of CuO and CuO−

Electronic structure of the dicationic first row transition metal oxides

Multi-reference electronic structure calculations combined with large basis sets are performed to investigate the electronic structure of the ground and low-lying electronic states of the MO²⁺ diatomic species with M = Ti-Cu. These systems have shown high efficiency in the activation of the C-H of saturated hydrocarbons. This study is the first systematic and accurate work for these systems and our results and discussion provides insights into the reactivity and stability of MO²⁺ units. We find that they can be divided in three groups. The early transition metals (Ti, V, Cr) have very stable and well separated oxo (M⁴⁺O^2-) character ground states, the middle transition metals (Mn, Fe) have oxyl (M³⁺O˙^-) ground states with low-lying oxo excited states, and the late transition metals (Co, Ni, Cu) have well separated oxyl states. The reported spectroscopic constants will aid future experimental investigations, which are sparse in the literature. Periodic trends for the bond lengths, energetics, excitation energies, and wavefunction composition are discussed in detail. Complete basis set limit results indicate the high accuracy of the quintuple-ζ basis sets.

Practical GW scheme for electronic structure of 3d-transition-metal monoxide anions: ScO-, TiO-, CuO-, and ZnO. J Chem Phys 2019;151:134305. [PMID: 31594362 DOI: 10.1063/1.5118671]

The GW approximation to many-body perturbation theory is a reliable tool for describing charged electronic excitations, and it has been successfully applied to a wide range of extended systems for several decades using a plane-wave basis. However, the GW approximation has been used to test limited spectral properties of a limited set of finite systems (e.g., frontier orbital energies of closed-shell sp molecules) only for about a decade using a local-orbital basis. Here, we calculate the quasiparticle spectra of closed- and open-shell molecular anions with partially and completely filled 3d shells (shallow and deep 3d states, respectively), ScO^-, TiO^-, CuO^-, and ZnO^-, using various levels of GW theory, and compare them to experiments to evaluate the performance of the GW approximation on the electronic structure of small molecules containing 3d transition metals. We find that the G-only eigenvalue self-consistent GW scheme with W fixed to the PBE level (G_nW₀@PBE), which gives the best compromise between accuracy and efficiency for solids, also gives good results for both localized (d) and delocalized (sp) states of 3d-transition-metal oxide molecules. The success of G_nW₀@PBE in predicting electronic excitations in these systems reasonably well is likely due to the fortuitous cancellation effect between the overscreening of the Coulomb interaction by PBE and the underscreening by the neglect of vertex corrections. Together with the absence of the self-consistent field convergence error (e.g., spin contamination in open-shell systems) and the GW multisolution issue, the G_nW₀@PBE scheme gives the possibility to predict the electronic structure of complex real systems (e.g., molecule-solid and sp-d hybrid systems) accurately and efficiently.

Photoelectron spectra of copper oxide cluster anions from first principles methods

We present results and analyses for the photoelectron spectra of small copper oxide cluster anions (CuO^-, Cu O2- , Cu O3- , and Cu₂O^-). The spectra are computed using various techniques, including density functional theory (DFT) with semi-local, global hybrid, and optimally tuned range-separated hybrid functionals, as well as many-body perturbation theory within the GW approximation based on various DFT starting points. The results are compared with each other and with the available experimental data. We conclude that as in many metal-organic systems, self-interaction errors are a major issue that is mitigated by hybrid functionals. However, these need to be balanced against a strong role of non-dynamical correlation-especially in smaller, more symmetric systems-where errors are alleviated by semi-local functionals. The relative importance of the two phenomena, including practical ways of balancing the two constraints, is discussed in detail.

Catalytic effect of CuO and other transition metal oxides in formation of dioxins: theoretical investigation of reaction between 2,4,5-trichlorophenol and CuO

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been carried out to explore the potential energy surface (PES) associated with the gas-phase reaction between 2,4,5-trichlorophenol and CuO. A gas-phase model was constructed to account, from a theoretical perspective, for the most important reaction steps reported experimentally for the interaction between chlorinated phenol and a CuO surface. This involves the facile production of the chlorophenoxy radical through hydroxyl H abstraction, formation of HOCu-2,4,5-trichlorophenolate complex, and reduction of Cu-(II) into Cu(I) through chlorophenoxy desorption from the chlorophenolate complex. The overall process: 2,4,5-trichlorophenol + CuO --> 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxy radical + CuOH is significantly exothermic and facile (unlike the strongly endothermic process of 2,4,5-trichlorophenol --> 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxy radical + H) suggesting that in the gas phase, at least, CuO would be an efficient catalyst for production of polychlorinated phenoxy radicals which are known precursors of dioxins. Hence, the present study should be an important preliminary to a detailed investigation of the efficacy of CuO surfaces toward catalysis of dioxin formation. Lastly, we estimate the reaction energies for the reaction 2,4,5-trichlorophenol + MO --> 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxy radical + MOH for the first-row transition metal monoxides. This reaction only becomes exothermic for elements which have at least a half-filled d shell. Although the results of the present thermodynamic analysis match the observed catalytic effect toward dioxin formation, kinetic considerations are expected to play a major role as well.

Direct determination of the ionization energies of FeO and CuO with VUV radiation

Photoionization efficiency curves were measured for gas-phase FeO and CuO using tunable vacuum-ultraviolet radiation at the Advanced Light Source. The molecules are prepared using laser ablation of a metal-oxide powder in a novel high-repetition-rate source and are thermally moderated in a supersonic expansion. These measurements provide the first directly measured ionization energy for CuO, IE(CuO)=9.41 +/- 0.01 eV. The direct measurement also gives a greatly improved ionization energy for FeO, IE(FeO) = 8.56 +/- 0.01 eV. The ionization energy connects the dissociation energies of the neutral and cation, leading to a refined bond strength for the FeO cation: D0(Fe(+)-O)=3.52 +/- 0.02 eV. A dramatic increase in the photoionization cross section at energies of 0.36 eV above the threshold ionization energy is assigned to autoionization and direct ionization involving one or more low-lying quartet states of FeO+. The interaction between the sextet ground state and low-lying quartet states of FeO+ is key to understanding the oxidation of hydrogen and methane by FeO+, and these experiments provide the first experimental observation of the low-lying quartet states of FeO+.