Bonding Interactions in Olefin (C2X4, X = H, F, Cl, Br, I, CN) Iron Tetracarbonyl Complexes: Role of the Deformation Energy in Bonding and Reactivity

A DFT study of the interaction between olefins and Cu2+ on silica and MCM-41 model surfaces

The interaction between ethylene and Cu(2+) on a silica model surface was studied by density functional theory (DFT) with nine popular functionals. It is found that B3LYP with BSSE correction is the best method by comparing the calculated results with reported experimental data. This method was also used to study the interactions of Cu(2+) with β-carotene, 1,3,5,7,9,11,13-tetradecaheptaene and ethylene on a MCM-41 model surface. The relationship between the reorganization energy of an olefin and its conjugation length was studied, and the roles of the electrostatic interaction between the olefin and the Cu(2+) were investigated. It is also found that the different environments of Cu(2+) affect the Cu(2+)-olefin interaction significantly.

BLOCK-LOCALIZED WAVEFUNCTION ENERGY DECOMPOSITION (BLW-ED) ANALYSIS OF σ/π INTERACTIONS IN METAL-CARBONYL BONDING

The bonding features in metal-carbonyls including neutral M CO (M = Ni , Pd , Pt ) and M CO + (M+ = Cu +, Ag +, Au +) complexes have been elucidated at the DFT level with relativistic compact effective potentials for transition metals and 6-311+G(d) basis sets for C and O by the block-localized wavefunction (BLW) method. The BLW method can decompose the intermolecular interactions in terms of Heitler–London, polarization, and charge transfer energy contributions. Since the metal– CO bonding involves two synergic interactions, namely the σ-dative bond from the carbon lone electron pair to an empty d σ orbital on the metal, and the π back-donation from filled d π orbitals to the empty 2π* orbital on CO , the present BLW-ED analyses quantitatively demonstrated that in neutral M CO complexes the π-bonding dominates over the σ-bonding, whereas in cationic M CO + complexes, the σ-bonding plays a major role. But in both neutral and cationic species, the CO polarization induced by the metals enhances the C–O bond and increases the C–O vibrational frequencies, while the π back-donation tends to weaken the C–O bond and decrease the C–O vibrational frequencies. For neutral complexes, the latter is more prominent than the former, and consequently, there is a red-shifting of the C–O vibrational frequencies. In contrast, the π back-donation is insignificant in M CO + cations, and the C–O eventually vibrates at higher frequencies than the free CO frequency.

Structure and infrared spectroscopy of group 6 transition-metal carbonyls in the gas phase: DFT studies on M(CO)n (M = Cr, Mo, and W; n = 6, 5, 4, and 3)

B3LYP-based density functional theory (DFT) calculations with effective core potentials (ECPs) (LANL2DZ) on M and 6-311+G(2d) all-electron basis function sets on C and O are used to interpret the symmetry characteristic vibrational absorption patterns of CO ligands in the "naked" coordinatively unsaturated transition-metal carbonyls M(CO)n-1 (M = Cr, Mo, and W; n = 4-6) observed by a time-resolved infrared absorption spectroscopy after the UV pulse laser photolysis of M(CO)6 in the gas phase. The UV photolysis results can be reasonably explained by the trends in the calculated bond dissociation enthalpies of M(CO)n-1-CO for group 6 metal carbonyls. M(CO)n-1 produced through one CO elimination from M(CO)n is found out to keep its parent skeleton, resulting in the structure with symmetry of C4v for M(CO)5, C2v for M(CO)4, and C3v for M(CO)3.