Reactive Scattering from Brute Force Oriented Asymmetric Top Molecules: K + C6H5I → KI + C6H5

Can a gas phase contact ion pair containing a hydrocarbon carbocation be formed in the ground state?

So far, no conclusive evidence of a ground-state contact ion-pair containing a hydrocarbon carbocation has been given in the gas phase.

Stereodynamics in NO(X) + Ar inelastic collisions

The effect of orientation of the NO(X) bond axis prior to rotationally inelastic collisions with Ar has been investigated experimentally and theoretically. A modification to conventional velocity-map imaging ion optics is described, which allows the orientation of hexapole state-selected NO(X) using a static electric field, followed by velocity map imaging of the resonantly ionized scattered products. Bond orientation resolved differential cross sections are measured experimentally for a series of spin-orbit conserving transitions and compared with quantum mechanical calculations. The agreement between experimental results and those from quantum mechanical calculations is generally good. Parity pairs, which have previously been observed in collisions of unpolarized NO with various rare gases, are not observed due to the coherent superposition of the two j = 1/2, Ω = 1/2 Λ-doublet levels in the orienting field. The normalized difference differential cross sections are found to depend predominantly on the final rotational state, and are not very sensitive to the final Λ-doublet level. The differential steric effect has also been investigated theoretically, by means of quantum mechanical and classical calculations. Classically, the differential steric effect can be understood by considering the steric requirement for different types of trajectories that contribute to different regions of the differential cross section. However, classical effects cannot account quantitatively for the differential steric asymmetry observed in NO(X) + Ar collisions, which reflects quantum interference from scattering at either end of the molecule. This quantum interference effect is dominated by the repulsive region of the potential.

A new perspective: imaging the stereochemistry of molecular collisions

The concept of the steric effect plays a central role in chemistry. This Perspective describes how the polarization of reactant molecules in space can be used to probe directly the steric effect, and highlights some of the new measurements that are made possible by coupling reactant orientation and alignment with ion imaging techniques.

Multidimensional molecular steric opacity function for XeCl*(B, C) formation in the oriented Xe* (³P₂, MJ = 2) + oriented CCl₃F reaction

The steric effect for the XeCl*(B, C) formations in the oriented Xe* (³P₂, MJ = 2) + oriented CCl₃F reaction has been observed as a function of the mutual configuration between the molecular orientation and the atomic orbital alignment in the collision frame. Molecular steric opacity functions have been determined as a function of the atomic orbital alignment (M(L)') in the collision frame. The XeCl*(B, C) channels show similar molecular steric opacity functions at M(L)' = 0 but not at |M(L)'| = 1. The large molecular alignment dependence (i.e., the reactivity of the Cl₃ end and the F end is comparable, but a very poor reactivity for the sideway) is recognized for the XeCl*(B, C) channels except for the XeCl*(C) channel at |M(L)'| = 1, which shows an almost isotropic molecular orientation dependence. The M(L)' selectivity is different between the XeCl*(B, C) channels. At the molecular axis direction, the XeCl*(B) channel has little M(L)' selectivity whereas the XeCl*(C) channel is significantly favorable at M(L)' = 0. On the other hand, |M(L)'| = 1 is favorable at the sideway for the XeCl*(B, C) channels.

Electrostatic hexapole state-selection of the asymmetric-top molecule propylene oxide

Rotational state-selection of the asymmetric-top molecule propylene oxide was carried out using an electrostatic hexapole field of 85-cm length. Molecular beam intensities were monitored by a quadrupole mass spectrometer. It was found that beam intensities of molecular beams for pure propylene oxide and those seeded in He and in Ar increased with increasing hexapole voltages. The hexapole voltage dependence of the beam intensity, which is called the focusing curve, was interpreted by computer simulation of the trajectories of molecules in the hexapolar field due to the Stark effect, as a function of rotational temperatures of molecular beams. The calculated best fit focusing curves, when compared with the experimental results, demonstrated that the rotational temperatures, associated with the distribution of states of a given rotational angular momentum J, are similar to the translational temperatures. It was found that the M = 0 states (where M is the projection of J along the direction of the electrostatic field) and negative values of the pseudoquantum number tau of propylene oxide can be selected using our experimental setup. These results suggest that the hexapole electric field is a tool even for the selection of rotational and orientation states of asymmetric-top molecules.

Comparative theoretical investigation of the vertical excitation energies and the electronic structure of [MoVOCl4]-: influence of basis set and geometry

The electronic structures, geometries, and vibration frequencies of the open-shell molybdenum(V) ion, [MoOCl(4)](-), have been calculated at the extended Hückel, semiempirical ZINDO/1, ZINDO/S, and PM3(tm), as well as ab initio and DFT theoretical levels. Electronic structure calculations suggest that the expected metal-fold orbital order can be satisfied only at the DFT level. The time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) approach has been used for the calculation of the vertical excitation energies in the UV-vis region with different basis sets, starting geometries, and exchange-correlation functionals. A good agreement between the predicted and the experimental electronic absorption and MCD spectra of the complex, [MoOCl(4)](-), was observed when the B3LYP and B3P86 exchange-correlation functionals were used with a full electron valence double-zeta with polarization basis set for the molybdenum and 6-311G(d) for all other atoms. Similar results were obtained when the LANL2DZ effective core potential for molybdenum atom and 6-31G(d) for all other atoms were used. The best absolute deviation of 0.13 and mean deviation of 0.01 eV were calculated for the bands in the UV-vis region by B3P86, while the results for the B3LYP exchange-correlation functional were less satisfactory. Compared to polarization functions, the inclusion of diffuse functions resulted in little improvement. The calculated excitations energies and charge-transfer band intensities are found to be sensitive to the Mo=O distance and O-Mo-Cl angle.