Ab Initio Study of the Interaction of Rhodium with Dinitrogen and Carbon Monoxide

Intrinsic Dinitrogen Activation at Bare Metal Atoms

There is ongoing interest in metal complexes which bind dinitrogen and facilitate either its reduction or oxidation under mild conditions. In nature, the enzyme nitrogenase catalyzes this process, and dinitrogen fixation occurs under mild and ambient conditions at a metal-sulfur cluster in the center of the MoFe protein, but the mechanism of this process remains largely unknown. In the last few years, new important discoveries have been made in this field. In this review are discussed recent findings on the interaction of N(2) with metal atoms and metal-atom dimers from all groups of the periodic table as provided by gas-phase as well as matrix-isolation experiments. Intrinsic dinitrogen activation at such bare metal atoms is then related to corresponding processes at complexes, clusters, and surfaces.

Infrared Spectra and Structures of the OSc(N2), OScNN, and OScNN+ Complexes in Solid Argon

Scandium monoxide-dinitrogen complexes-OSc(N2), OScNN, and OScNN+-have been prepared by the reactions of laser-evaporated scandium monoxide with N2 or scandium atoms with N2O in solid argon. The ground-state scandium monoxide molecule reacted with N2 to form the side-bonded OSc(N2) complex spontaneously on annealing. This complex rearranged to the end-on bonded OScNN complex upon UV irradiation. Both the OSc(N2) and OScNN complexes in solid argon can be assigned to have 2A' ' electronic ground state with Cs symmetry arising from the 2Delta first excited-state ScO. The neutral complexes can also be photoionized to the OScNN+ cation complex upon UV irradiation.

Spectroscopic and theoretical investigations of vibrational frequencies in binary unsaturated transition-metal carbonyl cations, neutrals, and anions

Figure 18 presents the C-O stretching vibrational frequencies of the first-row transition-metal monocarbonyl cations, neutrals, and anions in solid neon; similar diagrams have been reported for neutral MCO species in solid argon, but three of the early assignments have been changed by recent work and one new assignment added. The laser-ablation method produces mostly neutral atoms with a few percent cations and electrons for capture to make anions; in contrast, thermal evaporation gives only neutral species. Hence, the very recent neon matrix investigations in our laboratory provide carbonyl cations and anions for comparison to neutrals on a level playing field. Several trends are very interesting. First, for all metals, the C-O stretching frequencies follow the order cations > neutrals > anions with large diagnostic 100-200 cm-1 separations, which is consistent with the magnitude of the metal d to CO pi * donation. Second, for a given charge, there is a general increase in C-O stretching vibrational frequencies with increasing metal atomic number, which demonstrates the expected decrease in the metal to CO pi * donation with increasing metal ionization potential. Some of the structure in this plot arises from the extra stability of the filled and half-filled d shell and from the electron pairing that occurs at the middle of the TM row; the plot resembles the "double-humped" graph found for the variation in properties across a row of transition metals. For the anions, the variation with metal atom is the smallest since all of the metals can easily donate charge to the CO ligand. Third, for the early transition-metal Ti, V, and Cr families, the C-O stretching frequencies decrease when going down the family, but the reverse relationship is observed for the late transition-metal Fe, Co, and Ni families. In most of the present discussion, we have referred to neon matrix frequencies; however, the argon matrix frequencies are complementary, and useful information can be obtained from comparison of the two matrix hosts. In most cases, the neon-to-argon red shift for neutral carbonyls is from 11 to 26 cm-1, but a few (CrCO) lie outside of this range. In the case of FeCO and Fe(CO)2, it appears that neon and argon trap different low-lying electronic states. In general, the carbonyl neutrals and anions have similar shifts but carbonyl cations have larger matrix shifts. For example, the FeCO+ fundamental is at 2123.0 cm-1 in neon and 2081.5 cm-1 in argon, a 42.5 cm-1 shift, which is larger than those found for FeCO- (11.7 cm-1) and FeCO (11.7 cm-1). It is unusual for different low-lying electronic states to be trapped in different matrices, but CUO provides another example. The linear singlet state (1047.3, 872.2 cm-1) is trapped in solid neon, and a calculated 1.2 kcal/mol higher triplet state is trapped in solid argon (852.5, 804.3 cm-1) and stabilized by a specific interaction with argon. The bonding trends are well described by theoretical calculations of vibrational frequencies. Table 5 compares the scale factors (observed neon matrix/calculated) for the C-O stretching modes of the monocarbonyl cations, neutrals, and anions of the first-row transition metals observed in a neon matrix using the B3LYP and BP86 density functionals. Most of the calculated carbonyl harmonic stretching frequencies are within 1% of the experimental fundamentals at the BP86 level of theory, while calculations using the B3LYP functional give frequencies that are 3-4% higher as expected for these density functionals and calculations on saturated TM-carbonyls. For second- and third-row carbonyls using the BP86 density functional and the LANL effective core potential in conjunction with the DZ basis set, the agreement between theory and experiment is just as good. For example, the 16 M(CO)1-4 neutral and anion and 2 MCO+ cation (M = Ru, Os) carbonyl frequencies are fit within 1.5%. The 16 species (M = Rh, Ir) are fit within 1%, but the Rh(CO)1-4+ calculations are 2-3% too low and Ir(CO)1-4+ computations are 1-2% too low. In addition to predicting the vibrational frequencies, DFT can be used to calculate different isotopic frequencies, and isotopic frequency ratios can be computed as a measure of the normal vibrational mode in the molecule for an additional diagnostic. For diatomic CO, the 12CO/13CO ratio 1.0225 and C16O/C18O ratio 1.0244 characterize a pure C-O stretching mode. In a series of molecules such as RhCO+, RhCO, and RhCO-, where the metal-CO bonding varies, the Rh-C, C-O vibrational interaction is different and the unique isotopic ratios for the carbonyl vibration are characteristic of that particular molecule. Table 6 summarizes the isotopic ratios observed and calculated for the RhCO+,0,- species. Note that RhCO+ exhibits slightly more carbon-13 and less oxygen-18 involvement in the C-O vibration than CO itself and that this trend increases to RhCO and to RhCO- as the Rh-C bond becomes shorter and stronger. Note also how closely the calculated and observed ratios both follow this trend. In a molecule with two C-O stretching modes, for example, bent Ni(CO)2 exhibits a strong b2 mode at 1978.9 cm-1 and a weak a1 mode at 2089.7 cm-1 in solid neon, and these two modes involve different C and O participations. The symmetric mode shows substantially more C (1.0242) and less O (1.0217) participation than does the antisymmetric mode with C (1.0228) and O (1.0238) involvement, based on the given isotopic frequency ratios, which are nicely matched by DFT calculations (a1 1.0244, 1.0224 and b2 1.0232, 1.0241, respectively). These investigations of vibrational frequencies in unsaturated transition-metal carbonyl cations, neutrals, and anions clearly demonstrate the value of a close working relationship between experiment and theory to identify and characterize new molecular species.