The structure of the CF−4 anion and the electron affinity of the CF4 molecule

From Neutral Aniline to Aniline Trication: A Computational and Experimental Study

We report density functional theory computations and photoionization mass spectrometry measurements of aniline and its positively charged ions. The geometrical structures and properties of the neutral and singly, doubly, and triply positively charged aniline are computed using density functional theory with the generalized gradient approximation. At each charge, there are multiple isomers closely spaced in total energy. Whereas the lowest energy states of both neutral and cation have the same topology C₆H₅-NH₂, the dication and trication have the C₅NH₅-CH₂ topology with the nitrogen atom in the meta- and para-positions, respectively. We compute the dissociation pathways of all four charge states to NH or NH⁺ and NH₂ or NH₂⁺, depending on the initial charge of the aniline precursor. Dissociation leading to the formation of NH (from the neutral and cation) and NH⁺ (from the dication and trication) proceeds through multiple transition states. On the contrary, the dissociation of NH₂ (from the neutral and cation) and NH₂⁺ (from the dication and trication) is found to proceed without an activation energy barrier. The trication was found to be stable toward abstraction on NH⁺ and NH₂⁺ by 0.96 and 0.18 eV, respectively, whereas the proton affinity of the trication is substantially higher, 1.98 eV. The mass spectra of aniline were recorded with 1300 nm, 20 fs pulses over the peak intensity range of 1 × 10¹³ to 3 × 10¹⁴ W cm^-2. The analysis of the mass spectra suggests high stability of both dication and trication to fragmentation. The formation of the fragment NH⁺ and NH₂⁺ ions is found to proceed via Coulomb explosion.

Theoretical study of the electron affinities of the alkaline-earth tetramers possessing Td symmetry: Be4 and Mg4

The electron affinities of beryllium and magnesium tetramers are calculated at the ROMP2 level employing the Dunning-type aug-cc-pVQZ basis set. The vertical electron detachment energy (VEDE) amounts to 1.685 eV for Be4- and 0.943 eV for Mg4 . The decomposition of the VEDE into physical components and an atomic orbital population analysis are used to elucidate the nature of the outer electron binding in these anions. [Figure: see text]. The lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals in the ground state of Mg4 : a LUMO, symmetry A1, b LUMO + 1, symmetry T2; c the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO), symmetry A1 in the ground state of Mg4-.

Ab initio study of carbon-chlorine bond cleavage in carbon tetrachloride

Chlorinated solvents in groundwater are known to undergo reductive dechlorination reactions with Fe(ll)-containing minerals and with corroding metals in permeable-barrier treatment systems. This research investigated the effect of the reaction energy on the reaction pathway for C-Cl bond cleavage in carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). Hartree-Fock, density functional theory, and modified complete basis set ab initio methods were used to study adiabatic electron transfer to aqueous-phase CCl4. The potential energies associated with fragmentation of the carbon tetrachloride anion radical (CCl4-) into a trichloromethyl radical (CCl3) and a chloride ion (Cl-) were explored as a function of the carbon-chlorine bond distance during cleavage. The effect of aqueous solvation was investigated using a continuum conductor-like screening model. Solvation significantly lowered the energies of the reaction products, suggesting that dissociative electron transfer was enhanced by solvation. The potential energy curves in an aqueous medium indicate that reductive cleavage undergoes a change from an inner-sphere to an outer-sphere mechanism as the overall energy change for the reaction is increased. The activation energy for the reaction was found to be a linear function of the overall energy change, and the Marcus-Hush model was used to relate experimentally measured activation energies for CCl4 reduction to overall reaction energies. Experimentally measured activation energies for CCl4 reduction by corroding iron correspond to reaction energies that are insufficiently exergonic for promoting the outer-sphere mechanism. This suggests that the different reaction pathways that have been observed for CCl4 reduction by corroding iron arise from different catalytic interactions with the surface, and not from differences in energy of the transferred electrons.