Exploration of Free Energy Surface of the Au10 Nanocluster at Finite Temperature.

The first step in comprehending the properties of Au10 clusters is understanding the lowest energy structure at low and high temperatures. Functional materials operate at finite temperatures; however, energy computations employing density functional theory (DFT) methodology are typically carried out at zero temperature, leaving many properties unexplored. This study explored the potential and free energy surface of the neutral Au10 nanocluster at a finite temperature, employing a genetic algorithm coupled with DFT and nanothermodynamics. Furthermore, we computed the thermal population and infrared Boltzmann spectrum at a finite temperature and compared it with the validated experimental data. Moreover, we performed the chemical bonding analysis using the quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) approach and the adaptive natural density partitioning method (AdNDP) to shed light on the bonding of Au atoms in the low-energy structures. In the calculations, we take into consideration the relativistic effects through the zero-order regular approximation (ZORA), the dispersion through Grimme's dispersion with Becke-Johnson damping (D3BJ), and we employed nanothermodynamics to consider temperature contributions. Small Au clusters prefer the planar shape, and the transition from 2D to 3D could take place at atomic clusters consisting of ten atoms, which could be affected by temperature, relativistic effects, and dispersion. We analyzed the energetic ordering of structures calculated using DFT with ZORA and single-point energy calculation employing the DLPNO-CCSD(T) methodology. Our findings indicate that the planar lowest energy structure computed with DFT is not the lowest energy structure computed at the DLPN0-CCSD(T) level of theory. The computed thermal population indicates that the 2D elongated hexagon configuration strongly dominates at a temperature range of 50-800 K. Based on the thermal population, at a temperature of 100 K, the computed IR Boltzmann spectrum agrees with the experimental IR spectrum. The chemical bonding analysis on the lowest energy structure indicates that the cluster bond is due only to the electrons of the 6 s orbital, and the Au d orbitals do not participate in the bonding of this system.

Metathesis reactions of a manganese borylene complex with polar heteroatom-carbon double bonds: a pathway to previously inaccessible carbene complexes.

A comprehensive study has been carried out to investigate the metathesis reactivity of the terminal alkylborylene complex [(η(5)-C5H5)(OC)2Mn═B(tBu)] (1). Its reactions with 3,3',5,5'-tetrakis(trifluoromethyl)benzophenone, 4,4'-dimethylbenzophenone, 2-adamantanone, 4,4'-bis(diethylamino)benzophenone, and 1,2-diphenylcyclopropen-3-one afforded the metathesis products [(η(5)-C5H5)(OC)2Mn═CR2] (R = C6H3-3,5-(CF3)23a, C6H4-4-Me 3b, C6H4-4-NEt23d; CR2 = adamantylidene 3c, cyclo-C3Ph23e). The cycloaddition intermediates were detected by NMR spectroscopy from reactions involving ketones with more electron-withdrawing substituents. The reaction of 1 with dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC) only proceeds to form the cycloaddition product [(η(5)-C5H5)(OC)2Mn{κ(2)-C,B-C(═NCy)N(Cy)B(tBu)}] (4), which upon warming, rearranges to afford complex [(η(5)-C5H5)(OC)2Mn{CN(Cy)B(tBu)CN(Cy)}] (5). The reaction of 1 with triphenylphosphine sulfide SPPh3 also yields the metathesis product [(η(5)-C5H5)(OC)2Mn(PPh3)] via an intermediate which is likely to be a η(2)-thioboryl complex [(η(5)-C5H5)(OC)2Mn{(η(2)-SB(tBu)}] (6). Similar reactions have been studied using an iron borylene complex [(Me3P)(OC)3Fe═B(Dur)] (Dur = 2,3,5,6-tetramethylphenyl, 9). Extensive computational studies have been also carried out to gain mechanistic insights in these reactions, which provided reaction pathways that fit well with the experimental data.